People You Will Meet in the Westerners

April 25, 2025

Twenty-five years ago when Linda Schermer joined the Sedona Westerners, the hiking club didn’t have a website. No email, no gps. The hiking schedule was printed out, and if the weather was iffy, it was your guess as to whether that day’s hike was happening. The holiday party was a casual affair and included turkeys which they cooked up themselves and everyone brought a side or desert.

In those early days, the Scouts would lead the hikes and teach the trails to new hike leaders. Linda would find herself on hikes that were 8-10 miles long. She admits she, “Surprised myself I could do those hikes.”  On the remote hikes, the club provided satellite phones. They’d tried walkie talkies, but those didn’t prove to be practical in the wilderness.

Her second year in the club, Linda became the assistant Drover Boss. Since then she has served as Drover Boss, Mustang Boss, Dogie Boss as well as Top Hand.  Today she is known among the members as our go-to amateur botanist. During our hikes she is quick to point out the various wildflowers and plants, telling us the names of each – including the Desert Gobemallow and the Bluedick flowers.

Linda’s husband, Harry, was also very active in the club. He created the Pyramids and Polygons trail, which is still a popular hike. They learned about the Sedona Westerners from the articles, like this one, in the Red Rock News.

Linda still leads hikes and shares her knowledge of wildflowers. She can also be found taking yoga and tai chi as well as participating in her book club.

Linda has seen the Sedona Westerners grow, and change. When she joined the club, only two women had served as Trail Boss (President of the club). Today, seven additional women have served in the role, including current Trail Boss, Terri Petrescu, and Donna Forsythe who filled the role during the 2022-2023 season.

Donna purchased her house in Sedona in 2015 and rented it out for two years before making her permanent move here.  Her renter was Patti Pierce, a Sedona Westerner who encouraged Donna to join the club. Donna was the Rustlers Boss for two seasons before advancing to the role of Wagon Boss and then Trail Boss. She acknowledges that,
“the club had done so much for me, I wanted to give back.”  

This year, Donna has continued to contribute to the club, taking on the responsibly as the leader of the newest hiking group, the Drifters. After the pandemic, Donna saw that many of the older members had not returned to the club. The Drifters offers returning hikers and people new to hiking in Sedona the opportunity to hike shorter hikes at a more leisure pace than even the Amblers group. Donna’s efforts in establishing the new group have paid off attracting several members back to the club and averaging 10-12 hikers on the weekly hikes.

Meteorologist Dave Minot joined the Westerners before he even moved to Sedona. Dave served in the Air Force for four years as a weather officer in North Dakota providing flight forecasts during the Vietnam era. He had dreamed of being a TV meteorologist since he was eight or nine years old. Though that never happened, Dave was successful studying pollution levels as an Air Quality Meteorologist in the Boston area. He and his wife, Joyce, moved to Sedona eight years ago and he admits he doesn’t watch TV weather forecasts anymore.

Dave has always been outdoors oriented. Hiking, mountaineering, skiing. He built trails and led hikes while in Massachusetts so when he decided to move to Sedona, he researched hiking clubs online.

Dave became the Trail Boss in 2021, right in the middle of the pandemic. He admits there was a full range of opinions within the membership as to what to do – cancel the hikes and hit pause or keep going.  Dave consulted with the board and Dr. Curt Kommer, a Westerners member. Curt advised that as long as the members were outside and stayed several feet apart while hiking, the risk of infection was very low. New guidelines were written up telling hikers not to hike if they were feeling poorly, carpooling was discouraged, and the monthly meetings were cancelled. Those who wanted to hike could. Dave is quick to say that he is, “not aware of a single Westerner contracting Covid as a result of exposure” while hiking that year. The members were able to maintain the camaraderie they had, and much needed, during that time.

Today, the hiking rules read before every hike still advise hikers who are sick or experiencing fever or flu-like symptoms not to hike – for the continued safety of all the hikers.

Lou Sideris will be the Mustangs Hike Boss starting in the fall. Though he’s not been with the Westerners for as long as Linda, Donna, or Dave, he has been an avid hiker for many years. In addition to working for 37 years with the National Parks Service as a Helitack firefighter, Park Ranger, and Chief Interpretation and Park Planner at the Minute Man National Historic Park, Lou has made six treks to the Himalayas since 1971. Earlier this year, Lou gave a slide show presentation of his experiences in Nepal at the January Sedona Westerners meeting.

Lou hiked with friends when he first arrived in Sedona, and they started their own group, but he found those hikes to be too easy. Several of the group broke off to do harder hikes. He became friends with Jim Sweeny and joined the Westerners in 2022. This year has served as the assistant Mustangs Boss under Bob Apter. Lou continues hiking with his friends as well and can be found hiking the trails 3-4 times a week. He has hiked all over the area – and has climbed Thunder Mountain four times. Lou serves as an Arizona Site Steward and has given archeology tours at the Verde Valley Archeology Center in Camp Verde.

With dedicated and active members like Linda, Donna, Dave, and Lou, the Sedona Westerners continue to grow and provide great hikes during the hiking season. Check out the hiking calendar on our website for our final two weeks of the season at www.SedonaWesterners.org.  Though the 2024-2025 season is coming to a close soon, the Westerners will be back on the trails in September.  Join us for the hikes, the camaraderie, and friendship.