30 years of trail time with Stag Brown

On Sunday, June 3, the Hundred Peaks Section offered a special outing called the “first Sunday in June hike with Stag Brown.” The first of these special outings was conducted on June 6, 1982, so this marked the 30th anniversary of these annual events.

Stagalee Thurston Brown, whom everyone calls Stag, has been a Sierra Club member since the late 1960s and a leader since the early ’70s. He began leading for the HPS and for the Griffith Park Section in the mid-1970s. Stag and Bob Thompson were prolific leaders on HPS outings, and they have led more than 100 hikes together since the 1970s.

Stag served for several years on the HPS Management Committee, serving as outings chair, social program chair, and section chair. He was the first person ever to be chosen chair of the HPS twice, in 1983 and 1990. The HPS presented him with the John Backus Leadership Award in 1979, and its highest award, the R. S. Sam Fink Service Award, in 1989. He also received a special award for “motivation” in 1984.The Angeles Chapter presented Stag with an outings service award in 1979 and with the prestigious Chester Versteeg Outings Award in 2003.

For many, however, Stag is best known for his leadership of adventurous hikes in Griffith Park. Stag has led a hike in Griffith Park every Wednesday since the mid 1970s. Because of his love of the park, he and his bride Nami chose to hold their wedding at the popular spot Dante’s View on July 20, 1985. (Many couples have met each other for the first time as a direct result of participation on a Wednesday hike in Griffith Park with Stag.)
In 1982, Stag and Joe Young scheduled an outing “just because” it was the first Sunday in June that year. Since Stag had become known for leading hikes along unusual paths, they decided to bag Sugarloaf Mountain near Big Bear Lake directly from the community of Sugarloaf and via the peak’s west ridge. Although matters got off to a rocky start - Joe had told everyone to meet at “the” Safeway store in Big Bear Lake, not realizing that there were two such stores! Eventually everyone got together and caravanned to the road head and the hike proceeded without incident.

Thereafter, Joe and Stag scheduled a hike each year on the first Sunday in June. Some of the more memorable outings included a brushy ascent of Circle Mountain from Highway 138; a hike to Grouse Mountain, which happened to be covered with slushy ice following an unusual hail storm the previous day; and a weekend outing of peak bagging which included attendance at the Ojai Musical Festival on the Saturday night between day hikes. Then there was the outing to Lockwood Point and San Rafael Mountain where we completed the hike at around 10 p.m. and a hike up Pacifico Mountain during a heat wave (temperatures over 100 degrees) and we lunched under a wonderful shade tree near the summit.

This year Joe and Stag returned to Liebre Mountain, located east of Gorman in the Angeles National Forest. The route followed the beautiful Pacific Crest Trail almost to the summit. Indeed, there were many Pacific Crest Trail hikers en route to Canada.

Stag is now an octogenarian, and his adventurousness has mellowed somewhat. However, he still makes the weekly treks to Griffith Park and leads hundreds of people each year, many enjoying their introduction to the park, some hiking for the first time with the Sierra Club.

And he still leads the annual L.A. Christmas by Night hike, where he and his followers distribute food and clothing to the homeless living on the streets of downtown Los Angeles.

Mark your calendars for June 2, 2013. We don’t know where we will go, but be assured some HPS listed peak will be our destination.

Joe Young is hike leader and editor of the Hundred Peaks Section newsletter.

Photo: Stag Brown this year, on his annual June hike. Credit: Joe Young