Welcome to the Heritage Hiking Club! We want to hike AMERICA. Established in 1976 while hiking as a 7th grade student at Grand Canyon National Park (Supai, Arizona Land of the Havasupai). The rest is history... This hiking group is open to families, friends, hikers, outdoor enthusiasts, backpackers, weeknight and weekend walkers. The goal is to connect with others in our community and discover new places to hike and explore in and around Orange County and beyond. And Hiking (Urban hiking too) is fun, a great way to meet people and is a good physical workout. Walking/hiking is also an awesome way to immerse yourself in nature for some good old fashion SOUL-care; and a super easy micro-adventure that you can have any day of the week to escape the grind and refresh yourself for what may lie ahead in life.
Head Trail Boss
Over the past 25+ years my leadership in Education Administration as a Principal, 19 years in the classroom as a teacher have always been goals oriented, relational, attention to detail, teamwork, practical, informative and very interactive.
I've enjoyed working in the Education field, mainly school settings but also in Outdoor Environmental Education. I was a 19 year Middle School Teacher and was a Vice Principal for seven years at a Christian Jr. High and now I’m in my 5th year as a Principal at Covenant Christian School.
My first visit to Supai was when I was in the 7th grade. Unfortunately, tragedy struck my family when my father passed away from cancer when I was in the 6th grade leaving my mother to care for me and my seven siblings. At the time my Science Teacher took only four 8th grade students each spring break to a place called Supai somewhere in the Grand Canyon. Given my current depressing and sad situation, he reached out to my mom (I was a 7th grader at this point) and they thought it would be good for me to maybe help heal my broken heart (boy, was they right!). As soon as I arrived, I realized there was something magical about this place. It was truly the first time in my life I felt the presence of God. I grew in self-confidence, courage and character. In my 8th grade year, and I was invited to go back again. Unreal, no students in 7th grade were even allowed to go, let alone twice. I quickly accepted the invitation without hesitation. Returning for a second time it became clear to me that I would hope to make it my lifelong mission to share this place with students I would teach. This would allow them the opportunity to change for the better and grow in self-confidence as they faced their life’s trials, much like I experienced as a 7th grader.
Over the years I always stayed involved with Children and became a Youth Pastor and School Teacher. Yep, you guessed it, my vision continued to live on. My first Teaching assignment was when I graduated with my Teaching Credential and was hired to teach Science at Sacramento High School. I shared my vision with my new principal to take struggling students to a magical place to help build their self-confidence and experience something greater than themselves. She loved my vision. We would train for the hike and prepare for the amazing experience that lay ahead. She had me come up with a club name for our trips and so I called us the Heritage Hiking Club. The name has stayed with me over the years as I took students every year over my 19 years as a classroom teacher, 7 years as a Vice Principal and now I’m in my fifth year as a Principal at Covenant Christian School.
I’ve led more and more trips to this amazing place for church youth groups, YMCA’S and even a college once. I started to gain a reputation in my local community for allowing troubled students to gain self-confidence and build character by taking them out of their comfort zone and challenge them to hike and explore the beautiful region of Supai, the waterfalls and the People of the Blue Green Water. So much so that over the years a couple of schools reached out to me to lead their 8th grade class trips to Supai