Welcome to CHS 2013!

Spring is just around the corner and so is the start of another CHS season! Soon we'll be putting on our boots and spending a summer together hiking to some pretty cool places. Needless to say, I always look forward to this time of year--especially after enduring another cold, soggy winter. I realize that spring in the Northwest can be cold and soggy as well, but once I'm out on the trail, I don't seem to mind it so much anymore. That's what an umbrella is for. 

Hi, my name is Kelly Cleman and I'll be writing the blog entries for CHS this year. If you don't know who I am then let me introduce myself. I am the original creator of the CHS program. I floated it as a trial course in 2005 and got around 30 participants. Myself and another leader, Karen Sykes, led most of the hikes and about 15 people  graduated from the course that year. The course has only grown bigger each year! Last year I handed course administration over to Steve Payne's very capable hands. I continue to help out by leading hikes, keeping up the web site, and this year, by writing the blog entries. In the picture to the right, that's me on the left sitting with my husband, Matt on Shi Shi Beach at the CHS beach cleanup event in 2012. 

I always have lots of pontificate about, so I'll try to put up an entry each week except when I run off on adventure. Sometimes I will duplicate information I have put out in a blog from another year, but some of the topics are timeless and should be put out there each year for people to think about.   

Reading this blog is optional, but I hope you do decide to check it out throughout the summer. If you have a request for me to write on a particular topic, let me know either by email or by replying to the blog! Ideally this blog covers information and ideas that you're interested in as a hiker in the Northwest. Also feel free to post comments to the blogs. On the blogs that I follow I usually find the readers' comments almost as interesting as the blogger's writing. 

Looking forward to a fun and challenging year with you in CHS! 

kc