HISTORY OF THE SEQUIM/PORT ANGELES OVER-THE-HILL HIKERS

The Sequim/Port Angeles Over-the-Hill Hikers evolved form one woman’s love of hiking. In 1981, after her own retirement from teaching and her husband’s retirement from the ministry, Harriet Hertzog wanted to hike but found that she did not like hiking alone. She wanted to experience the beauty of the area with others. She invited anyone interested in hiking to go with her. The group had grown to over 200 on her list; although only a few would hike at any one time.

Harriet did all of the planning by herself for quite some time—a tremendous responsibility. Then, a small group of other hikers met and decided to help by sharing this chore of planning & leading hikes. Harriet still maintained the lead but delegated some of this chore. She & Richard Dinzl did the scheduling of the Friday hikes. Then Richard Dinzl and Vincent Convery took over the leadership of the Wed. hikes.

Harriet would be willing to drive a van-load of hikers to the T.H.’s and would share a thermos of coffee or tea after a hike. When she was no longer able to drive, due to failing eyesight, she still continued to hike! She was able to have her 90th birthday party up at Hurricane Ridge—one of her favorite places!

Ron Peterson was the original “webmaster”. Then, Richard Dinzl took it over and created the previously used OlyPen website before the newest website was established in 2022.

Other instrumental members helping with the group were: Bill Gottschalk, Jim Arnold, Jackie & Elston Hall (Jackie would walk with Harriet), Forrest Davis and hikers: (2) Rons: “Cardiac (Heart Attack) Ron” and “Rocket Ron”, Richard Garner, a Rene (from Denmark) and his wife, Susan, Jim Latourneau, Judy Farnsworth, Jon Wendt, & many others not named here.

When some of these hikers and leaders “aged out” or moved to other locales, Mark Mulcay took over and managed the group solo since ~ 2011 until he had debilitating foot surgery in 2019, which curtailed his future hiking.

Pete Erickson and Jordi Woods, with the capable assistance from Kenny Fenander, then took over the responsibility from Mark and carried the group through the CO-VID pandemic from March/2020—after the “Shelter in Place” period of time. They had to become quite creative in their hike selections and limited any car-pooling, trying to keep the hikers as safe as possible during the pandemic while choosing to commence being able to hike!

With Pete Erickson’s own foot/leg issues putting him on “injured reserve” in 2022, a team of women carried the “torch”: Pat Frantz with organization and leadership; Sarah Miller with scheduling and leadership; Marilyn Hunt for Google Groups set-up, technical issues like a new website domain address, and leadership; and Terri Edmondson: carpooling and leadership; in order to keep the group alive and well. Matt Mahowald designed & diligently worked on the new website with Marilyn Hunt’s help & tried to keep us up-to-date on technical issues and capabilities of our FRS, In-Reaches, GPS units, etc.