History of “Hoofing It In Oaxaca”
The “Hoofing It In Oaxaca” hiking program was launched in November of 2011. But it did not spring full-blown off the drawing board. Rather, it grew from a series of less formal hiking endeavors which occurred sporadically in years previous and has evolved through the time since. This is the story of how it began and then grew to the present day.
Pre-2010
In bygone days winter visitors to Oaxaca sometimes got together with friends to go for a hike. So it was that Jerry, Hank and Pablo arranged a number of hikes in the winter of 2007-2008. They often explored the trail network in the foothills above San Felipe del Agua and sometimes ventured out to Santa Ana del Valle or to Atzompa. About that same time Alan invited various friends to drive with him in the Sierra Norte in search of hacienda ruins he could photograph. These often entailed hiking to remote locations.
Joy and her husband Rick arrived to spend their first winter in Oaxaca after retiring in January of 2009. At that time Aria, an expat volunteer at the Lending Library from the Seattle area, had begun putting up notices on the bulletin board for occasional hikes in the countryside around the Valley of Oaxaca. Joy & Rick signed up and were introduced to Jerry and Eshkie, and together they became the core of a hiking group, which consisted of various friends and acquaintances.
2010-2011 Season
By the winter of 2010-2011 Joy and Jerry were coordinating a series of weekly Tuesday hikes. Notices were posted each week at the Oaxaca Lending Library and anyone interested in tagging along would show up at the appointed time and place. The organization was informal and the group used public transportation to get to the hike trailhead and back. This worked fine as long as the group was small in number. But word of the hikes got around and more people were climbing on the bandwagon. One Tuesday that spring 27 people showed up for the hike, and corralling taxis and colectivos was chaotic. This was too much of a good thing! The program was choking on its own success. The season concluded successfully, but the future was unclear.
Meanwhile, Larry had arrived in Oaxaca in early January of 2011, having just retired and moved from Denver. A hike enthusiast, he joined in all the weekly hikes that season. He remembers particularly a hike along the aqueduct running into a mountain valley above San Agustin Etla. A large group of hikers turned out and several people volunteered to drive their own vehicles that day, agreeing to meet at the church in San Agustin. No one realized that there were three churches in the village, and so various drivers went to different churches. For a while it was like an episode of the Keystone Kops until everyone managed to rendezvous at the white church next to the Casa de las Artes. Happily, the hike went well from there and everyone had a good time — and, afterwards, a good laugh.
2011-2012 Season
When the fall of 2011 rolled around, Joy and Rick did not return to Oaxaca and people were asking if the weekly hikes would resume . . . or not. Larry met with Aome, Jerry, Joan and Oreen and they agreed to spearhead the program that was soon named “Hoofing It In Oaxaca.” They drew up a schedule of 21 weekly hikes that would take place on Fridays, running every week from November through March. This calendar was posted at the Library so folks would know in advance which hikes were coming up and when. The hike venues included many of the trails used in previous years, plus eight new ones Larry had explored on his mountain bike the winter before.
Three people took part in the first Hoofing It In Oaxaca hike at La Cumbre on 11 November. There were eight hikers in the group that went to Hierve el Agua the following week. From there on between ten and twenty people showed up each Friday through December and January. Then there was a crisis. The hike on 27 January 2012 was to go from the archeological ruins at Dainzu to the church in Tlacochahuaya. The plan was to meet at the OLL at 9 am, walk over to the baseball stadium and board the bus to Mitla, getting off at Dainzu. Thirty-five hikers showed up that day! Everyone got to the bus stop in good time, but found the first bus was already half full when it came by. Half the group was stranded at the curb, hoping there would be space available on the next bus, which was due thirty minutes later. It all worked out well, though, and this hike is still among our favorite outings.
That hike marked a turning point for “Hoofing It In Oaxaca”. It was obvious we would have to start hiring buses to accommodate our hikers, a complication which would also necessarily increase the cost for the weekly outings. Nic Garcia, a local tour operator, was recommended and agreed to provide as many vehicles as needed every Friday. He was the Library’s transportation coordinator for many years after. The hike in Huayapam on 10 February drew 43 participants, the largest single hike of the season.
2012-2013 Season
The new “Hoofing It In Oaxaca” web site became operational in time for the winter of 2012-2013. This allowed people to preview their hike options well before actually arriving in Oaxaca. A total of 582 hikers took part in the Friday outings through the season, with 53 signing up for the hike in Huayapam on 15 February. However, as no reservation fee was required, the no-show rate ran as high as 50% on some hikes, which came close to sinking the program in debt because of the expense of chartering buses.
2013-2014 Season
To protect the financial stability of the program, a PayPal reservation system was incorporated in the “Hoofing It In Oaxaca” web site requiring a modest non-refundable deposit of 50 pesos per reservation. A total of 1207 reservations were processed for the season. The most popular hike that year was the one from Cuajimoloyas to Benito Juárez on 7 February, which drew a whopping 69 participants, an all-time record. And for the first time ever, a weekend overnight trip to Apoala was offered.
2014-2015 Season
In an attempt to reduce the size of the hike groups, two hikes were offered each week, one on Tuesday and the other on Friday, both going to the same destination. This was possible because Albi and Marianne came on board as regular hike leaders, taking responsibility for all of the Friday outings.
Five new day hike venues were added to the hike calendar.
Also this season David and Marilyn signed on to manage weekend overnight trips, which included visits to Llano Grande, Benito Juárez, Lachatao and Apoala.
Lastly, we started using Sprinter vans in place of buses, as these had more comfortable seats, were more maneuverable and reduced travel times considerably on mountain trips.
2015-2016 Season
There were no significant changes to the hiking program this year. However, the total number of reservations jumped to 1615, while the number of no-shows dropped to 293. The most popular hikes of the season were the pair from Zegache to Tilcajete, which drew 58 participants on Shrove Tuesday and 55 the following Friday.
2017-2018 Season
The big news of the season was the introduction of a new online reservation system at the Oaxaca Lending Library. The hiking program was folded into the other events sponsored by the OLL, so that people could make hike reservations along with those for all other OLL activities. This streamlined the reservation and payment process for all concerned.
Also this year a cap of 40 people per day hike was put in place. Even with the participation limit, 1308 hike reservations were processed for the season.
2018-2019 Season
Karen and Phil kindly agreed to take over management of the weekend overnight trips. They sponsored a total of seven weekend excursions, which went to ecotourism camps in Capulálpam, El Carrizal, Cuajimoloyas, Lachatao, Benito Juárez, Ixtlan de Juárez and Llano Grande, as well as a final year-end trip to San Jose del Pacifico.
The weekly day hikes proceeded as usual through the season, attracting many hundreds of participants.
2019-2020 Season
This year was essentially a successful repeat of the previous season. There were thirty-five day hikes scheduled from November through March, along with six weekend overnight getaways. A total of 1149 people signed up for the day excursions, with another 100 taking part in the weekend program. However, the advent of the coronavirus crisis in February prompted the cancellation of the last four day hikes of the season in March.
2020-2021 Season
There were no day hikes or weekend overnight trips scheduled this season because of the coronavirus pandemic.
2021-2022 Season
The widespread availability of Covid-19 vaccines greatly reduced the risk of illness, and the Lending Library instituted a pandemic protocol which required hikers to show proof of vaccination and to wear face masks when traveling in the chartered van. Also, the maximum number of people permitted on any hike was reduced to 20. There were 39 day hikes on the calendar but no weekend overnight trips, as mountain villages remained closed to outsiders on account of the pandemic. A total of 714 day hikers took part in the program through the season.
2022-2023 Season
The hiking program almost went extinct this season because Larry resigned as program coordinator and Marianne and Albi retired as regular hike guides in April of 2022. A crash program was begun in August to reconstitute the program but almost died for lack of leadership. Larry reluctantly came out of retirement and the OLL board set up an Excursion Committee to oversee things. Frantic meetings were held through October to put a calender of hikes in place for the start of the season in November. As often happens in a crisis situation, a number of adaptations were put in place. People found during the pandemic that they preferred a hike group size of twenty people. But halving the number of hikers would also deal a blow to OLL finances, which over time had come to rely on income from the Hoofing It In Oaxaca program. To compensate, a decision was made to double the number of weekly hikes from two to four – with hikes offered on Tuesdays & Wednesdays and again on Fridays & Saturdays. This schedule proved popular and most hikes at the height of the season sold out. When the season concluded in the last week of March a total of 1173 reservations were processed for a total of 68 hikes. Even so, the program was restricted because most mountain villages were still in quarantine and refused admission to outsiders, so the number and variety of mountain hikes was very limited.
On Motive And Money
From its earliest days the hiking program was an altruistic endeavor. When friends joined forces to hike it was out of a love for the outdoors and a desire for camaraderie. Making money was not part of the equation. Larry was the director of “Hoofing It In Oaxaca” for twelve seasons, managing the program as a hobby in his leisure years. He did not profit financially from the enterprise. He and the other hike leaders rode free in the chartered vans, but that was the extent of their compensation.
Fact is, there was precious little profit in the hiking program the first several years. The objective was just to break even. So in the 2011-2012 season the balance left after all the bills were paid amounted to just 1021 pesos. The next two seasons ended with a surplus of 1321 pesos and 3070 pesos respectively, all of which was donated to the Lending Library.
It was only when a non-refundable reservation fee was instituted that the hikes started generating an appreciable surplus. At the end of the 2014-2015 season the OLL benefited from a donation of 10,000 pesos, followed by 11,266 pesos and 19,000 pesos the next two years.
The end-of-year surplus jumped significantly after the hiking program started using the Library’s online reservation system in 2017-2018. The Library required full payment of hike fees with each registration — not just a partial reservation fee. And when people found they had to cancel their reservations for any reason, many decided to forego a refund, counting the money as a donation to the OLL. So after the 2017-2018 season the surplus given to the OLL amounted to 96,428 pesos, which grew to 125,756 pesos in 2018-2019. For the 2019-2020 season the day hike fee was reduced to keep income and expenses in better balance. This move was successful, but even so the surplus donated to the Library amounted to 79,788 pesos. When day hikes resumed in 2021-2022 under pandemic protocols the profit to the OLL amounted to 71,155 pesos. At the close of the 2022-2023 season 135,848 pesos were given to the library. These annual contributions help keep the Oaxaca Lending Library the vibrant organization that it is.
Benefit To The Community
Obviously, those who take part in our hikes and the other “Out & About In Oaxaca” events promoted by the Lending Library benefit directly from the experience. But the larger community gets dividends, as well. In a busy seasons the OLL charters over 100 Sprinter vans, providing income to local tour operators and drivers. Trip participants pay hundreds of admission fees and hire dozens of local guides. Restaurants serve hundreds of lunches. All of these are significant contributions to the economy of the city and state of Oaxaca.
Summary
Even after all these years the hiking program continues to be hugely popular. Who knew so many people would be enthused about trekking through the Valley of Oaxaca and the mountains nearby? Many lasting friendships have been formed among those who hit the trails week after week. Any number of folks have commented that the hikes were among the highlights of their time in Oaxaca. So may it continue . . . . !