Winter weather is here and the high country is buried in snow, but that’s no reason to stop enjoying the great outdoors, according to the Swan Rangers.

“We’re a group of people who like getting together and exploring the Swan Range,” group founder Keith Hammer said. “There are a lot of hiking clubs out there, but I think our club fills a nice niche. There are other clubs that are much more gung-ho; they’re headed to the top of a mountain every time. We’re more the stop-and-smell-the-roses types. It’s the journey more than the destination for us.”

Those journeys have taken the group on 418 outings so far, with 409 different people taking part since the Swan Rangers formed in November 2005.

“We average almost one new person each outing, but we have a core group of people that goes on most of the hikes,” Hammer said. “Each trip is about eight or nine people, but we love to have new people join us. I keep spreadsheets of all kinds of information, like where we go and how many people we have. I’m glad we started keeping it, because back when we started we weren’t thinking about our 400th or 500th hike.”

The first outing was Nov. 12, 2005, and Hammer had no idea that it would still be going strong eight years later.

“I posted flyers and sent out some emails and it kind of took off from there,” he said. “It’s gone really well. To look back now, I never would have thought we’d be where we are today. I thought interest might peter out, but it didn’t. I just decided it would be nice to have a regular meeting to hike with other people.”

The hikers meet every Saturday at the Echo Lake Cafe for breakfast and to decide the destination of the day.

“We don’t decide ahead of time where we’re going to go that day,” Hammer said. “That way it’s the group that’s there that can choose where they go and what we do. Not everyone shows up for breakfast, but we leave from the Swan River School parking lot and people can just show up there if they don’t want to eat first.”

The Swan Rangers do day outings only, with no overnight trips, and according to Hammer, they try to stay within a half-hour or 45 minute drive of the cafe.

“Mostly we stay in the Swan Range, but we occasionally drift over to the Crane Mountain area,” he said. “We do the Jewel Basin area in the peak of summer when the high country has melted out, but we mostly stay near the fringe and explore the places where there’s not a lot of people.”

Although the group hikes in the summer months, they by no means stop exploring in the winter. Hiking boots are exchanged for snowshoes and cross-country skis and the group forges on.

“We go pretty much every Saturday, regardless of the weather,” Hammer said. “The only times we haven’t gone are when there’s a holiday smack on a Saturday, like Christmas. If there’s bad weather, we just take a shorter hike, but we still go.”

Hammer said the hikes range in distance based on the weather and the season.

“Our longer days and longer hikes are in the middle of the summer, when the days are longer and the snow has melted in the high country,” he said. “That’s when we’ll do 12 or 14 miles. In the winter we usually do between four and six miles, and that’s about what we do in the shorter hiking season, when the high country is snowed in but we can still hike. On really wet and rainy days, we’ll only do maybe three miles — just enough to do something and get wet.”

Although those distances may sound intimidating to some people, Hammer said the group actually takes it fairly easy.

“We’re not out to kill you, we’re out to enjoy it,” he said. “In the winter, we do fairly gentle cross-country skiing and try to avoid avalanche danger. If you’ve got a basic ski or snowshoe level, you’ll be fine. But we do go into the ungroomed backcountry, so be prepared for that.”

Because the hikers stay in a somewhat limited geographic area, they do end up revisiting the same trails occasionally, but Hammer said that’s not a bad thing.

“We do revisit the trails a couple, three times a year, and it’s fun to see the changes of the seasons,” he said.

It’s not just companionship and health benefits that keep people coming back again and again, though. Since September 2011 the group has done 476 hours of volunteer trail clearing, thanks to a formalized agreement with the Forest Service.    

“That’s a lot more popular than I thought it would be,” he said. “There’s a group of people that really enjoys giving something back to those public trails they enjoy so much.”

Although he formed the group, Hammer said he was surprised at how much he enjoys it.

“For most of my life I’ve hiked alone,” Hammer said. “It is a pleasant surprise to discover how enjoyable it is to hike with other people. Some people want to hike with others because it’s safer, or they feel uncomfortable with navigation, or they’re concerned about things like bears and mountain lions, and hiking with a group can allay those concerns. And some people just like the companionship of hiking with a group.”

Hammer appreciates that companionship and the knowledge and different viewpoints of the hikers.

“Everybody has a little different view on the world,” he said. “Some people really know the wildflowers, some know the birds, some know the tracks or trees. It’s a great place to share what you know and learn something new. We try and keep it light and fun and it’s about companionship and fun and health.”

The Swan Rangers meet every Saturday morning at the Echo Lake Cafe on Montana 83.

From Nov. 1 through April 30, the group meets at 8:30 a.m. for breakfast and departs from the Swan River School across the street at 9:30 a.m. Carpooling is available and everyone is welcome. Dogs are not allowed and hikers should be prepared to hike, snowshoe or cross-country ski based on snow amounts, and be prepared to spend an entire day outside.

For more information or to see a journal of past hikes, visit the Swan Rangers online at www.swanrange.org.