Every day in the summer, fall and early winter of 2007 I think a little bit more about this grand idea and formulate plans. I pore over maps and books about the Park and if you showed me a list of trail names both real and fake, I think I could pick out the fake ones right away. I even have a puzzle of the topo map of the Park! You'd think it would be easy, but it took days...
In mid-December 2007 I saw a short posting on the Bergs meetup.com site, something like "Looking for a Hike Leader" and the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Hike For Discovery program. This is a program where kind-hearted people volunteer to raise funds for LLS and in exchange they get a trip to a fabulous venue for a hike of their dreams, like Yosemite or the Grand Canyon. I had looked at the national website before and saw that there was no program offered in North Carolina. But now...the brief posting made me curious so I picked up the phone.
After a conversation with the staff member I felt as though the job description had my name written all over it: a hike leader to plan and lead hikers in training for a Grand Canyon experience. The hike leader teaches topics about gear, safety, etc. and chooses hike venues for every Saturday, increasing in length and trail difficulty. Then at the Grand Canyon I turn my novice hikers over to the experts and I hike merrily along as a participant myself. Hey! I can do THAT! And what great training for my Smokies adventure! Over 3 or 4 days coming up to Christmas I was offered and accepted the job. The weekend after New Year's I found myself flying to the San Francisco Bay area amid high winds and rain for hike leader training. The training weekend was terrific, with great instructors and amazing fellow hike leaders, one of the best adult training sessions I have ever been involved in - no whiners in the bunch. Or was it me this time?
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