About the AOC > Volunteers

After moving to Georgia in 1988, Mark fell in love with the nearby Mountains of N Georgia and North Carolina where he has taken countless trips for camping, whitewater canoeing, hiking, and fishing. When living in Augusta, he also loved to travel to the nearby coastal areas, from Charleston to Savannah, and spent many weekends kayaking the marshlands, hiking the coastal nature areas, camping, and fishing offshore and the inland flats. As an AOC Trip Leader, Mark is excited about being able to offer the club some additional, and new, outdoor events and adventures.

Joyce grew up in Miami, Florida and graduated from Florida State University. She taught school in Miami and Delray Beach before moving to Georgia in 1979. She taught high school English and Psychology at Wheeler High School in Cobb County, GA before retiring in 2010. Now she is delighted to have time be outdoors and loves the wonderful people she has met since joining the AOC in November, 2010.

Joyce has a son who is an attorney in Washington, D.C. She lives in Marietta with her husband, Bill (her high school sweetheart) and two cats. Besides loving her activities with the AOC, Joyce is a volunteer instructor with the Terrell Mill Park Operation Boot Camp.

Ashley is originally from Atlanta Georgia. She graduated from UGA in 2004 and has always had an adventurous spirit. She has a love for the outdoors and likes to share her experiences with other people. She joined the AOC back in 2010 and attended a week long adventure with the AOC to Costa Rica in February of 2011. She had an amazing time and wanted to share her experiences with other people in the club as a Trip Leader.

She was an active member of the University of Georgia Water Ski Team. After college she set sights for Denver, Colorado where she lived for 2 years. During that time she enjoyed hiking, road and mountain biking in the Colorado Rockies. In Atlanta she rode competitively with a mountain biking team in Atlanta and enjoys every year riding in the MS 150 mile road bike race. On the weekends you will usually find her outdoors hiking, biking or trying to gather up a group to go white water rafting. "I am always up for an outdoor challenge and I hope you will join me on some of my adventures."

Katherine was born in tropical Hawaii, but grew up around flat cornfields in Indiana where there were no opportunities for hiking or skiing mountains, and other challenging outdoor activities. (However, like many other Hoosiers, she played a lot of basketball during her school years!)

She fell in love with the outdoors when she moved to scenic Montana for a news position - and found many opportunities outside of work to play in the mountains, the Missouri RIver and Glacier National Park.

Katherine moved to Atlanta in 2000 and immediately fell in love with Georgia's diverse landscape and all it has to offer.

She joined the AOC in 2009 and enjoys a variety of activities including: hiking, caving, kayaking, camping, hang-gliding, sky-diving, snow and water skiing, running and biking.

Katherine has a passion for photography and may organize trips, from time to time, that allow for some creative picture taking opportunities.

Those who know Katherine best describe her as easy-going, fun, organized and reliable. She has held leadership positions in both her career and non-profit volunteer organizations and looks forward to growing and meeting new people in her role with the AOC.

Originally I'm from Florida, but lived in Idaho, Michigan, Washington, Maryland, and Tennessee. I moved to Atlanta Georgia in 1998 first and returned in 2007. My travels cover only 32 US states and 12 countries..... I consider this just a start and would love to add southern Spain and Portugal to the list. After that, my choice would be Ireland, Scotland, and England. I really enjoy Europe but I want to visit Asia, South America, Australia...........

I've been an amateur photographer for many years. I typically take photographs when I travel. Landscape and travel photography are my favorite photographs to take. I used to shoot with a 35mm Nikon, medium format Bronica and a small Cannon digital camera. I'm trying to expand my abilities and learn more about composition and digital photography. Recently, I bought a Cannon Rebel Xsi digital camera. It's a great serious digital SLR and I love the images it produces. However, I'm now climbing the steep learning curve of digital darkroom photo processing with Photoshop.

I joined the AOC in 2008 and enjoy the hiking, biking, and white water rafting events the most. While I'm still somewhat new to backpacking, I'm looking to gain more experience in this area. AOC members come from different backgrounds and it's a great place to make new friends. AOC is a fantastic group and I'm happy to help contribute to its success.

Event Interests: Backpacking, Mountain/Road Biking, Running, Kayaking, Canoeing, Horses, Whitewater Rafting, Hiking, Orienteering, Snowboarding, Photography, International Travel, Writing, and Driving Fast!

A chameleon by nature, Malisse likes to jump into every outdoor adventure and sport as if she were an expert. Her love for both came from her adventurous Colombian and Austrian parents at a very early age. Traveling, sports and outdoor adventures have been apart of her life since she was three years old. Not many people can say that they have traveled throughout four continents by age of 20. She has been very fortunate for her culturally diverse family which loves to travel!

Whether it is backpacking the Grand Tetons, the Adirondack Mountains or the Swiss Alps for six days, Malisse enjoys challenging events that push her to new levels. She is allergic to boredom; therefore she keeps her blood pumping with exhilarating trips and the love for the outdoors.

Originally from New York, Malisse moved down to Georgia with her family at an early age. She is better known as a Southern Yankee, filled with both a New York mentality and Southern hospitality. She recently lived in Chicago for a fun 2- 1/2 year work adventure. Her fondness for her family and the mountainous Georgia region led her back home to the South!

Favorite quotes:
"Great things happen when men and mountains meet"
"Do not just exist, live"

In 1997 Allston moved back to Atlanta and has been here ever since, although she has only in the past few years started to fully appreciate all that Georgia has to offer in terms of the outdoors. She joined the AOC in 2010 and has loved every minute of it, from hiking and canoeing to horseback riding, camping and caving trips. Her particular interests are widely varied and she loves to try new activities and explore locations.

As a trip leader Allston enjoys frequently leading hikes around town, particularly in the evenings after work. In addition, she enjoys trips focused on zip-lining, whitewater rafting, wine hikes/camping and even a future safari to Tanzania, Africa. One of her biggest passions is traveling, and another is photography, so cameras are always very welcome on her outings.

Angela's love of the outdoors began at an early age.  She would often escape the house to venture outside and explore.  She was more interested in watching butterflies, drawing sketches of flowers, and climbing trees than playing indoors.  She absolutely despised wearing shoes and would often hike barefoot through the nearby woods.  The feel of the ground beneath her feet and the openness of the sky above created a lifelong passion for the outdoors.

Now, wherever work requires her to travel, Angela always packs her hiking boots.  You never know when a good adventure is just around the corner!  Angela has traveled to every state in the United States except one, Vermont, which she hopes to cover soon.  She has traveled to Peru where she hiked the Incan Trail, explored Machu Picchu, Lima, Cusco, and several interesting villages and sites.

Angela enjoys hiking, backpacking, camping, whitewater rafting, kayaking, exploring, photography, live music, and generally anything outdoors.  She hopes to help others gain an appreciation for the outdoors, conservation efforts, and wildlife.

Christy joined the AOC in Feb 2010 and really enjoys sharing those mountainous adventures and has a great love of sunsets and sunrises She hopes to lead some local hikes as well as moderately paced ones in other areas of the state. She loves the water and just getting out and sharing good times on the trail with friends. She also has an interest in Kayaking and hopes to some day add that to here list of outings

Her other hobbies and interest include photography, live music, and digital scrapbooking

Fast forward to the late 90s. Brought a mountain bike and started riding. A lot. Also, started going hiking in the North Georgia mountains instead of just driving through the mountain. Got involved with the regional mountain biking group and progressively got more into riding. I ride most weekends that I can. And some weekdays, too. I still hike, mostly when the weather isn't really good for riding or it's a group hike with the AOC.

I was first introduced to the AOC when I was the team leader for a trail work party in 2008. Most of my crew where AOC folks. During our trail work, they told me all about AOC and that I should join. I went on my first hike with the AOC in early 2009 and have enjoyed it ever since.

Event Interests: Hiking, Backpacking, Biking, Caving, Canoeing, and Rafting

A Georgia native, Danny fell in love with the outdoors in the early 70s when he joined a Boy Scout troop that hiked and backpacked in the mountains of N GA and NC.  He continues his quest for new trails and mountain tops to this day.  Much has been covered and recovered, but Danny is on a quest to section-hike the AT before his time is up. He's currently well into Virginia in his continuous line.
 

It was while on top of Stratton Bald where he ran into an AOC group in October 2008.  He returned from the trip, signed up on the website, and has been hitting it hard with the great people he's met in the club ever since.

Danny is a family man with a wife and 3 children.  He's been involved with the Boy Scouts as an adult for 7 years, introducing young men to the outdoors.  His community involvement includes being a member of the Cobb County CERT (Citizen's Emergency Response Team) and VSAR (Volunteer Search and Rescue) teams.

As a trip leader, I enjoy leading both 10-15 mile hikes in the GA/NC Mountains and easy social hikes in the Gwinnett area.

He's been a backpacker for quite a while now having stuffed his first ruck as Cub Scouts while listening to Styx on his 8-Track circa 1977. Since that era he has overnighted in Yellowstone, Badlands, Isle Royale, Cumberland, Okeefenokee, Cohutta, and AOC's Inca Trail excursion. He has a particular interest in ever developing area of ultra-light and super ultra-light backpacking. His current overnight weight is down to well below 20 lbs and he's working toward a 4 night summer pack weight of 30 lbs.

Harry moved to Atlanta in 1996, after growing up in New Jersey. He considers himself a "naturalized" southerner, having been in the South since the 70's. He began mountain biking in 1990 when living in east Tennessee, where he also developed a love of camping in the Smoky Mountains. Once in Atlanta, he become involved in Singles Outdoor Adventures, serving on the SOA board in 2000. In 2005, Harry became a founding member of the Gwinnett (GATR) chapter of Southern Off-Road Bicycle Association (SORBA). He has also led adventure and biking trips for the Atlanta Ski Club.

Harry's interests include exploring new mountain bike trails and bringing new folks to the sport of mountain biking. He also enjoys planning multi-sport western trips (ex, Glacier Park, Vancouver Island), and adding natural and historical elements to his events whenever possible.   Harry joined the AOC in 2010.

Travel has always played a big part in her life, some of the highlights include horseback riding from Inn to Inn with a compass, a saddlebag and a friend through such far away places as Ireland, France and Ecuador. She's snorkled off the shores of a number of Caribbean Islands and skiied (the greens and blues) in Colorado, Utah and the Northeast.

Jacquie's looking forward to leading intrepid AOCer's on adventures to the more remote locations or adventurous trips, preferring the diversity and challenge of a variety of activities.

Originally from backwoods Western Pennsylvania, Jay made it to the Atlanta Metro in 2004 after spending time in Austin and NYC. He's always been comfortable in the woods since he practically grew surrounded by them. Unfortunately, he got pulled into the daily grind after college and found himself living to work instead of working to live. That changed a few years ago and he reclaimed his love for the outdoors when he found the AOC in the Spring of 2008. He's a Software Engineer by day, but you wouldn't be able to tell b/c he doesn't talk computers unless asked....then he'll get all kinds of geeky on you.

Jay uses hockey, racquetball, and softball as his adreline outlets during the week but likes to tone it down on the weekends. With the AOC you'll mostly find him leading flexible planned, low-key to medium paced events where you can get some exercise. But you will know on his events you always get to enjoy the serenity of the outdoors and a good conversation with old or new friends. On camping and backpacking trips, you WILL be forced to listen to him jam a few tunes on the guitar and sing around the campfire... Don't worry though, he's not too bad and he does take requests!!

Event Interests: Canoeing, Kayaking, Rock Climbing, Whitewater Rafting, Backpacking, Hiking, Mountain Biking, and International Travel

John is part labrador; he smiles a lot and can't resist the urge to jump in the water. Expect lots of water hikes and anything that gets the adrenaline pumping. He attempts to make his trips motorcycle-friendly so AOC members can ride to the event when possible.

John worked in the dot-com industry in New York City, only to realize that he wanted to be a goody-two-shoes and help people. He moved to Americus, GA to work for Habitat for Humanity. In between his for-profit life in New York and his non-profit life in Georgia, he took a six month, solo motorcycle journey from New Jersey to Panama and back. He learned enough language skills to speak broken Spanish and enough mechanical skills to break his motorcycle.

In 2006, he finally made his way back to a large city, Atlanta. He joined the AOC in 2008 and said, "These are my people." He grew impressed with the caliber of trip leaders, and he felt honored to become a part of this group.

Kristi grew up with somewhat nomadic parents moving around the United States, Japan, Germany, and has lived in Georgia her entire adult life. She has been active with the Atlanta Outdoor Club since fall of 2005 ever since her former backpacking group became inactive. Besides leading backpacking trips here in the southeast, she wants to explore more western states, including returning to Alaska, remote Patagonian areas such as Torres del Paine and exotic Asian back roads. She likes to study nature and create what she hopes to be unique photographic images.

Kristi's favorite time of a backpacking weekend is when all the tasks are done and everyone is sitting around the campfire conversing at dinner time - before or after the golden light of course.

Laura loves to travel, especially to National Parks, and has backpacked, hiked, kayaked, and camped in parks across the country including Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, Mount Rainier, Guadalupe Mountains, Bryce, Arches, Zion, Mammoth Cave, Wind Cave, Carlsbad Caverns, Glacier Bay, Everglades, Biscayne, Dry Tortugas, and the Smokies.

She discovered the AOC in February 2010 after an online search for a local trail brought her to the site, and she signed up for the first event that didn't have a waiting list that same night. Laura plans to lead many backpacking and hiking events for the club with her husband, Scott.

This is Lemmy. I have been living in Florida, North Carolina, and Georgia, on and off for, the last twenty or so years. That's makes me a Southerner, right? Easily recognized by my Southern drawl - Southern German that is. OK, now I gave it away. I was born in Germany, did some hiking in the Alps (when I lived in Munich), but mostly travelled the world for a living and lived in Paris, Rome, London, and Jakarta for shorter or longer times.

In April 2011 I joined the AOC ... the the best decision I made in 2011. Went on many, many day and weekend hikes since. Met terrific and interesting people, made friends, enjoyed nature and changed my life from slowly becoming a "couch potato" to an active hiker. I even did a wilderness survival weekend in November ... FUN! But to be frank, I like a nice hot shower after a hike. So, you won't see me leading camping or backpacking hike, at least for now :)

Hope to see you on the trails, on a hike lead by one of our outstanding Trip Leaders, or on a hike led by me."

She joined the Atlanta Outdoor Club in 2008 and thoroughly enjoyed many trips. After appreciating other trip leaders for sharing their knowledge with her, she herself decided to become a volunteer in 2010. She mainly plans to lead trips that allow dogs since her little dog Sarah loves meeting others, hiking, camping and swimming as much as she does.

I've always liked hiking, but I only began doing it on a regular basis in 2006. Then along the years I started mountain biking, inline skating, caving, backpacking and rock climbing.

I found the AOC when I was looking for a group to hike with. Most of my friends were busy doing other things. With the club I had the opportunity to be on longer, more challenging hikes.

It's hard to say which were my favorite trips with the club. There are so many great things to do every weekend. I often want to be in two events at the same time.

Marty's appreciation for the outdoors springs from his Boy Scout days on Long Island, in the suburbs of New York City.  Growing up surrounded by water, he feels most at home in or on the water and especially enjoys the thrill of whitewater.  Marty's summertime hikes and events almost always include getting wet.

After a decade in the Ozarks and some time in Florida and Chicago, Marty got hooked on hiking after moving to Atlanta in 2000.  Marty and Lynn McIntyre met each other on a Conasauga River hike in May 2000 and have been leading outdoor group events together ever since.  As hike leaders, they like to set a moderate-to-leisurely pace and take time to enjoy their fellow hikers and their surroundings.  The 'No Bitching Rule' is their creation.

Melissa Medori joined the AOC in 2009. The AOC has been a great way to help her get back into the outdoors activities she used to love but didn't seem to "have time for" anymore. She looks forward to camping, day hiking, kayaking and canoeing among other events, and she's also recently started backpacking, thanks to the AOC. An Atlanta native, Melissa sees herself as an ambassador for the city and hopes to help everyone get to know and grow to love Atlanta. She works in public relations at The Weather Channel and graduated from the University of Georgia with a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in public relations.

"Life is a journey, take the scenic route"

He lived in Southern Africa for over 4 years and has camped in many locations, including the Serengeti in Tanzania, and has done a 67 mi. bicycle ride (with a mountain bike) in Cape Town, which is said to be the most beautiful ride in the world.

He arrived in Atlanta 12 yrs. ago, where he has enjoyed hiking in the Chattahoochee NRA and Stone Mountain with his children. He also enjoys hiking in northern GA, especially Amicalola Falls and Tulullah Gorge.

Professionally, I am a software architect which means I dont get to do exciting, enduring, hear pumping and challenging things as often as I like."

Event Interests: Camping, Backpacking, Hiking, Sea Kayaking and International Travel 

Foz (as he is known to his friends) joined the AOC in Spring 2003 looking for a new group of friends to enjoy the outdoors with. Several months later, he co-lead his first event, pioneer camping at Cloudland Canyon. Since that time, he tends to lead overnight events (ie, primitive/pioneer camping, canoe camping, backpacking and international travel...anything with water, a beach, a mountain or a campfire.
Foz has also several officer positions within the AOC including Director of Marketing, Vice President and President in 2006 and 2007 and currently in 2010. 

Foz was born in Brunswick, GA and grew-up in Marietta, GA. He first developed his love for the outdoors on the barrier islands along the coast of southeast Georgia on St Simons, Jekyll, and Cumberland Islands. When not on an AOC event, Foz loves music and art festivals, traveling the U.S. and World for work and play, spending time in ViHi/Lil Five/Decatur and watching Georgia Bulldog football.

Over the next several years, Foz plans to backpack the Hawaiian Islands, horsepack the backcountry of the Yellowstone National Park, backpack parts of Utah and visit Belize, Costa Rica and Canada.

Ralph is a native of Michigan, where he enjoyed camping, canoeing, and hiking as a youth.  He lived in Austin, Texas for 17 years before moving to Georgia in 1996.  After sending his youngest child off to college he re-discovered his love for the outdoors, joining the AOC in November 2007.  Since then he's been on the trail almost every weekend, usually joined by his wife Ann who he met on the trail.

Rhett was born in Pensacola, FL where he was raised on lots of beach activities (e.g. sailing, SCUBA, body surfing). After a couple of degrees and short lived careers he moved to ATL in 1985.  He then developed strong interest in whitewater kayaking, canoe camping and hiking. Over the years, trips have included kayaking The Grand Canyon, Middle Fork of Salmon River, Costa Rica, numerous canoe camping trips in Georgia and Florida, snow skiing out west and a ski trip to Chile. 

He joined AOC in 2008 for a variety of reasons including the wide variety of events, people, and abundant opportunities to go adventuring. When leading hiking trips average rate is 1.5 to 2 mph; tending to go slower speed when spectacular variety abounds.  When hiking alone on beautiful scenic trails with waterfalls, birds and wide variety of flora his tendency is to walk 100 feet stop, soak it in, look at the infinite variety, and later realize it took 3 hours to go those 2 miles! "

Sam has a long laundry list of destinations she'd like like to hike/visit in the future, including Glacier National Park, Mt. McKinley, Fitz Roy/Paine, Hawaii, Kilimanjaro, and Thailand.

When she's not hiking with the club, she enjoys chowing down (and coercing her chef-husband to cook), small dog wrangling, travel, concerts & music festivals, looking at cool rocks, and yoga.

Scott stumbled across the AOC in the summer of 2008, and found a whole new group of wonderful people and an endless resource of new and fun things to do. He wasted no time in getting involved and since then, his love for the outdoors quickly became a passion on the border of obsession.

When not in the wilderness, Scott can often be found indulging in his 2nd passion - engineering - as he tends to tinker with things endlessly. He is always looking for his next camping gadget... whether it's something purchased, dug out of the garbage and fixed up or home made.

"For as long as I can remember I’ve been drawn to the outdoors. My early experiences include hiking, backpacking, caving and canoeing in the great Ozark Mountains back in my home state of Arkansas. In my younger days I spent many summers at a youth camp working as a counselor and recreation director. These early outdoor experiences formed the foundation of my life. 

Since joining the AOC in July of 2008, I have had a blast making new friends and hiking in a safe and friendly environment. I have quickly learned my way around many of the trails in north Georgia and just recently completed section hiking the Appalachian Trail through the state.  In July of ’09, I hope to satisfy a lifelong fascination with mountaineering with a climb of Mt. Rainier.
I enjoy leading hikes of all levels and hope to do backpacking and canoe/kayak events as well.  I’m especially interested in introducing new members to our great north Georgia outdoors."

Besides hiking and camping, Stefan enjoys a number of other outdoors activities including canoeing, kayaking and volunteering.

In fact, his first real job was with Pickett's Mill State Park where he worked closely with nature and visitors as a park ranger. It is there that he polished his skills as trip leader taking large groups on guided hikes.

While he enjoys the solitude of nature he prefers the company of friends, which is why he looks forward to many years with the AOC. You can expect Steven to provide easy to moderate hikes giving plenty of time for pictures and the occasional smelling of flowers.

Tom, a native of California, the Middle East and other countries joined the AOC in Nov of 2007 to get into shape. Having hiked to the top of Half Dome (Yosemite) some 10 years prior with my older son, it was time to hike it again with my youngest son in May of 08. My youngest was soon to be commissioned as a lieutenant in the Marine Corps and was in far better shape than I.

The AOC was a great way to get into shape, meet new friends and get ready for the big day. The normal hiking time for Half Dome is 10-12 hours. My son suggested that we be finished in less than 8 hours. We even carried a bottle of Champagne to the top of Half Dome to Celebrate.

I enjoy hiking, white water rafting, snow skiing, camping, racquetball, tennis and golfing. Bridge and golfing are my passions and thus I play in local and national bridge tournaments and a local golf league. When my passions leave me time, I am a residential and commercial builder and remodeler.

In 1988, he moved to the Atlanta area and became active in all types of outdoor activities, including hiking and backpacking with the Sierra Club.

He became a professional arborist, where he found he could make a living climbing trees.

In 1993 Todd moved to Seattle where he joined the Seattle Mountaineers and climbed several glacier covered peaks. He then returned to Atlanta area in 1994. He now makes a living as a software engineer, but considers himself an all around outdoorsman.

Todd discovered the AOC in 2009, and has participated on numerous hikes. He decided it would be a great idea to become a hike leader in order to share some of the great outdoor places he likes to consider his 2nd home. His main club interests are hiking, mountain biking, backpacking, and is open to new adventures such as trips to distant mountainous destinations.

He used to prefer a faster hiking pace, but now prefers a medium pace.. fast enough to get a workout, but slow enough to enjoy the scenery.

Tom is originally from Chicago and moved to Atlanta in 1993. Since moving to Atlanta, Tom acquired a deep passion for outdoor adventure trips and travel. Tom started hiking & backpacking in 1997. Tom enjoys spending most of his weekends hiking/backpacking in the mountains, long distance running, rock climbing, intense workouts at the gym, and the abundant adventures that the Southeast has to offer. He has completed numerous half and full marathons, hiked the Inca Trail and climbed three of the Seven Summits - Mt. Aconcagua (22,841 ft), Mt. Kilimanjaro (19,340 ft), Mt. Elbrus (18,510 ft). In addition, Tom climbed Mt. Rainer (14,410 ft) twice and Mt. Hood (11,249 ft). His favorite local destination is Siler Bald in North Carolina which he tries to visit several times a year and Cochran Shoals for marathon training. Currently Tom is preparing to trek in Nepal to Everest Base Camp, and training for future climbs in Ecuador and Alaska, and several marathons for 2011: Atlanta/Grandfather Mountain/Chicago/ Soldiers' (Columbus).