Andrew Fischer organized the Club on February 15, 1977 and was the president and acknowledged leader from 1977 to 1984. In April 1977 he put an article in The Villager that a meeting would be held in the sewing room to form a hiking club. There were about ten present that included Tom Rickter, Lloyd West, Harold Wilber, Andrew Fischer, Lucile and Story Birdseye. The rest are unknown. Andrew was elected president at that meeting. The Club at that time was a close knit group and everyone was a good hiker. The Club would always leave at 8:45 AM on Wednesdays and Saturdays, hike until noon, eat lunch, and then hike another two hours returning to The Villages around 3:30 or 4:00 PM. They thought 10 or 12 mile hikes were perfect. Andrew selected the beautiful shady grove for a new picnic site in our hills and arranged to have the site cleared. That site had previously been know as picnic site #2 and is now renamed the Andrew Fischer grove picnic site. He initiated communications with the leaders of each of the major parks in the bay area, collected trail maps, and led the Club to enjoy the countless beautiful trails. He wrote the weekly news items in The Villager to keep all informed about future hikes. Andrew’s untiring devotion to the Club activities led to his being the guiding light for our Club in the early years. His love for social activities led him to urge the Club to add social meetings to our activities. Andrew’s enthusiastic greetings of all visitors persuaded most of them to join which increased initial membership to 100. His dedication to the Club augmented its acceptance as one of the major clubs that has increased the quality of life here at The Villages.
In the fall of 1977 Heinz and Hildy Holstein joined the club and they had hiked in Germany. Heinz became Andrew’s main helper. Vio and Harriet Hayes always brought hot soup to the beach hikes for many years. They also had charge of coffee and tea at the Monday night business meetings. Sylvia and Irving Dressler were always very active members. Sylvia was our treasurer for several years and Irving, because of his artistic talents was asked to design a club logo. He came to the next meeting with three different ideas. The first one he showed was a male hiker carrying a female hiker on his back-this pleased the men but got nowhere with the women. The second was a female hiker carrying a male hiker on her back. Of course this pleased the women but the men voted that one down. The third one was overwhelmingly preferred by everyone and showed two hikers standing on top of a mountain. Doris Morrison had charge of having the logo put on our hiking shirts and sweat shirts.
There was an earlier group not formed into a club led by a Stanford professor who had moved away before Andrew started our club.
Our first trip to the top of our hills was in March of 1978. A severe rainstorm caught us at the top and we were soaked by the time we got home. This was before the sign-in book and mailbox were put at the top by Tom Richter. He was always more interested in hiking our trails than going outside. He pulled the bench up behind his motorcycle and walked to the top several times every week. Tom, Lloyd, Harold, and Andrew worked on the trails and signs during 1977, 78, 79. Vio Hayes’ first hike was October 4, 1978 to Seacliff Beach and she continued go on almost every hike for some time as this was a great record for a 91 year old lady.
Story Birdseye started a pancake breakfast early on in the history of the Club. These continued until there were too many who wanted to attend and we couldn’t accommodate so many. They were changed to potluck brunches. There is no recorded information on when the evening potlucks started but one early member remembered when she moved to the villages in 1983, the Club was having them.
On October 1 & 2, 1983 eighteen members went to Big Sur for the weekend reporting good rooms and lunches. It then became a tradition to have 2 or 3 day outings at least once a year.
Andrew Fischer grew tired of all the responsibility he had assumed since 1977 and so he was made president emeritus in 1984 and Harvey Berke took over as acting president.
In 1989 our first St. Patrick’s Day dinner of corned beef and cabbage was held.
In 1992 the tradition of having both long and short hikes each week was established. In 1995 it was further diversified to include strenuous, moderate, and easy hikes so everyone in the Club could participate. Special day trips and points of interest were also started.
In January 2012 Katy Obringer the current president asked Jim Beyer the current membership chairman to create a club website. With the help of his son, Ross, that was accomplished. The photograph that is on the website was taken at the top of our hill. By that time a spring outing and a fall outing had been established. Around 2013 the board established two main groups in the club. One was called the Ramblers and the other one was called the long hikers. Bonnie Preston took over the leadership of the Ramblers and developed it into a popular alternative to the long hikes. In 2017 Ramon Reza and Katy Peretti assumed the leadership of the Rambler group.
In 2018 Bonnie Preston formed another group she named the Rambler Lites that was for members that could only walk about 1-2 miles. That seemed to be popular as many started attending.
In 2019 John Trudeau formed a sign committee to work on replacing the old signs that were made by the woodworking club men in 1977-78. The committee consisted of Rich Bainbridge, Jim Beyer, Ray Buck,Al Girolami, Brad Hinckley, Gary Holmquist,Peter Nichols,Giesla Pearson,Ramon Reza, Wes Tanaka, After several meetings and fact finding trips, the group created a plan of action and presented it to the hiking club board and membership for approval. After that was voted in, it was presented to the club board of directors and was approved. The design and layout was discussed among the sign committee and they approved the final design. The posts and signs were placed in the hill lands in the fall of 2019.
In March of 2020 the club was effectively shut down due to the Covid19 virus and all activities were suspended. After a few months of the lock down, some members started leading unsanctioned hikes around the Villages and near by.
In July of 2021 the Villages management authorized sanctioned hikes again. The long and rambler hikes were slow in starting again due to lack of hike leaders. Many didn’t want to lead a hike in the area parks due to the excessive use by the public.
In February of 2022 Jim Beyer collaborated with David Cook, a member of the Villages community, and created a new club website. It was a more robust platform that provided the club more options in the display of information.
In March of 2023 Jim Beyer collaborated with David Cook and switched over to a digital application process. Thus discontinuing the paper application process. New members going forward will need to add their information to an on line application form on the website.