Newsletters

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Cynthia Warn, President

 

‘A walk in nature walks the soul back home.’

Mary Davis

 

Our members, 144 as of our AGM, would tell you that getting outside was the driving force in joining, or rejoining, the Pine Ridge Hiking Club. No matter how much entertainment we can access within our homes, being in nature is essential for our well-being. Hikers will give other reasons for hiking; wanting to explore our area more fully, conversation and company, and gleaning knowledge from locals. Yet, it all comes back to being outside, in nature, while engaging in these pursuits.

We’ve had a very successful winter despite having a winter! We expanded our hike schedule to include Wednesdays during January, February and March. No matter how cold the day, attendance for these hikes, and our Saturday and Sunday hikes was in-line with our year-round average numbers. We Canadians are a tough lot!

We heard from older members, former members, and really busy members that short hikes were welcome. So, as another change this winter, we’ve arranged to have a 5km hike embedded in our regular Sunday hikes. All hikers start at the same trailhead, and one group does the full hike, while the ‘short hikers’ will do a loop or an out-and-back, always aiming to keep to 5 km. This only requires hike leaders who are leading on a Sunday to mention the short hike in their pre-hike email to the club (via our amazing Communications & Membership Director, Rita Zeran) and to make a note of where the turnaround point is located. We do however, really need a better name than ‘short hikers’.

 

Our hike catalogue was further upgraded by Hike Catalogue Coordinator, Jason Kay, to include a link to the What Three Words navigation tool for each hike. The schedule on our website ( https://www.pineridgehikingclub.ca ) contains the links as well. Now, with one click members can pinpoint (within 3 square meters) the trailhead on a map.

 

We gathered for our annual Hike Talks on March 25th. We had three members speak about their recent hiking trips abroad; Connie Flewitt spoke on Madeira; Anita Lautenbach on Peru, Bolivia, and Chile; and Heather Briant presented her trip to Exmoor. Jason Kay created a movie, using the iMovie app, which had its world premiere at this event. Jason was inspired by our annual photo exhibit at the Port Hope Library, ‘Through the Hiker’s Lens’. He canvassed the members for hiking photos from near and far, and created a delightful film, with themed chapters, titles, introductory clips, perfectly matched music, and extensive credits. All this and Susan Casson created our second annual photo identification contest, “Where is this, Northumberland?”. The prize went to Lee Wakelin, who correctly identified 11 of the 12 locations.

 

I would like to introduce our new Website & Social Media Coordinator, Jodi de Jong, and our new Hike coordinator, Connie Flewitt. On behalf of the entire club, I would like to extend our thanks to Hilda Van Netten and Darryl Russell, respectively, who fulfilled these roles beautifully for many years.

 

Coming up in the spring/summer session, we’re looking forward to our annual Hike Leaders pot luck, marching in the Port Hope Canada Day parade, and organizing an end-to-end hike through the Kawartha section of the Ganaraska Trail.

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