I hear that you are looking for a group to go hiking with. Well, I have just the group for you! Have you heard of MeetUp Groups? There are Meetup Groups for just about every activity that you can think of.
The Central Valley Hiking Meet Up Group is a local group that hikes the area from Yosemite down to Kings Canyon National Parks and parts in between. They take day hikes, backpacking, and camping trips. You can find out more about the Central Valley Hiking Group at meetup.com. They have 21 hikes that are upcoming but add more all of the time. One example is regular conditioning walks or hikes. Future hikes include Monterey Bay Coastal Trail, Asilomar State Park Trail and Beach, Twin Lakes Hike, Backpacking to Nelson Lake, and Shuteye Peak Overnight Backpack.
Another Meetup Group is the Sierra Backpackers.
You can sign up to receive notifications of new and upcoming Meetups by the group that you are interested in, then when you find one that you are interested in, RSVP back through the automated system. The hikes are limited in number, depending on where they are, and sometimes the hikes fill up very fast so they have a waiting list. There will be a rough description of the planned hike, along with a location to meet the group and car pool to the hike. If you have any questions, you can always contact the group leader for the hike.
You can also surf meetup.com to find out what other types of Meetup Groups. Their home page says that “there are 87,274 Meetups happening this week about everything from careers to hiking, parenting, tech, photography and urban gardening …”
Now not all of those are in this area but I think there is a pretty good chance that whatever you are interested in, there is probably a Meetup Group related to it. I did a search around Oakhurst and it showed 266 different Meet Up Groups within 50 miles.
I have enjoyed hiking with the Central Valley Hiking Group in the past and my Blog Chapters wouldn’t be very interesting without a few pictures of one of those hikes to Mitchell Peak border of Kings Canyon National Park and the Sequoia National Forest, in the Jennie Lake Wilderness. Mitchell Peak tops out at 10365 ft and since it was a little off a trail and in an area that I wasn’t familiar with, I felt much more comfortable going with a group on this trip for this first visit.
What views we had of Mitchell Peak on this July 14, 2011 hike. This hike was about 6 miles total and I have included a map and profile at the end.
You might recognize this guy that I went on this adventure with at the top of Mitchell Peak: the world famous Keith Sauer, Blogger, traveler and photographer extraordinaire.
