Your Own Outdoor Group

[SKLund]

I have run five different outdoor groups or clubs, if you will, and have found various levels of success, which is measured by the number of partners I have been able to get. Three of these have been with Meet Up. One of them has been with a website I spun up using the Weebly hosting service. Next I went to a no cost forum. In the last and most current form of this pursuit , I have produced is a Wordpress site. This is the one I am keeping. Of all of these methods, I do not recommend Meet Up or a content provider that does not allow full customization. Meet Up I do not recommend (as an organizer) because the great volume of humanity, with all it's madness, and greatness, has access to it. It has been useful in that I have been able to pour all of my members into a funnel and a few nuggets of gold have fallen through.

So why do all this? Well first of all, my wife demands that I do not hike alone. The second and greater reason, discovered over time, is that it makes people happy. Yes that is it. It is simple as that. The following is my current and last iteration of this pursuit along with a few trips we have done recently. No backpacks yet, I'm hoping a few will go along on one or more of those. Everything here is in New Mexico. Hope to take them to Utah and Colorado soon.

over50outdoors.org
http://over50outdoors.org/cerro-azul-exploratory/
http://over50outdoors.org/the-caja-slot/
http://over50outdoors.org/pueblo-ojo-del-zorro-truchas-pueblo/
http://over50outdoors.org/red-wash-canyon-high-loop/
http://over50outdoors.org/los-aguajes-the-long-way/
http://over50outdoors.org/arroyo-pinavetes-trip-report/
http://over50outdoors.org/gates-of-hell-loop-exploratory/
http://over50outdoors.org/window-rock/
http://over50outdoors.org/rio-del-oso/
http://over50outdoors.org/ghost-ranch-mesa-montosa/
http://over50outdoors.org/trip-reports-and-photos/ghost-ranch-area-loop/

 

[fiber]

I have also been looking for more groups/partners, in the SLC UT area, but haven't had much luck. Meetup seems to attract those less committed to activities. Most outdoor Meetups I've seen are targeted towards novices, which makes sense, who wants to lead a trip of +8 people on a challenging outing and most likely have to turn around early because of lack of skill or fitness?

I used to lead trips for a University, and it worked out well because I first interviewed the people who signed up for the trip. That allowed me to assess their fitness and skill level. We would also go over the route. I doubt pre-trip meetings would work well with Meetups, but in my opinion, any backpacking trip or other challenging activity must have a pre-trip meeting. There is nothing worse than having to abandon a multiday backpacking trip because a group member wasn't experienced enough to bring the right footwear (yes, that has happened to me).

 

[blueeyes]

Meetup groups are tough. I ran a hiking group in STG. I found a good core group that I did most of my more involved adventures with. We ran our group in private on Facebook. With the public meetup group I kept it simple. Hikes only! And generally easy ones. All in all it was a good times.

I only had one rough experience with an individual who should not have gone on this particular petroglyph hike. We tried everything we could to dissuade the person from going on the hike except flat out saying NO! Getting down to the glyphs was no issue. Coming out ....well it is a good thing I am a mom and a nice person, because he tried my patience until they were pretty thin. One other hiker stayed with us until we made it back to the top. I am forever grateful to this person because he kept me sane. The out of shape hiker did apologize profusely for not listening to me and after that if I said he couldn't go he listened.



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[SKLund]

I understand about Meet Up and that's why I quit doing it three different times. My Sierra Club friends have told me similar horror stories. That said, most of my current members are people I met through Meet Up and all have been vetted. There is no "guide fear" with these people. I have run across some really nutty, mean, and great people in Meet Up and other public organizations.

The main issue I have had with my current group is that since all are over 50 years of age, they move, get sick, loose interest, get injured, etc., etc. Meet Up works well in this situation because the numbers are there. In the future, I will probably run hikes with one of the local Meet Up groups and cherry pick the best people for mine.

 

[gnwatts]

The main issue I have had with my current group is that since all are over 50 years of age, they move, get sick, loose interest, get injured, etc., etc.

Ok. I am a slow moving, sick, uninterested, injured 50 year old, but that does not mean all 50 year olds are this way.

Ask @Artemus.

 

[SKLund]

Ok. I am a slow moving, sick, uninterested, injured 50 year old, but that does not mean all 50 year olds are this way.

Ask @Artemus.

I don't get the impression that you are uninterested. The rest of us are on and off the bench for various reasons but we always come back..:twothumbs: