On April 26th, 1993, Pamela Grigg called a meeting of a group of her hiking friends and acquaintances who were members of the Canmore Seniors Association, with the purpose of forming a serious hiking group. The idea was to have hikes with a bit of a challenge, not just half-day ambles in the valley. The idea was greeted with enthusiasm by a group of about twelve seniors. At first, the group had no name.
The first hike was on May 5th, 1993. It was a circuit of the Canmore Benchlands, which were undeveloped at that time. It was attended by numerous people, including Jean Shafto, Ken and Lorraine Williamson, Albert and Marta Vessely, Tom and Kay Scott, Jean Grieg, Hildegard Amann, Pamela Grigg and Bob Smith.
More ambitious hikes were enjoyed as the snow retreated from the high country, and the group gradually attracted more people. We got our name near the end of our first season, on our return from Chester Lake. Bob Smith wanted a picture of the group crossing Chester Meadows, and asked everyone to “just meander along and I’ll catch up”. There were some silly jokes about “How do you meander?” and someone had made a remark about us being a bunch of Neanderthals, and so it came together. Bob blames Jean Grieg for it, and Jean blames Bob. Whatever, the name stuck.
The Meanderthals have done every day hike east of the Highwood River and north of Highwood Crossing; all those in the vicinity of Highwood Pass and Kananaskis Lakes; the Smith Dorien, Kananaskis and Spray Valleys; all of the Bow Corridor; and Banff Park from the Icefields south; virtually all of Yoho Park and a few in Kootenay Park. Special trips have been made to Jasper and elsewhere. It soon became apparent that some people liked to hike steadily with few stops, have lunch and get home fairly early. Others liked to go as far, but take lots of time to identify birds, spot animals, identify plants and geology and not have a deadline for returning. A third group was needed for people who either wanted a shorter day, or felt they were not up to the more strenuous walks. They were called A, B and C groups, which Gerald Hankins called “A for athletic, B for botany and C for comfortable.”
The splitting into preference groups eased the growing pressure on the leaders and stress on nature, as there were by then about 100 members in the group. Our success was such that after forty-eight people showed up for one of the hikes, we had to curtail the number on any one hike, as we were becoming an environmental hazard and a nuisance to other hikers hoping to enjoy the peace of the wilderness. We put a top limit of twelve for each hike, meaning the bother of signup sheets, but we are used to it now, and often there are more than just three hikes on a given day as groups fill up and new ones form.
Perhaps the crowning experience for the Meanderthals was when a group of over twenty of them climbed the Middle Sister to celebrate the Year of the Older Person in 1999.
Senior hikers on Opabin Ledge Sept., c.1993
In Canmore Seniors at the Summit, ed. Canmore Seniors Association, 2000, p.206-207.
