This weekend I went on not one but two graduation hikes! I co-led a CHS1 hike with another hike leader to Lake Janus/Grizzly Peak. The second hike was a CHS2 hike to Mt David and I went along as a third person so the hike wasn’t cancelled due to low turnout. Almost 30 miles and 8000 feet of gain later, I’m one tired person, but it was a great weekend and a great ending to the season for me personally.
I have been thinking about the significance of these two hikes. First, Lake Janus. According to Wikipedia, in ancient Roman religion and mythology Janus is the god of beginnings and transitions, endings, and time. Most often he is depicted as having two faces on his head, facing opposite directions: one face looks eastward and the other westward. Symbolically they look simultaneously into the future and the past, back at the last year and forward to the next. So I felt that my Saturday trip to Lake Janus this weekend was symbolic in one way that it was an ending to this particular season of CHS.
My Sunday trip to Mt David was symbolic of beginnings and endings in that in 2004, Matt and I hiked it for the first time and didn’t quite make it to the top as I was a fairly inexperienced hiker and found it a bit exposed. It’s a bit of a butt-kicking hike in many ways and as we sat and ate lunch at our stopping point 200 feet below the summit, Matt and I talked about how we wished we knew other hikers who would like to do this sort of hiking with us, and voila! The seed of CHS was born.
Now, seven years later, I’ve successfully hiked Mt David twice since my first failed attempt, so this was my fourth hike of this peak. This time, we didn’t quite make it to the top due to a badly placed snowfield and deteriorating weather conditions. Thinking about this, I find this even more symbolic as an ending—to my career as CHS administrator. Next year Steve Payne will be taking over as the leader of CHS and I will be taking a back seat doing administrative tasks and leading hikes as needed. Steve has been an invaluable helper to me—you could say he has been a Spock to my Captain Kirk—and with his promotion to Captain he will bring new energy and ideas to the program. Many of you have commented to me recently about Steve’s great organizational abilities with the CHS campout and other activities. He will bring this same great ability in this new position. He even already has the Captain’s uniform shirt…
I have greatly enjoyed my tenure as head of the CHS program; through the years I’ve met hundreds of great people, many of whom have become lifelong friends. I’m glad that the program has touched so many lives in lots of different ways, and I am especially glad that it will endure past my stewardship of it.
Thank you to all who have let me know how much you enjoyed the program either by your enthusiastic endorsement to others, your repeat participation, and many by your willingness to volunteer as a hike leader or helper for some aspect of the course. You have all made it a wonderful and meaningful journey for me from my beginning and ending at Mt David. A new hiking season will soon be around the corner and I hope you’re as excited for it as I am. Let’s go find the phoenix!
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