Is there any hiking clubs with younger members? (20's)

Poster_Man

Just wondering whether anyone knows of any hiking clubs that would have younger members, say in their 20's? Iv looked at the list of clubs on the MCI site and emailed a few, but with no success. They all say they have a much older age profile. Now don't get me wrong, I wouldn't mind at all hillwalking with an older crowd but as you can imagine if a younger club existed i think id prefer it. I reckon id feel a bit out of place if i was the youngest person on a hike every week!

The college clubs are an obvious one but unfortunately my college doesn't have such a club. The UCD mountaineering club seems to be absolutely perfect for what i'm looking for, but of course like all college clubs they cant allow non-UCD students to join.

Now I suspect that theres a good chance that in reality they don't mind at all non-ucd students coming on the hikes, but as i don't know anyone in the club, i really don't know. So if your in the club and thats the case feel free to PM me!

Aside from that, does anyone know of any other suitable hiking clubs?

duckysauce

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6135063268&_fb_noscript=1

fiokool

Hi,

I am looking for the exact same thing as you, in my 20s myself Its really hard to know what the age profile of a club is with out joining first. I am going for a 10 day trek in june and would like to build up more experience first and would be keen to get involved in the social side of things meet new people etc

I did hear that an oige hillwalking club has a lot of older members ironically! but not sure at all

so any advice would be appreciated

Thanks!

Poster_Man

Thanks Duckysauce! That group looks really good, I never would have come across it myself! Il definitely go along on one of their hikes and check it out! Are you involved with them yourself?

Fiokool, those are my feelings exactly. Iv been hiking for a while now with a few friends which is great but I really would like to find a club so as to gain some experience and to enjoy the social side of it! I think a lot of people find the same thing. For some reason , many of the hillwalking clubs just don't attract any younger members. And yes, An Oige has one of the oldest groups of all!?!

I would say unless your lucky enough to be able to join one of the college clubs, you should check out the above group! It seems quite good!

adagio

Yeah.. it's worth checking out the Challenge Hikers.. they are a nice bunch. It's not a club as such.. rather a group of like minded people who set up various hikes... great way to meet new people.. the age profile is 20's...
The hikes can vary from a stroll in the Phoenix park to the Coomloughra Horseshoe in the Reeks.. as varied as that...
If ye have time come to the table quiz on Wednesday in the city (check out the site for details) and ye'll meet a lot of the crew.
Enjoy.
A.

duckysauce

Poster_Man wrote: »

Thanks Duckysauce! That group looks really good, I never would have come across it myself! Il definitely go along on one of their hikes and check it out! Are you involved with them yourself?

Fiokool, those are my feelings exactly. Iv been hiking for a while now with a few friends which is great but I really would like to find a club so as to gain some experience and to enjoy the social side of it! I think a lot of people find the same thing. For some reason , many of the hillwalking clubs just don't attract any younger members. And yes, An Oige has one of the oldest groups of all!?!

I would say unless your lucky enough to be able to join one of the college clubs, you should check out the above group! It seems quite good!

hi no not involed most of the hikes they do are in dub/wicklow i am based in the west at the moment , best of luck

keenan110

I'm in the exact same boat as you guys too, and gave up my search for a 'youg' club a while aglo, The challenge Hikers looks great though!

ste2006

duckysauce wrote: »

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6135063268&_fb_noscript=1

I can definitely recommend the above also,

I was in the same situation for ages looking for a young hiking club and was pointed to this one,

Went out a few weeks ago to the Lug with them and a great day out,

All very friendly and welcoming people,

Cookie_Monster

our local scout group, often have a good bit of involvement from younger leaders, friend and parents. Would be a good place to get an idea if any of them do stuff themselves through the group if you get what I mean.

Wonkagirl

i'm looking for a club with younger people as well- although i'm in mid early 30s so am probably an auld one to you guys! have been out with acara and they're all welllllllllllll into their 40s/50s.. i think it's just a ''sport'' that attracts older people, as ''anyone can do it'' i suppose! i was up in the mourne mountains last weekend with people my own age *(a gang of us justs organised it ourselves) and it was fantastic- 2 x5 hour treks and a big sessiun afterwards... we're swearing that we'll get out more often but i know it wont happen so i'd love to hook up with another group,

will check out that facebook link, tks ducky!

earnyourturns

Em well how about I make a radical suggestion? There seems to be a huge demand here for a hiking club for people in their 20s so why don't we set one up??

jd83

earnyourturns wrote: »

Em well how about I make a radical suggestion? There seems to be a huge demand here for a hiking club for people in their 20s so why don't we set one up??

Thats a good idea. Provided it caters for the slow moving, slightly overweight closer to 30 than 20 No but seriously have always wanted to go hiking but can never get my mates to go as there lazier than i am.

fiokool

Hey,

yeah i like the sound of that too. I would be a beginner too we could do a few hills before we start on the mountains!

Poster_Man

Wow, seems like I'm very much not alone in my search for a club! To all the challenge hikers who posted, thanks! I wasn't able to go on the recent hike but will definitely try to make it on the next one, and I would encourage others in the same boat to do the same, seems like a great group!

earnyourturns wrote: »

Em well how about I make a radical suggestion? There seems to be a huge demand here for a hiking club for people in their 20s so why don't we set one up??

Thats a great idea and I would definitely support it. Was wondering about it myself when i couldn't find a club. Suppose it would just be a case of setting a time and a place and a route etc and taking it from there....what do people think?

keenan110

earnyourturns wrote: »

Em well how about I make a radical suggestion? There seems to be a huge demand here for a hiking club for people in their 20s so why don't we set one up??

Yeah, i'd be up for this too!

Guess_Who

I'm a bit late joining this thread but I'd be interested in going along if you're setting something up

Thanks

Claregracey

Hi guys. Myself and my friend were just talking and saying we'd like to join a hiking group for people in 20's and 30's so decided to google it as she was saying she looked it up online and it seemed to be geared towards older people. We would therefore be very interested in joining your group if it goes ahead. We're both in our 20's.

daveoconnell

The UL outdoor pursuits club sounds like it ticks all those boxes. It does weekly hill walking/rock climbing trips, caving every wednesday and various trips we go on ourselves. If your interested give me an email dave@ulopc.com . There's a great variance from 18 upwards to about 30 the odd time. Loads of different trips and different people with the opportunity to learn as much or little as you want. Apart from club trips there's always someone knocking about wanting to go for a ridge/walk/climb etc..


Thats if your still looking. Our main activities are in the Munster region but we are often around the country too like glendo, kilkenny, mayo etc..

Claregracey

We're based in Dublin Dave so we're looking for something local. We're really just looking for a fortnightly/monthly hike around Dublin/Wicklow preferably at weekends. Thanks for letting us know about club though. We're also nearer to 30 than 20 so we would probably feel like the older members of the club!!

daveoconnell

Im up in Dublin too, id be up for getting down to Glendalough to log a few walks if ye were still active. We have a wide range generally and you'd never really notice any difference in ages. The some of the people involved in running it are between 25 and 30 and then 18-25. You can trust you wouldnt feel old anyway. If we are heading for walks up this way i'll post em up and ye could join us or something.

However im going to start getting down to Glendo for a few evenings, night nav and some walks if ye were interested

ste2006

Hi Dave,

I would be interested in Logging some decent hikes, night hikes, Nav etc if you are doing any of it let me know,

Thanks,

daveoconnell

Savage, thats no bother. Im hoping to get my ms assessment over the summer and think about ML training in the future so best to get out and get going soon.. whats ur email?

For anyone else up for it throw down an email address and I'll sort something out

ste2006

You obviously did not see my posts on MS Assesments a few weeks ago,

I am also anxious to do the MS Assesment but they are not held during the summer so you will have to wait until September or come over to the UK during the summer and just do the ML training there,

I have researched this as best i can and that is all i can come up with,

I am also very anxious to do the ML trianing and then ML Assessment and so on,

Ill PM you my e-mail address,

Regards,

speedboatchase

Hiking is just walking where it's ok to pee. Sometimes old people hike by mistake


ah Demetri Martin

daveoconnell

oh ya i think i might have seen a few of em but wasnt on for a while then.

I'm farily sure that with the people i can get it organised for during the summer. I have a few people interested in the club and i know there are a coule guides who we go to that are fairly accommodating with this and I'd be confident enough of getting it sorted

ste2006

Ye great if you think you can organize it,

Id be up for it in the summer anyway

Poster_Man

Dave i'm based in Dublin so count me in if your organising anything in wicklow/glendalough etc. Pm'd you my email.

Thanks

Dave!

It'd be a pretty good idea to set up a hiking club though wouldn't it? Boards.ie Hiking Club?

I'd probably get involved myself, but I'm outa the country for the immediate future.

cruizer22b

jd83 wrote: »

Thats a good idea. Provided it caters for the slow moving, slightly overweight closer to 30 than 20 No but seriously have always wanted to go hiking but can never get my mates to go as there lazier than i am.

PMSL maybe you could call it the slow moving slightly overweight closer to 30 hiking club. Would be perfect for me to lol.

um7y1h83ge06nx

daveoconnell wrote: »

The UL outdoor pursuits club sounds like it ticks all those boxes. It does weekly hill walking/rock climbing trips, caving every wednesday and various trips we go on ourselves. If your interested give me an email dave@ulopc.com . There's a great variance from 18 upwards to about 30 the odd time. Loads of different trips and different people with the opportunity to learn as much or little as you want. Apart from club trips there's always someone knocking about wanting to go for a ridge/walk/climb etc..


Thats if your still looking. Our main activities are in the Munster region but we are often around the country too like glendo, kilkenny, mayo etc..

Hi Dave, sounds good. I'm in Limerick and probably will join up if you don't have to be a current UL student.

I have lots of things going on now, but maybe in a month or so, or in September.

pandora_mole

Hi folks, hi Dave,

I'm a bit late posting on here, but I'll PM you my email too. I'm in my mid 20s, I adore all outdoorsy stuff but sadly have let things slip since going to everest base camp when I was a 16 year old (I lived in India as a child so Nepal wasn't that far:D)

Love the Wicklow hikes and a club for younger members is something I have struggled to find in the past 8 years of being in Dublin! Alas, I don't have facebook so a boards.ie hiking group sounds more fun!

duckysauce

why dont you have facebook ?

pandora_mole

Never had it and see no real use for it:P

del88

pandora_mole wrote: »

Never had it and see no real use for it:P

you could join a facebook hiking group...

ste2006

I never had a facebook account either until a few weeks ago,

Like you never saw the need for it but it is handy for joining groups like these :-)

I would suggest signing up even for just joining groups,

pandora_mole wrote: »

Hi folks, hi Dave,

I'm a bit late posting on here, but I'll PM you my email too. I'm in my mid 20s, I adore all outdoorsy stuff but sadly have let things slip since going to everest base camp when I was a 16 year old (I lived in India as a child so Nepal wasn't that far:D)

Love the Wicklow hikes and a club for younger members is something I have struggled to find in the past 8 years of being in Dublin! Alas, I don't have facebook so a boards.ie hiking group sounds more fun!

daveoconnell

So here we go guys,

Just getting back to ya on the hiking. Myself and another lad Stephen are piecing something together at the moment. We're gonna head to Glendo next Wednesday just for some small bit of hiking and navigational stuff. We will leave the night nav for this week but we will do it. Depending on whose up for it let me know, im gonna drive anyway so let me know.. Drop me an email dave@ulopc.com or leave a PM

Cheers,

Dave

coolmoose

I was only thinking about this the other day whilst going up Galtymore. I'm considering setting up some kind of group, based in Munster for say 20's-30's to do stuff outdoorsy...not just hiking...

• Hillwalking
• Mountaineering
• Camping
• Kayaking
• Surfing
• Scuba diving
• Cycling
• Photography
• Other water based sports/activities
• Fishing

etc etc...would anybody be interested in something like this? I'm personally up for trying most things, it's getting a few people together to do it is the problem!

Cookie_Monster

del88 wrote: »

you could join a facebook hiking group...

and go virtual hiking with all your virtual friends :rolleyes:


:pac::pac::pac:

Gillo

I'd be interested in going along too, been trying to get back into it for quite a while. I'll send on my email. My bro goes out a fair bit with the Challenge Hikers, they're a really nice bunch unfortunately due to work and health commitments haven't had a chance to go myself but that should all be sorted in the next few weeks.

nmn.

Hi dave

Just been googling hiking clubs for 20's/30's and come up with your posts .. myself and sis would definitely be interested in a group with a dublin base - me, early 30's, her mid 20's.... will email you so !!

electron

coolmoose wrote: »

I was only thinking about this the other day whilst going up Galtymore. I'm considering setting up some kind of group, based in Munster for say 20's-30's to do stuff outdoorsy...not just hiking...

i'd be very interested in joining:

Flat land (!) hiking (forest walks, etc)
Cycling
Photography
Boating (Row boats, recreational)
Fishing (never tried but would like to)
Camping

Hillwalking is not my thing tho.

i'll send you a pm, coolmoose

valerie

I just saw that there's plans a foot for a munster based adventuring group for the 20-30s. Anything ever come of the plans for a leinster based hiking group? I'm back living in the country and want to get back into hiking regularly.

hmmm

If you have a group of people together, you could make life easier for yourself and ask one of the existing clubs for help. They have plenty of experienced leaders who know the routes and most (apart from one or two cranky clubs) would be happy to help younger people get involved in hiking or backpacking. If that involves using the Interwebs and Facebebo thing I'm sure they'd give it a go.

It's a circular problem for the clubs. Young people go on a hike looking to meet other young people, don't find any and so don't return. The week after, more young people join, don't find any others and so don't return etc etc......

Alun

hmmm wrote: »

It's a circular problem for the clubs. Young people go on a hike looking to meet other young people, don't find any and so don't return. The week after, more young people join, don't find any others and so don't return etc etc......

Absolutely, and I've seen this with the group I walk with on many occasions. It works on other levels too, in that older people that join feel more at home and also if there's a gender bias then either men or women will feel more at home and thus reinforces the age/sex mix of the group. Not a lot you can do about it to be honest.

The problem with this though is that with no new blood, as it were, entering the club, the situation only gets worse and worse, and the median age of the club just gets higher and higher, and indeed some of the more established clubs in Dublin are positively bordering on the geriatric.

However, the ironic thing is also that any club that starts off only being for, say, people in their 20's will eventually succumb to the same phenomenon, assuming that nobody invents a magical youth elixir in the mean time Personally, being in my 50's, I couldn't give two hoots whether the people I'm walking with are 18 or 68, or anywhere in between, and in fact having a few more experienced people about can be a real advantage in terms of local knowledge of the hills, and general experience if/when things go wrong.

Why Should I

Alun wrote: »

Absolutely, and I've seen this with the group I walk with on many occasions. It works on other levels too, in that older people that join feel more at home and also if there's a gender bias then either men or women will feel more at home and thus reinforces the age/sex mix of the group. Not a lot you can do about it to be honest.

The problem with this though is that with no new blood, as it were, entering the club, the situation only gets worse and worse, and the median age of the club just gets higher and higher, and indeed some of the more established clubs in Dublin are positively bordering on the geriatric.

However, the ironic thing is also that any club that starts off only being for, say, people in their 20's will eventually succumb to the same phenomenon, assuming that nobody invents a magical youth elixir in the mean time Personally, being in my 50's, I couldn't give two hoots whether the people I'm walking with are 18 or 68, or anywhere in between, and in fact having a few more experienced people about can be a real advantage in terms of local knowledge of the hills, and general experience if/when things go wrong.

I got to agree.

There is a case for both. Going with the older more" Wise" hiking is good for learning the craft so to speak, But going hiking with people around your own age, Is good if you are looking for a bit more fun out in the bush! So to speak .

Evil Phil

Why Should I wrote: »

bush

I'm saying nothing.

roweeeeena

Just had a look at this forum now with this exact question in my mind! I have no problem at all walking with any ages, and fully agree about the experience element, but ocassionally meeting some like minded people in their 20s would also be nice seeing as no one I know really shares my nature outdoorsy passion! Have just joined that challenge hikers group on facebook so I'll have a look at it now. What have yous decided to do since this thread was started, join another existing club or start meeting up together, or both? I'm from Bray and based in Dublin by the way.

Gillo

Yeah one of the posters started organising things not sure what happened in the end as I stopped recieving mails from him.
Challenge hikers looks like a decent group from what I can see, reallly have to make an effort to get out with them myself.

ste2006

What poster started organising things???

demille

I'm at the same craic seen this forum and joined challenge hikers!based in dub and would love to get few hikes done over the summer

Poster_Man

Ok guys i'm just going to take the bull by the horns and organise a hike!

I was thinking something relatively easy to start of with...start from crone wood carpark...and maybe Djouce or Maulin....

I'm going to provisionally say the 18th July...as thats the next sunday that I am free, also I want to give people plenty of time to see this! I figure Sunday is probably the day that suits people best, but if another day would be better, just say so! I know, given that its the summer , a lot of people are probably away/busy etc but hopefully there will be enough people around that are interested!

Now, I am definitely not setting myself up as a leader in any way, as I would be totally out of my depth!! I'm just trying to get something started, and hopefully it can go from there! So i'd welcome all help/suggestions!

Oh and Evil Phil would you mind changing the thread title to something else so that people are more likely to see this? Maybe Hike - 18th July or something like that.