Vernon Outdoors Club (VOC) members are regularly out and about enjoying the great outdoors in the North Okanagan and beyond.
Members of the club organize a number of activities. In the summer, we offer rambles on Tuesdays; rambles are easy hikes usually covering terrain close to Vernon. Our Sunday hikes are longer and more challenging as well as farther afield to the Monashees.
For the bicyclists, the club runs Thursday bike rides. Every year, the club offers both a hiking campout (to such places as the Rockies, Waterton Park, Cathedral Lakes) and a biking campout (places visited include Canmore, Whistler, Winthrop). And in the winter there are weekly snowshoe outings.
Club members work hard to maintain a number of hiking trails and the club also publishes a guide to many of the routes it hikes. The book, now in its seventh edition, is available in local book stores. Above all, the club offers safe enjoyment of the outdoors as well as the opportunity to meet new people and learn about great hiking, biking, snowshoe and other routes in our locality.
As we get out into remoter areas, down forest roads and out of cell phone range, we insist our members bring adequate equipment and wear the right type of footwear on club hikes. We also encourage members to develop their navigation and outdoor skills. The club values and very much respects the critical services provided by organizations like 911 first responders and Vernon Search and Rescue.
Accordingly, VOC is pleased to host a public information meeting featuring a speaker from Vernon Search and Rescue to discuss the vital services that Vernon SAR provides. This will be on Monday from 7 to 8:15 p.m. in the ground floor meeting room of the Vernon library (enter by the side door on 28th Street). The meeting is open to the public and is free. VOC thanks the Okanagan Regional Library for its sponsorship of this meeting. Come along and find out about Vernon SAR and, if you have questions about VOC, members will be available after the Vernon SAR presentation has finished.
This meeting will be of great value to anyone who gets out in the outdoors — on foot, by bicycle, on snowshoes, backcountry skis, an ATV or a snowmobile!
