The past few months have been a rewarding yet trying experience. I won't try to recapture all of the hikes in detail, as my memory is not all that good. But I will try to share some of my general reflections.
It has been great fun watching the woods become inhabited by the bare skeletons of winterized trees to the lush, green forests they are now. The changes were gradual yet readily apparent every Saturday morning. One week there would be green undergrowth sprouting from the carpet of last autumn's leaves. The next, buds on the trees followed by the sparse emergence of leaves. Then came the sounds of frogs and the sighting of sunning snakes along the trails. During the first few weeks of training we were all looking forward to the melting of the snow from our prolonged winter. Then there were a few weeks of beautiful weather, unseasonably warm and bug free. Now we're beating back overgrowth, dealing with the midwestern heat & humidity, jumping out of the way of the mountain bikers with whom we now share the trails, trying to identify what is and what is not poison ivy at our feet and slathering on the bug repellent in vain to combat the onslaught of mosquitos. I want my snow back!
A few weeks ago I was asked by the Hike For Discovery coordinator to be the hike leader for the hike at Pontiac Lake. Usually there is an official, specially trained hike leader for the each of the two groups on Saturday mornings (either East/West or Rocky Mountain/Yosemite, depending on the week). Due to an overlap with the start of the summer HFD season starting up and the unavailability of a guest hike leader from a previous year, they were short a leader for the hike for the Yosemite-bound group. Apparently the staff talked it over and determined they felt most comfortable having me lead the hike based on my past hiking experience, to which I agreed to lend a hand upon being asked...
I now have a much greater appreciation for what the official hike leaders deal with every week. Our group is quite diverse, pace-wise. It's a challenge to make everyone happy; not only do the faster hikers want to hike faster but also with fewer breaks. The slower group, of course, is quite the opposite. Had the situation been a little more "official", I would have broken up the group into two to travel at their own preferred speeds and kept in touch via cell phone if necessary (the wonders of modern technology!). But as I was ultimately responsible for the whole group and didn't want any issues to come to pass that would jeopardize the program (e.g. someone getting lost & hurt -> lawsuit), I decided to keep the group together and just deal with it. In the end, I have a feeling I probably didn't take nearly as many breaks as the slow group would have liked; a hazard of being perhaps the fittest of the group and therefore not being as perceptive of the struggle of others. However, no one got lost, there were no broken bones and no forests were set on fire. I'll chalk that one up in the success column.
As rewarding as the program has been, I have to be honest there has been one drawback that I did not anticipate, or at least properly take into consideration when signing up. It is a significant time commitment. While I do enjoy hiking, it has meant giving up my Saturday mornings, increasingly so as the training hike became longer and longer, eventually also taking up the early afternoon - ultimately 8 hours plus drive time, which can be an hour each way. This has prevented me from spending time in the yard and around the house this spring, as weeds needed pulling, bushes needed trimming and flowers and vegetables needed planting. We put off a much needed kitchen remodel this summer due to lack of adequate time for planning. I haven't been able to go to our local farmers' market since it opened back at the beginning of May, which I was still able to do during my marathon training two years ago. Most importantly, it has prevented me from spending quite a bit of time with the kids, which, though I work from home, is still in short supply and high demand. This, in turn, has affected Jennifer and what she has been able to do on the weekends.
In the end, I still consider this program a worthy cause and use of my time. The blood cancer patients for whom I participate, the honored heroes and the many others I do not know, will benefit from the funds that I have raised. I can't imagine their affliction would fall into the "convenience" category. Any inconvenience I have experienced feels insignificant in comparison.
While I leave for Yosemite in less than two weeks, I am almost certain that that will not be the last time I see the people I have met through the Hike For Discovery program. Okay, so the proposed post-hike picnic later this summer is pretty much a gimme. But I've also made quite a few friendships with people with whom I share much in common: relatively close proximity, a love of nature and compassion for those in need. If nothing else, that is reason enough to do it all again.
