Wilderness Volunteers Trip Leaders
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| Ed Belove hikes, backpacks, paddles, snowshoes, skis and volunteers in his home mountains of New England and almost anywhere else that has mountains, desert or canyons (with a particular fondness for the red rocks of the Southwest). At other times, he is a technology consultant in Cambridge, MA who enjoys reading and traveling to places that have interesting museums and good food. |
| Tammy Bernardi was born and raised in southwestern Pennsylvania and shortly after college took a temporary job in Colorado and never left! After an extensive career in environmental consulting, a career change now has her in the evidence section of a local police department. Her trips with WV serve her ever-increasing need to escape to the sights and sounds of the natural surroundings of the outdoors. |
| Brian Bone’s childhood spent in the hills of East Tennessee made him an avid outdoorsman. Growing up in Chicago, he always felt drawn to places with vertical relief – not the steel-and-glass kind – and that pretty much meant anything but Illinois. In 1998 he headed West with stops in Los Angeles, then Las Vegas where he learned to love the desert and the mountains of Utah, and finally to Colorado in 2005, where the Rockies are almost literally outside his front door. As a mountain biker, backpacker, backcountry snowboarder, and general trail user, he’s found a great way in Wilderness Volunteers to give back to the outdoors that have made him who he is. |
| Jane Butter is a native of Salt Lake City, and has always loved Utah's incredible and unique landscapes. She graduated from Lewis and Clark College in 2007 with a B.A in Environmental Studies and minor in Communication. She currently works as the Education Specialist for Grand Staircase Escalante Partners in Kanab, UT. She enjoys river running, international traveling, playing guitar, and exploring all that the West has to offer. |
| Ruth Claypool Sarvis works for a major insurance company headquartered in Seattle. She is an avid backpacker who enjoys exploring the Pacific NW Mountains and scuba diving the Puget Sound waters. Her husband, Jeff, and dog, Madison often accompany her on the hikes, but want nothing to do with cold water diving. (Top) |
| Pat Cohen is a native New Yorker who discovered the great outdoors later in life. She is currently working in an acupuncture office, volunteer tutoring ESOL and Literacy to adults and teaching management at Farmingdale State University. She has been traveling with Wilderness Volunteers for many years and has enjoyed every trip in this journey called life. |
| Steve Cole is a retired engineer currently living in the wide open spaces of the California Desert just outside Joshua Tree National Park. Steve is an experienced rock climber and ice climber, and he wandered all over the Sierra Nevada for 15 years before discovering the desert. He now spends a couple months per year on the Colorado Plateau doing WV trips, descending technical canyons and just being there. |
| Roger Coleman retired in 2001 from Engineering/Program Management in defense missile technology, and more recently, computer product development work. He lives in Sunnyvale, CA. with his wife, Gitte, and cat, Misty. Currently enjoys hiking in the coastal mountains of the Bay area, ski touring in the Sierra's, and traveling to the Northwest to visit grandchildren and helping their parents. He has explored numerous wilderness areas in the past, backpacking within Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, and California. Has given back to nature on several WV trips in Washington and Oregon since September 2001. He also enjoys watercolor painting. (Top) |
| Eileen Duncan lives in San Francisco
and teaches fifth grade in Oakland, CA. She loves backpacking, exploring
remote places, running with the Hash House Harriers, practicing yoga,
rolling big rocks, crushing granite, and identifying wildflowers.
WV gives her the unique opportunity to connect with others while
celebrating the great outdoors and giving something back. |
| Joyce & Rudy Duncan live in Syracuse, New York where both are social workers. They are active in hiking, canoing and backpacking in Canada and in the west. Rudy, a fifth degree black belt, teaches karate and tai chi out of his own studio. (Top) |
| Debra Ellers grew up on a farm wandering around the hardwood trees and fields of eastern Virginia. She now loves wandering the backcountry of the west with her husband Dale and big dogs Kaz and Syri. Debra has been backpacking for over 20 years in wild places such as the Seven Devils and White Clouds in Idaho and the redrock country of Southern Utah. When not backpacking, Debra enjoys mountain biking, windsurfing and backcountry skiing. After twenty years of working as an attorney, Debra recently left corporate life and moved to the mountains where she lives near McCall, Idaho.(Top) |
| Clarence Elstad took an early buy out and retired to Mukilteo, WA. He’s been involved in 'Giving Back' since 1994 and is currently a certified leader of hiking, backpacking, scrambling, snowshoeing, crosscountry skiing and kayaking. He’s led trips for the Sierra Club for 16 years and also International trips for an Italian outdoor club (CAI) for 8 years. He’s led trips for WV in several places in the SW, WA, ID and MN for the past 10 years. One of his real loves is canoeing the Lewis and Clark area of the Missouri River in MT. |
| Julia Estigoy’s work as a massage therapist keeps her grounded along with her commitment to service and volunteerism. It’s those things that teach her compassion. Her love of all things Hawaiian, especially hula, keeps her joyful. She’s eager to learn new things and discover hidden talents but not driven to master any of it. The journey alone is enough. It is the way she walks through life…by living small and being kind, by treading lightly and giving back. Her goal is not to leave a big footprint but rather to blend in with the colors of life. |
| Stephanie Flores lives in Houston, Texas and works full time for the hometown airline Continental. When not working, she loves to travel the world and is always up for an adventure. New addiction: Triathlons. |
| Dale Grooms lives in the mountains outside McCall Idaho. There, he spends time with his best friend, companion and wife Debra and their Kuvasok Syri (big white dog). Together, they are fun dogs, loving sports that use muscle, wind or gravity. In his prior life, Dale was an engineer for a large company that swallowed him up, leaving little time for personal creativity. Now he is trying to free his artistic side and really enjoys spending time with the great people he meets with WV. (Top) |
| Ron Harton lives in Fresno, CA. He enjoys backpacking, skiing and snowshoeing in the Sierra Nevadas. He is also into cactus, birds and wildflowers. (Top) |
| Fred Hanson lives in Bloomington, Indiana and does computer work for Indiana University. He hikes in the Hoosier National Forest or various state forests most Saturdays. He has participated on more than 15 trail building/maintenance trips mostly in the west and has been the co-leader on three Buffalo National River trips. He also enjoys amateur astronomy and learning to play the dulcimer. |
| Susan Holling combines a love of food and cooking with an outdoor experience to find her little bit of heaven. A native Oregonian, she loves to be outside and especially meeting other outdoorsy people who don't mind working hard. She has several WV trips under her belt and looks forward to many more. |
| Peyton Hutton lives in Northern Virginia, and friends call him a "bulldozer in hiking boots" when clearing paths along the Appalachian Trail. He enjoys backpacking, canoeing, and mountain biking, and has learned that vegetarian food isn't all that bad. |
| Bob Jackson lives in Park Ridge (a suburb of Chicago). He has done a number of trips in the Boundary Waters Canoe Wilderness of Northern Minnesota/Canada. He enjoys canoeing, fishing, hiking, biking, skiing and most anything outdoors. |
| Jen Jackson lives in Moab, UT, where she tries to balance life as a writer, wilderness explorer, environmental activist, and reference librarian as gracefully as possible. She is madly in love with her redrock home and is likely hiking its expanses as you read this. |
| Amanda James started leading trips for WV after inadvertently attending the 2008 WV Leader Training Service Trip in the beautiful Gunnison National Forest, Colorado. Amanda loves Pulaskis and reusable hand warmers. She promises never to taunt bears and then trip you as she runs away, to always complete a full tool count at the end of each work day and to keep an encouraging sense of humor in every circumstance. |
| Janet Johnson, a nature writer and educator, is also a Climb Leader for the Mazama Mountaineering Club in Portland. She is an experienced backpacker, biker and crosscountry-skier. (Top) |
| Richard Johnson lives near Seattle and spends far too much time writing software. He has a chronic attachment to trail maintenance and likes it almost as much as hiking. |
| Steve Jones enjoys living in SW Montana and exploring the Yellowstone backcountry with family and friends in all seasons. Blacksmithing and timber framing keeps him in blisters and splinters. (Top) |
| Jennifer Konop Stevens lives in Omaha, Nebraska. She enjoys doing anything active including hiking, running, biking and daily gym workouts. Jennifer has considerable experience hiking in the Green and White Mountains in the East, and has participated in trips in the Sierrasand the Grand Tetons. She looks forward to any opportunity for travel andoutdoor experiences. |
| Minott Kerr Derailed from an academic career studying medieval church architecture and archeology by the lure of whitewater kayaking in Oregon, Minott now works for Metro, the Portland area regional government, specializing in GIS (Geographical Information Systems -computerized mapping and geographical analysis). In addition to boating, biking or hiking, in his free time he collects stove-top espresso and coffee makers, one of which he selects for each WV trip to insure there will be coffee strong enough to stun an ox. |
| Bill and Sue Koenig are from the Chicagoland area. They are active in hiking, biking, running, swimming, and canoeing. They have lead WV trips to Arizona, Michigan and Colorado. Sue had also volunteered on WV trips to Washington and California. Sue and Bill have also participated in service trips with other volunteer organizations including helping out in New Orleans after hurricane Katrina.(Top) |
| Pamela Knight was raised in the beauty of both western North Carolina and in Southern Illinois. She currently resides in Lexington, Kentucky with her teenage daughter and a pre-teen son who keep her very busy. She works full time for an engineering firm and also finds time to volunteer for the local domestic violence program. She has been a part of WV trips in CA and MN. |
| Misha Kokotovic is hopelessly addicted to the red rock canyons of the Colorado Plateau, where he once worked as a park ranger. Though he has also been known to scramble up the occasional peak in the Sierras and the Southern Rockies, he requires regular fixes of Navajo sandstone. He currently supports his habit by teaching at the University of California, San Diego.(Top) |
| Tom Laabs-Johnson has been camping since childhood; horse pack trips, canoeing, hiking, biking, but solo backpacking is the favorite. He lives outside of Salt Lake City, working in a psychiatric children's hospital where his office walls disappear into posters and pictures of Southern Utah. (Top) |
| Mike Leonard hails from northern New Jersey and spent his childhood enjoying the outdoors - which, contrary to popular belief, do exist in the Garden State. He's been involved with Wilderness Volunteers since 1999 after stumbling across a brochure in an outdoor store, and has been hooked ever since. Having taken trips through New Mexico, Montana, California, Idaho, and Colorado, he's looking forward to heading to Alaska someday soon, and is excited about getting young people onto the trail. In between his graduate studies at Columbia University in New York City, he enjoys photography, hiking, canoeing, and wrestling - and the occasional trip to the Bronx Zoo. |
| Jim Lowe has returned to his native roots in the Smoky Mountains after a long career teaching entomology at the University of Montana. Jim has hiked, climbed and paddled throughout the west, as well as in the Appalachians, on his own and as leader of youth and scout groups. Among his many current projects, he serves as a volunteer entomologist with Discover Life in America, has established the Friends of Joyce Kilmer Slick Rock Wilderness. (Top) |
| Frank MacMurray was a Forest Service smokejumper before attending law school. He enjoys flyfishing, birding, hiking and rafting. He's volunteered for a number of outdoor organizations, and is currently a Wilderness Volunteers Board member. (Top) |
| Tim Manion is an avid cyclist (known for crashing both road and mountain bikes with equal enthusiasm), backpacker, a fumbling 5.7 hardman on the rock, kayaker, and a passionate lover of all things outdoors. He has participated in and helped lead backcountry service projects in Washington, Utah, and Arizona. When not Out There, he lives vicariously and feeds the Habit as an assistant manager for REI in Tempe, AZ., where rumor has it he has sold his soul to the company on the flimsy premise of not yet owning enough gear. (Top) |
| Dudley McIlhenny is originally from Manhattan where he was a management consultant, only at ground level when walking to work. Since relocating to Utah, he has turned to volunteer activities but, more importantly, has discovered the wonders of hiking, rafting, and back country skiing/snowshoeing and is now much more connected to the earth. |
| James McLean has been doing WV trips for five years and has loved every one. He’s a pre-med microbiology student working for University of Arizona Medical Center as a patient care technician and is an Arizona state certified EMT. He spends free time rock climbing and training in mixed martial arts with a focus in Brazilian jiu jitsu.(Top) |
| John McLean is an Arizona native, who has been hiking and climbing throughout Arizona and California for over 35 years. He loves to crush rocks and destroy invasive species (but in a good way). (Top) |
| Gayle Marechal is a retired English teacher who promises not to make you work harder on his trips if you use a double negative or split an infinitive, but he will cook you a great meal after a hard day’s work and tell you where to find good, cheap eats in Portland, Oregon, where he lives with his wife and two cats. Gayle has been leading WV trips since 2000 and prior to that was a trip leader with the Sierra Club. He’s an experienced backpacker and an avid hiker. When he’s not leading WV trips he’s hiking somewhere in or around Portland, skiing, snowshoeing, road biking, or hanging out at Mt. Tabor Park trying to get one more look at either Mt. Hood or Mt. St. Helens. (Top) |
| Don Meaders lives in Albuquerque and has worked in North Kaibab for the past ten years when he can get away from his commercial construction job. He has perfected the technique of "McClouding" and can carry a 24-lb rockbar uphill for miles. (Top) |
| Brian Miller has been a fan of the outdoors since discovering solace wandering the woods of Michigan during his wayward youth. A brief stint in the Boy Scouts, along with family vacations spent in a pop-up trailer, nurtured his love of nature and exploration. Moving west after realizing the wonder of California and its lack of dreary winter snow, Brian has spent time hiking and backpacking in the Sierras, Rockies, the Great Basin, the Colorado Plateau along with the Hawaiian Islands. |
| Curt Mobley is an oceanographer living in Sammamish, Washington. His main outdoor activities these days are sea kayaking in exotic locales around the world and hiking in the desert southwest. (Top) |
| Todd
Nelson currently works at Grand Canyon National Park
as the Volunteer Coordinator; he misses his time
as the Backcountry Ranger at Saguaro National Park - but seasonal
life just too iffy. Now that he is in the mountains, he can
get some serious training in for the Tour de Tucson (111miles)
-- it will be number six. (Top) |
| Ashely Northcutt lives in Mesa, AZ, where she bides her time between adventures. She likes skiing, hot springs and surly cats. She's done WV trips in WA, AZ, CA, HI and MN. (Top) |
| Debbie Northcutt is the Executive Director of Wilderness Volunteers. She has a passion for exploring the Colorado Plateau by foot, raft and bike. She has the best job in the world, but would rather be outside than working on the website. (Top) |
| Bill Olmsted was born and raised in the only state in the union without a National Park or Forest. Reports indicate that his recovery is coming along nicely. (Top) |
| Dave Pacheco lives and works from his home-office in Salt Lake City. He’s led WV trips since 1999, mostly in Utah. He’s worked for almost 20 years as a grassroots environmental organizer, most notably for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance where he developed an inseparable love for redrock wilderness. Dave so much enjoys meeting new people and giving something back to public wild lands, from 2006-2008 he founded and directed Utah Backcountry Volunteers, based loosely on WV. He’s now proudly working with Debbie as Program Manager for Wilderness Volunteers. |
| Robin Rose is recently transplanted to northern Arizona from Oregon, and is enjoying exploring her new digs on the Colorado Plateau. She works for the Kaibab National Forest as a Recreation/Wilderness Specialist, and has been involved in wildland management for 21 years. When she doesn't get out of the office enough she likes to get her Wilderness fix by volunteering on restoration, cleanup, archaeological site protection, and trail maintenance projects. She dabbles in just about every human-powered outdoor activity you can legally do in wild places, and is a self-proclaimed solitude junkie. (Top) |
| Ruth Rosenstein is a native New Yorker who enjoys the freedom of backpacking in the wilderness. Always looking for an excuse to travel, she is an avid camper and hiker seeking wildflowers, mountain lakes and grand vistas. In her sparetime, she is a triathlete and a Boy Scout leader. |
| Rick Russman has hiked, biked or kayaked in every area of the United States and when not playing in the White Mountains of NH, leads trips in the southwest and Rocky Mountains. He is a certified Wilderness First Responder. |
| Ruth Sarvis works as an insurance agent weekdays and spends weekends exploring Western Washington with her husband, 5 year old daughter and dog. She is an avid hiker in the Cascades and scuba dives the Puget Sound waters. Her family often accompanies her on the hikes, but want nothing to do with cold water diving. |
| Patricia Schaffarczyk retired from working for Fremont Unified School District. She loves to hike around the Bay area where she lives, and backpacks in the Sierras. For a number of years she has participated in Wilderness Volunteer trips in Hawaii, Oregon, and Arizona, to join others in giving back. |
| Bill Sheppard has staffed over 100 trips for the Sierra Club and Wilderness Volunteers since 1990. These trips have been in wilderness areas spanning the continent and have involved trail construction and maintenance, invasive species removal, fence repair and removal, archeological survey and documentation, and many miles of backpacking, hiking, and canoeing. |
| Shelly Steadman currently resides in Colorado. She enjoys exploring and the adventures of backpacking, bicycling, running, skiing and triathlons. She is a past participant and new leader with Wilderness Volunteers and is excited to work with and meet people who share the same passion for the outdoors. |
| Mark Viglianco moved to Arizona in the early 1990's after after getting a taste of the West on a "temporary" work assignment. Since then he's spent his free time exploring the region on foot, bike, and skis. He's enjoyed working with Wilderness Volunteers for the past three years on trips in the High Sierra's, Saguaro National Park, and the Escalante. |
| Cheryl Walczak originally from Chicago, has been interested in the beauty and history of the West since family vacations as a child. Now based in Utah, she has been associated with Wilderness Volunteers since 1999, enjoying trips in Utah, Texas, and Oregon. She'll explore just about anywhere her two feet will take her. |
| Jeanne Whiting is a lifelong resident of California. She scuba dives and has explored several marine areas in the western world. She has rafted 4 different Alaskan rivers, one above the Arctic Circle. Jeanne has participated in a number of Wilderness Volunteer trips, occasionally adding surprise desserts to the menu. (Top) |
| Paul Whiting is a native northern Californian who has hiked and backpacked extensively in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and is an avid historian of the northern Sierra gold mining camps. He enjoys locating and navigating lost trails to forgotten mines and camps. Paul enjoys just about any activity that takes him into the wilderness. (Top) |
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Kathleen Worley
grew up in Reno, Nevada, which perhaps explains her love of the
high desert as well as the granite spires and crystal clear lakes
of the Eastern Sierra Nevada. She has done WV trips in Nevada,
Utah, Oregon, California, and Hawaii. When not outdoors, she is
either onstage or teaching theatre at Reed College in Portland,
OR.(Top) |
Jim
Zubert lives in Wauconda, a far northern suburb
of Chicago. He has been on various trail construction and maintenance
trips to the Boundary Waters in northern Minnesota and to Midewin
National Tallgrass Prairie. He enjoys camping, backpacking, canoeing,
fishing, hiking and biking. (Top) |
