DianneErskine-HellrigelDianne Hell­rigel
Dianne loves to climb moun­tains! She has climbed Cho Oyu, Yufuin, Fuji, “The Snake”, Kil­i­man­jaro, Ever­est to the sum­mit, and Ever­est to Base Camp/Kalapattar. She loves to hike California’s moun­tains and deserts, and is always ready for a new adven­ture and chal­lenge. She loves camp­ing and is espe­cial­ly fond of the Ange­les Nation­al For­est, and all of California’s Nation­al Parks.

 

Lise Mey­ers
Lisé start­ed hik­ing with Com­mu­ni­ty Hik­ing Club near­ly three years ago, and quick­ly became a great hike leader. Lisé has a pas­sion for know­ing the names of the flow­ers, trees and grass­es that are seen on CHC’s hikes, and loves to teach them to oth­ers. She enjoys lead­ing hikes at a pace that every­one can enjoy. She believes a hike should be a com­bi­na­tion of great car­dio, while tak­ing the time to enjoy the scenery and wants to be sure every­one has a great expe­ri­ence. She is also an avid pho­tog­ra­ph­er whose favorite sub­jects are wild­flow­ers and wild animals.

Paul Huskey
Paul recent­ly rekin­dled his love of hik­ing and nature as a lot of peo­ple did In the ear­ly lock down years of the Covid-19. Paul grew up hik­ing and camp­ing in the Smoky Moun­tains in East Ten­nessee, as well as the deserts and moun­tains of Sau­di Ara­bia many moons ago. He does appre­ci­ate scenic trails with min­i­mal crowds and is always on the look­out for new and intrigu­ing places to hike local­ly or rel­a­tive­ly close to San­ta Clari­ta. Not only does Paul lead hikes he is also on the CHC Board of Direc­tors, when he is not doing that you might also find him vol­un­teer­ing his oth­er free time at the Slide Moun­tain Fire Look­out near Lake Pyra­mid. Paul’s can eas­i­ly be spot­ted in the wild, just look for the guy with the big hat.

Chris Strat­ford
Chris Strat­ford is a Facil­i­ties Oper­a­tions Spe­cial­ist with the Depart­ment of the Navy out of Point Mugu. He has been camp­ing, hik­ing, and back­pack­ing for many years. He is cur­rent­ly our hike sched­uler, back­pack­ing coor­di­na­tor, and one of our hike lead­ers. He is hap­pi­est out­doors and enjoys shar­ing his love of nature with oth­ers while try­ing to pre­serve it for gen­er­a­tions to come.

 

 

Nan­cy Harrison
Nan­cy Har­ri­son: Born and raised in South­ern Cal­i­for­nia, I fell in love with just about any activ­i­ty that got me out­doors. I’m most famil­iar with the hik­ing trails along the Mal­ibu Coast, San­ta Mon­i­ca moun­tains, San­ta Clari­ta Val­ley, and select­ed areas in the Sier­ra Neva­da Moun­tains. I became a mem­ber of the Com­mu­ni­ty Hik­ing Club in 2018, and have since inte­grat­ed hik­ing as part of my lifestyle. I enjoy mod­er­ate to more chal­leng­ing hikes and always savor con­nect­ing with oth­er hik­ers of all expe­ri­ence levels.

 

Mary Bates

As a Geo­g­ra­ph­er, Mary is fas­ci­nat­ed with every­thing in nature, as well as intrigued by all things cul­tur­al.  Geog­ra­phy encom­pass­es the Nat­ur­al Sci­ence and the Social Sci­ence spec­trum of education.

Her love of the phys­i­cal side of Geog­ra­phy was nur­tured through study­ing geol­o­gy, min­er­al­o­gy, petrol­o­gy, geo­log­ic maps, plate tec­ton­ics, geo­mor­phol­o­gy, veg­e­ta­tion, and both tak­ing and lead­ing hun­dreds of field trips. Weath­er, cli­mate pat­terns, bio­geog­ra­phy, ener­gy, and his­to­ry con­tin­ue to cap­ture her interests.

Mary’s love of the social human side of Geog­ra­phy was nur­tured through her love of peo­ple in gen­er­al, cities and archi­tec­ture, trans­porta­tion, his­to­ry, lis­ten­ing to oth­ers, study­ing belief and spir­i­tu­al sys­tems, men­tal health, and dis­cov­er­ing why peo­ple are so unique and fas­ci­nat­ing across the world.

After high school, she worked in the med­ical pro­fes­sion, then mar­ried and stayed home rais­ing 3 chil­dren.  Return­ing to col­lege in 1983 most­ly part-time, she nev­er looked back.  Her ear­ly col­lege edu­ca­tion focused on busi­ness, psy­chol­o­gy, ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion, and archi­tec­ture, before final­ly decid­ing upon Geog­ra­phy.  She earned her Bach­e­lor of Arts in Geog­ra­phy in 1993 and Mas­ter of Arts in Geog­ra­phy in 1999 (includ­ing a minor in Geol­o­gy) both from the Cal­i­for­nia State Uni­ver­si­ty at North­ridge, California.

Mary has been teach­ing since 2002 at Col­lege of the Canyons.  She has made pro­fes­sion­al Schol­ar­ly Pre­sen­ta­tions and con­duct­ed field trips for hun­dreds, at the col­lege and oth­er venues such as muse­ums, geo­log­ic soci­eties, and local geol­o­gy and hik­ing clubs.