Hiking Their Way to Friendships, Fulfillment

 Some members of the hiking club take a break for a photo on a recent outing at Daley Ranch in Escondido last month.

Sande Pence hadn’t been with the Department of Environmental Health long when she got to talking with a co-worker about one of her favorite topics: hiking.

Pence, a Supervising Environmental Health Specialist, has always been drawn to the outdoors. So had co-worker Brita Lum, then an Environmental Health Specialist. Both yearned to get back into the activity, after years of focusing more on other parts of life: marriage, children, careers. But they didn’t want to take the trails alone.

“We said how great it would be to have somebody to else to hike with,” Pence said.  

They agreed to go together sometime.

Nearly six years later, the duo continues to hit up the trails of San Diego County—and beyond—on a regular basis. Their passion has spread. Pence and Lum formed a hiking club and now dozens of current and former co-workers in DEH, Agriculture, Weights and Measures and the Department of Public Works join them on monthly hiking adventures. The group has hiked so many trails that they’ve started to double back and do the same ones a second time. They’ve done the well-trod trails at Torrey Pines State Reserve and Cowles Mountain, but then moved to more enterprising hikes like at Volcan Mountain Wilderness Preserve near Julian, the Cuyamaca and Laguna Mountains and the County’s Hellhole Canyon Preserve near Valley Center.

These aren’t just casual walks. While the tone is fun and casual, the group is serious about getting a good workout. Hikes usually run at least three to five miles, but some have gone a lot farther. A few years ago, a group even made it to the summit of Mt. Whitney, the tallest peak in the lower 48 states, in the Inyo National Forest.

Last month, about 10 hiking club members met at 8 a.m. on a Sunday morning at Daley Ranch in Escondido. Under hazy skies, they showed up in comfortable exercise clothes, some with hiking poles, maps and jugs of water. From there, the group hiked about seven miles, doing a big loop across the ranch’s beautiful, rocky green terrain.  

Their next hike will be at Rattlesnake Canyon in Poway on May 10.

Members of the club have ventured far beyond just hiking, into other types of exercise, too. They go on bike rides together, and some even participate in a triathlon together once a year.

This all adds up to a lot of calories burned. And in some cases, dramatic health improvements.

“We’ve seen people’s bodies and health transform,” said Mary Lou White, a member of the group and a Rural Generalist for DEH. The group has helped inspire one member with diabetes to get out and exercise.

A combination of exercise and better eating have helped Pence to lose 50 pounds since she co-founded the group. She got so into bicycling that she now rides her bike to work every day from her home in Escondido to the DEH office in San Marcos. The changes have pushed down her blood pressure and cholesterol, and she is no longer at risk for diabetes or high blood pressure like before.

“I think for me anyways, having motivation and support from people who have similar interests helps me stay, on track and stay focused,” Pence said. “I think it is part of my success.”  

Lum, who left her position at DEH in 2010 to focus on caring for her children, said it was her love and appreciation for nature that initially drew her to hiking. The friendships she has formed with others who share that same enthusiasm has been the biggest benefit.

When you’ve hiked “endless miles” with a person you get to know “all the little things about them,” she said.
And “it is incredibly therapeutic talking to people who may be struggling with the same issues that you have or have had in the past,” she said. “Not only is it good for your physical health but your mental health as well.”

Lum, who is training for a marathon now, said after she and Pence finish a big hiking trip together, “we literally feel like the mountain has washed us clean. It’s the best feeling ever!”

There’s a quote by the iconic naturalist John Muir that perfectly sums up what Pence said draws her to the outdoors and what inspired her and Lum to set off on hikes in the first place. It’s from Muir’s 1918 book, “Steep Trails,” a collection of his writings about traveling the American West: “But in every walk with Nature one receives far more than he seeks.”

For more information, or to join the hiking club, contact Sande Pence at Sande.Pence@sdcounty.ca.gov.

A view from the hiking club's most recent outing at Daley Ranch in Escondido last month.