Our Local Hikes
Our hikes are based upon a simple philosophy: You should be able go out your front door and within a few minutes be on trails winding your way through the local wilderness. With rugged coastlines, lush valleys, and craggy mountain peaks that harbor a wealth of wildlife, including deer, bobcats, dolphins, quail, coyotes, and the elusive mountain lion, the local hiking trails of Los Angeles provide us this opportunity. [Photo: drone over Mesa Peak Motorway in Malibu]
About Us & Meetup
Hiking With Dean is a Meetup hiking group founded March 18, 2007 as The San Fernando Valley Weekday Hikers. We were the first Meetup hiking group to offer regular weekday hikes. After some scheduling and relocation changes a contest was launched to rename the group, and the name Hiking With Dean was born. Although the name had changed the hikes remained the same and with almost 10,000 members we have grown to one of the largest hiking groups in the world. [Photo: Sandstone Peak, tallest peak in Santa Monica Mountains]
Other Meetup Groups
This web site is not just for my group, but for all the local Meetup hiking groups. One of the reasons I created this site is to help other Meetup Organizers and Members overcome the deficiencies of the Meetup.com platform. Now Meetup.com Members can view all the local Meetup hikes and their favorite Groups at a glance, with media-rich descriptions. Organizers are invited to edit their hike descriptions as they would like to see them; bloggers are invited to write about their hikes and related subjects. Start here at the Meetup Hikes Calendar. [Photo: The Old Stagecoach Road in the Simi Hills of Chatsworth]
