Kactus Kickers Hiking Club

1969 – 2023

In memory of a long time Arizona hiking club, The Kactus Kickers, which was formed in 1969 by employees of a local Arizona corporation. Initially, membership was limited to employees of the corporation and their families but started welcoming others that were attracted to the club by a public website that was created in 2000.

Although the Kactus Kickers was a hiking club and a lot of the activities focused on weekend hikes on trails, including the Arizona Trail, around the beautiful deserts and mountains of AZ, many other outdoor activities as noted below were planned and enjoyed:

• Trail building and maintenance, 4-6 events per year including several in support of the AZ Trail
• A “heroic” annual Grand Canyon rim-to-rim-to-rim Memorial Day weekend hike
• The frolicking Colorado River canoe trips below Hoover Dam and Needles
• Summertime weeklong condo/day hiking adventures based out of ski areas in CO, CA, NM and AZ that included several 14’ers
• Car camping combined with day hikes and occasionally fishing
• Backpacking and camping in AZ and other western states
• Winter activities such as skiing, snow shoeing and the summiting of Mount Rainier
• Annual social activities in the spring and at Christmas

Club members had a lot of fun while creating lasting memories and forming new and good friendships that continue to this day. During its heyday, the club boasted over 100 members and scheduled over 40 activities per year. Many of the active members logged more than 100 mile per year with some of the most active members hitting the trail for 300 miles or more per year.

In the early years, due to its relatively young membership, the club scheduled numerous challenging hikes but as the membership aged, and in some cases passed away, the longer and more challenging hikes were dropped from our annual schedule.

Over the last decade our membership declined due to aging and a lack of new younger members. In view of the declining membership and lack of participation, at the end of 2023 and 54 years it was decided to disband the club. Although a few members have joined other Arizona hiking clubs we were all saddened by the clubs’ demise.

Included in the activities to terminate club was the disposition of the remaining funds in the club’s bank account. As a result, the former members are proud that a modest donation has been made to the Arizona Trail Association that will be directed to the AZT VETS Program.

With 54 years of fond memories from 1969 – 2023.

~ the Former Kactus Kickers