Hiking Groups - Try Them, You'll Like Them!

One of the pleasures I’ve found in hiking in the Driftless is discovering the MANY groups that exist around the area that coordinate or sponsor hikes. 

Driftless Drifters Hiking club pals on 
 Mathy Quarry's Snakeroot Trail
Image - Marge Loch-Wouters

While I have always done a lot of hiking, it was mostly with family and a few close friends. My first weekly group experience was with our local Driftless Drifters back at it’s beginning in 2021. Sponsored by the La Crescent-Hokah Community Ed Department, the group opened my eyes to the many trails that I had never tried locally. 

Each hike was not only a discovery of new trails but a feast of information shared by the hikers themselves. Flower and plant identification, bird calls noted and birds named and spotted, insects noted, fungi found and identified. That sharing enriched the trail for me and piqued my curiosity. It's a big reason why I went ahead and became certified as a MN Master Naturalist. I wanted to know even more.

Winona's TakeAHike club and the Driftless Drifter's
Amblers meet for a joint hike at
Great River Bluff State Park
Image - Greg Watson

I joined other groups like the Driftless area's Blufflands Hiking group and Jabberwalkers. I also began meeting people in other groups like the La Crosse-based Trek-N-Treaters and Winona-based TakeAHike group. I have hiked with some of those groups and discovered even more trails to try and friends to meet. Becoming active in conservation clubs like the Sierra Club or Friends of a local nature center, state park or outdoor area also means you will find like-minded trail hounds. Women Who Hike - MN chapter has also been a rich well of hiking adventures and hiking meet-up possibilities. 

Plus meeting so many other people with a shared love of nature, the outdoors, phenological curiosity, adventure and challenge is great fun. Those friendships on the trail developed, for me, into a great network of hiking friends who are up for hikes any time of the week and year - not just during weekly hikes. I hike a couple of times a week with friends I've met from the groups I've participated in.

On the Levis Mound trail with the 
Blufflands Hiking group
Image - Steve Dawson

If you are looking to spark up your hiking and find new people to share the trails with I highly  recommend checking into what is happening in your community. Or starting your own group of nature lovers on the trail! 

Hiking friends from the Trek-N-Treaters hiking club
in La Crosse County's Coulee Experimental Forest
Image - Marge Loch-Wouters

The world outside is waiting for you - and so are your new friends!