Photograph by George Sakkestad

Sherry and Jon Menard lead a group of hikers on the Saratoga Gap trail.




Mountain High

For Saratogan Jon Menard, all trails lead to a fulfilling career of choice

By Mary Ann Cook

Jon Menard, hiking guru, describes himself as a meld of John Muir and Bertrand Russell. That is, not only do participants on his hikes get a physical workout, they also get a generous helping of botany, zoology and philosophy thrown in.

Menard, a Saratoga resident, says his hikes refresh one physically, mentally and spiritually, a tall order indeed. And all for a minimal cost, depending on time and distance. "I can beat the cost of a movie, coke and popcorn and the benefits you receive can last the rest of your life. Or the rest of the day," he amends with a laugh.

And regular hikers echo these claims. "It's a joy to be on a hike with Jon. His passion about nature is so infectious. He's enriched hundreds, probably thousands of lives," says Carol Fink of Los Altos. She and her husband George are hiking stalwarts, and have been trekking with Menard for 12 years.

"Jon notices little things, like flowers you may have overlooked. In summer it's hard to find places to hike that are cool enough, but also warm enough. He has an uncanny ability to take us to the edge of the fog, so that we're in the sun most of the time, but not too hot.

"My husband says he 'dances with fog' [a la Dances with Wolves]. Jon is so observant he understands weather patterns--how to keep us out of the worst of the wind on a windy day, say. We head for the valleys.

"On a recent sunset walk just as it was getting dark, he said 'there's an owl that sometimes hangs around here.' And just then we saw this great horned owl magnificently outlined on a bare tree." Sometimes it seems that Menard choreographs these magical moments, Fink says.

"He dragged us out for a sunset walk at Yosemite, when most of us just wanted to sit, and we saw a sunset that lit up Half Dome. A man beside us was filming the spectacle for a relaxation tape. It's as though Jon were pulling the strings," Carol Fink adds .


Photograph by George Sakkestad

Jon Menard uses his two-way radio to talk to his wife, Sherry, about the status of hikers at the other end of the group.




Menard leads day trips through adult education programs in Mountain View/ Los Altos, Santa Clara and San Jose Metropolitan on weekdays and Saturdays. Then there are the hikes on Sunday and at sunset offered by Nature Outings, the company Jon and his wife, Sherry, run.

Nature Outings also sponsors weekend or week-long jaunts to destinations such as Yosemite, Tahoe and the western states. The sunset hikes Nature Outings offer are conducted every Tuesday and Wednesday during daylight-savings months. They run from 6 until 10 p.m., though the actual hike is about two hours duration, 3 to 5 miles in length.

"You're home by 10," assures Sherry. The Menards took a sunset hike on their first date, followed by dinner at a Saratoga restaurant. After that, Sherry decided she couldn't continue working indoors, so she quit her computer company job within the year and teamed up with Jon to create Nature Outings. They've been married seven years.

"He's entertaining, full of stories, embellished stories," says longtime hiker Dorothy Allen of Mountain View. "He knows all the trails, and Sherry has it well organized. They're a good team."

Besides the beauty of the surroundings and the nature lore one picks up during a Menard-led hike, there's also an inherent tenacity, a reliability. "I've never canceled a hike," says Menard. "They go on all year long, 365 days a year. The only time I ever canceled a hike was the day of the Loma Prieta earthquake."

Some time after the quake he led a hike to Nisene Marks, the earthquake's epicenter, and stood in the actual crack. He points out a photo of himself and another hiker standing in the shoulder-high fissure.

Menard counts himself a lucky mortal to earn a living doing something he is passionate about. He's been an outdoor enthusiast since he was a child, exploring the outdoors with his dad in the Hot Springs, Ark. area. And yes, he knew that more famous Arkansas native, William J. Clinton. Their mothers worked together.

"He was smart, but we thought of him as a mama's boy. He didn't spend his time outdoors like we did," he recollects.

The family moved to Florida, and there the Menard boy was introduced to an entirely different ecology. "I saw the Everglades like no one will ever see them again--in the late 1950s." He continued his exploration of the out-of-doors and then reached draft age.

Stationed at the Alameda Naval Air Station, Menard trained to be an air crew member during the Vietnam War. "I couldn't believe the beauty in California; the most beautiful place I had ever seen. It reminded me of home, the mountains and the streams coming out of the mountains of Arkansas."

After the war stint, "I was still alive and had the G.I. bill." He wanted to be a forest ranger, but there was a waiting list for Humboldt State. In the meantime he took courses at Laney Community College in Oakland and San Francisco State and realized there were job openings in special education.

So Menard earned his teaching credential and started his next direction, teaching junior high school youngsters. He was teaching at Castro Middle School in Campbell when he teamed up with Carol and Don Hadlock, now marriage-and-family counselors in Los Gatos.

This threesome founded an alternative school called Wedgewood, which existed for about five years in the 1970s. Menard's role was similar to his work at Castro--teaching junior high and high school students with learning and social disabilities, using nature as the classroom and as the taking-off point for learning. The program was similar to that of Outward Bound.

He was witness to dramatic student turnarounds when nature and other students became the instructors. "Everyone's equal in nature," he says. One father couldn't believe the changes in his son. The son gave up swearing and other hostile behavior after backpacking trips as a student at Wedgewood.

Menard credits the other campers with this turnaround. When the son overloaded his camping gear in a fit of bravado, he dropped out of the hike. He was found digging into the mountainside, trying to bury the gear he couldn't carry.

An older camper patiently counseled him, asking what articles were absolutely essential. When the supplies deemed essential still were too heavy to carry, the two boys rigged up a carrier made of two long poles so the goods could be dragged behind.

Before reaching camp, the pole contraption was dismantled so that the camper could march triumphantly into camp. This incident marked the boost in confidence and friendship that the youngster had needed. And the problem solving was done by the students themselves. "I learned a lot on that trip," Menard muses.


Photograph by George Sakkestad

Marilyn Duncan makes her way along the Saratoga Gap trail.




One summer Menard took a group of teens on a cross-country trip via van. It was a six-month adventure with a year's planning by the students beforehand. The students set up a financial plan, outlined their daily itinerary and signed a contract delineating what they expected to learn.

Some 15 youngsters started the trip, and seven finished. Even with careful planning the best laid plans are apt to go awry. After Wedgewood's demise, Menard began leading hikes in the Foothill College Lifelong Learning program.

He led Hike for Health from 1979 to 1992. The first class of H for H was transported in a handicapped-equipped van. The eight hikers sat in wheelchairs to travel to their hiking destination. "Had all the earmarks of an orphan program," says Menard.

"But I didn't mind, I had taught handicapped youngsters, and we could use the handicapped parking spaces." So popular did Hike for Health become that eventually it took a 50-passenger bus to accommodate the classes. He led five hikes a week and there was a long waiting list.

Foothill's budget crisis in l992 marked the end of the program, but by this time Menard was ensconced in adult education systems. He had earned a B.A. from San Jose State University in alternative education. And he wrote his master's thesis based on his teaching methods and experiences, but didn't complete the degree. "It was Outward Bound with a twist," he says. The twist being that his program was designed for seniors.

About his hiking modus operandi, he says, "I keep them moving, but not fatigued." He himself travels at a 4 mph pace, but he also circuits the entire line of his hikers regularly, since stamina and walking pace vary widely with the participants. The fastest in the lineup are nicknamed the 'rabbits'.

"We advise newcomers to start with a smaller, sunset hike to test their endurance, see how they like it," says Sherry. The day hikes are 6 to 8 miles, considered a moderate hike. Hikers bring a sack lunch, as do sunset hikers. Most Nature Outings hikers are regulars or have hiked with the Menards before.

"The thing about Jon is that he gives 110 percent," says Jean Kenny of Los Altos. "He can figure out the best hiking, the best conditions at any given time. On the Moab trip it was as if all of us were their guests, and they were showing us the best time ever."

And what does Menard do when he isn't hiking? Hikes some more, takes more risks when he isn't leading a group. He also cross-country skis, snow-shoes, surfs and bicycles. A favorite indoor pursuit is building models of ships, airplanes and railroads.

Menard's own appraisal of his lifelong passionate pursuit: "I can give you a multi-sensory experience. When you're walking and your blood hits the brain, the spirits lift. I'm infected with nature. I'm one of the few people in the war that never tried drugs. I get high being high. I get stoned from the mountains."

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Nature Outings' number is 374-5981.

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