More than 2,500 people from the Shuswap and throughout the Thompson-Okanagan with a passion for hiking have made a connection through a recently revitalized social media group. Last September, wanting to connect with others who share his love for hiking, Russell Kilba joined The Hiking Group Salmon Arm on Facebook. At the time the group had about 700 members.
However, the page was inactive and in need of an administrator – a task Kilba happily took on. "I took over the administration of it so that I could get it unpaused and do some hikes," said Kilba. "So we started doing a bunch of awesome hikes, putting pictures up, and the group has tripled in size, there was about 700 members, now there’s over 2,000.
We’ve had some great experiences, met a lot of people and had some great feedback." Through the group, last October Kilba connected with another avid hiker and outdoor enthusiast Melanie Adair from Vernon. Kilba saw that passion and convinced her to host hikes and become a co-administrator of the group, which has since grown substantially in members and content, with photos being posted regularly from different hikes and other activities.
With summer underway, Adair has been hosting weekly hikes on trails throughout the North Okanagan-Shuswap. "I would say most of the hikes are about an hour-and-a-half to two hours minimum, to four or five hours," said Adair. "We do anywhere from five to 12 kilometres.
It just depends on the trail and how hard it is. Trails we do are l.
