Our Quarterly Newsletters

For more than a decade, we've been publishing a quarterly newsletter documenting what is happening in our lives, reporting on trips taken during the past quarter, and announcing future group travel plans. The newsletter is personal in tone because most of us have organized trips and traveled together many times and are on a first name basis. That doesn't mean we exclude new participants in favor of old friends. The complexity of large group trip execution, without the aid of commercial guides, favors having those with experience along. However, 20-30% of the people on a trip are usually on their first group trip with us and we like it that way. We're always interested in meeting other outdoors enthusiasts.

Our newsletter has evolved into a standard format that we've used for quite some time. For 15 years it was Post Office delivered to those who traveled with us frequently, and sampled to those who expressed interest in our future group trips. A few years ago we began posting the newsletters to this web site. Recently we terminated the Post Office or snail mail version and added all of the newsletters since 1990 to this site. Each newsletter dedicates space to the following:

An opening of approximately a page giving information about what we have been doing recently.
A trip report section of varying length which offers about 2 pages of information about each group trip in the past quarter.
A closing, about a page long.
Several pages of trip supplements for upcoming trips. Each trip has a supplement developed; it can be mailed upon request to prospective participants. This includes a description of the trip, where we will meet, where the event will occur, the fitness level required, what equipment you will need, a list of reference books, the expected group cost per participant, and other material of interest.
A page which presents our Cancellation and Refund policies.
And lastly, a page which summarizes planned future trips.

Since the last three items mentioned above are heavily formatted, and become quickly dated, we choose not to include them online. The most interesting parts of our old newsletters for online readers will probably be the trip reports. To facilitate your finding them, we've added their names in italics after each newsletter link.

Participants on trips we organize expect everyone to be able to share the responsibilities associated with the planned activity. Unfortunately, this requires us to screen potential participants. Many trips we plan are inappropriate for individuals with no camping experience or a low level of physical stamina. Sharing work assignments and being responsible for oneself also makes our trips inappropriate for children.

Most group activities, excluding river trips where permits are the limiting factor, are announced six months or more before they occur to give people a chance to organize their vacation time. Future trip information is presently communicated by email to only those on our mailing list. We reserve the right to choose who we keep on that list.