After several cycles, the Pasadena Hiking Pacers organization (PHP) has gone through tremendous changes from its initial incarnation of a small hiking group.
PHP is the idea of Kevin Cressey, who started this group to complement the Pasadena Pacers, a running group that has a strong relationship with his fellow chiropractor, Steven Smith. In some ways, it's a marketing channel for their practice. It's a smart idea to create awareness for your business among active individuals that could potentially get some sort of future injury from hiking, running, or doing some other activity.
The group is advertised as a free organization, but at each hike the designated leaders pass around a "green boot" to solicit donations to pay for product for the organization. Items purchased with donations have been customized club shirts for only the designated leaders, water sterilizers, walkie-talkies, flags, and first aid kits. You don't have to give money, but it is heavily encouraged. Unfortunately, unlike many other clubs, PHP is not a 501c charitable organization, so your donation is not tax deductible.
Initially, the organization was comprised of mid 20s to early 30s active Yelpers and the group averaged about 20 people or less. A good size group, in my opinion. Small and manageable, the group was another activity for these individuals. What was and is great about PHP is the regularity of the hikes. You can really count on a hike happening each Sunday at 7 AM, rain or shine. Also, if you're new to hiking you can start a cycle with very low difficultly (2 mile hikes) and make your way up to a very difficult hike (15 mile hike). So it's a great way to get regular exercise and build overall endurance.
Over time, the leader had big ideas for expansion. The more people the better, it seemed. A good idea at the time, but now, it seems there are some negative consequences to tremendous growth. First, the group can reach up to 50 - 60 people, especially in the summer months. Hiking with 50 - 60 people is very difficult logistically (many people hike at different paces and can get lost) and at times that can be very unsafe where there are not enough leaders to herd in such a large group.
Learning this, the leaders tried to rectify this situation by having a racers and pacers grouping. Racers would be faster paced individuals and pacers would be slower individuals. Each group would have a leader at the front and another leader that followed each pack of people. In theory this is a good strategy, but unfortunately, it's not executed consistently. A specific example that comes to mind of this inconsistent execution was when I went on a recent hike to Potato Mountain with the group and unfortunately, there was no assigned hike leader to bring up the back of the group. All the leaders decided to stay ahead of the pack. What if some one behind the assigned leaders got hurt (e.g. a rattle snake bite or a sprained ankle)? Which leader would be there to make sure that person was okay? In that situation, the pacers/racers grouping failed due to poor execution by the leaders that were in attendance that day.
Another issue with such a big group is the high risk for something catastrophic to happen on a large scale. A specific instance occurred during a hike to a cave that reopened after being closed for several months due to fires. Unfortunately, none of the leaders had scoped out the full trail prior to advertising the hike to PHP members. Midway through the hike, the PHP leaders ran into a BIG problem. The trail was gone due to being washed away and not being maintained. Instead of going back, the PHP leaders decided to keep on going, hiking along a crumbling trail. In fact, one hiker was injured when trying to cross along a narrow, crumbling trail by a falling rock. The injury was severe enough to keep her out from hiking for a few weeks. Luckily she is okay now and still hikes with the group.
That day was extremely hot and many people started running out of water, including myself. Some people were dehydrated and the assigned president started providing liquid to tired and weary hikers via his pack of frozen grapes. Some hikers were cooling off in the river and sometimes drinking the untreated water. It was quite an adventure but it's definitely one of those situations that could have been easily avoided. Safety first should be the mantra of PHP. After that hike, the leaders instituted a 3 liter water policy, but I don't think it's ever been enforced or checked.
Overall, the hiking group is good if you want to regularly hike. PHP is like a hiking trail tour group. Exploration without the hassle of personal preparation. Looking at the other previous PHP Yelp reviews, it has come to my attention that most of those reviewers no longer hike with the group. The group demographics have gradually changed from a 20/30s group to a more 40/50s age range. Check them out if you want to get started hiking and see if it's a good fit. read more