Hello,

Welcome to NWA Hiking and Paddling! This brief intro will tell you all about us. Please take a few minutes to read and reach out to me with any questions!

I am Rice Brewer, the Group Organizer. We (myself & the Assistant Organizers) try to put together a variety of fun and safe outings. We are a friendly crowd and easy to feel comfortable with, which is nice when you are starting something new. The members have all skill levels so wherever yours is, you will find people right there with you!

NWA Hiking and Paddling was founded in 2008 and, since then, we have had over 1,100 outings. Doug McKinney was our Lead Organizer until 01/01/2025 when he chose to take a step back and asked me to take over in his place. Not to worry, Doug will still be around and will be leading outings.

At this time, we do not charge a membership fee to join our group. While we did charge $10/year fee for the past few years, we have elected to move to a donation based model to fund our activities. While our financial needs are modest, they do exist. Most of the fees collected go towards supporting the Meetup.com website with the remainder being used to rent facilities for group picnics, Christmas parties, etc.…

From time to time, we will reach out to the membership for donations but we will keep those asks as non-intrusive as possible.

If you feel compelled to donate at this time, we do accept Venmo with the account being @nwahiking. When donating, please be sure to write the word "donation" in the "what is this for?" box. Should you need it, the last 4 digits of the phone number associated with the Venmo account is 1036

We have some great outings planned. A few are currently posted on the Club page, and more are in various stages of development. I hope you can join us. Thanks for joining and welcome to the group.

See you on the trail,
Rice Brewer
hriceb@gmail.com

NWA Hiking and Paddling

Events

February 2026