“Is this for Diane?”
I drove to Greensboro last night to hear Diane Van Deren speak at the local Great Outdoor Provision Co., had arrived an hour early, but discovered the folding chairs supposedly set up for her presentation were nearly full.
“This is for the Trailblaze Challenge,” a GOPC employee told me. “Diane is speaking after their meeting.”
Trailblaze Challenge? That’s interesting, I thought.
The Trailblaze Challenge is a new fundraiser sponsored by the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Pledge to raise $2,500, go through a 12-week training program, then do a 24.1-mile hike on June 1 on the Bartram Trail in western North Carolina. The Challenge is patterned after CureSearch for Children’s Cancer’s Ultimate Hike, which is patterned after the Cyctic Fibrosis Foundation’s Extreme Hike. The hikes, as I was soon to learn, are all extremely alike, and for good reason: they were all launched by Amy Brindley, who is now president and chief executive officer of Make-A-Wish’s Central & Western North Carolina Chapter. It was especially interesting to me because for the past two year’s I’ve been a hiking coach for Ultimate Hike.
I stepped up to the registration table. “Do you mind if I sit in on the presentation?” I asked, then explained that I was associated with what could be perceived as a competitor.
The woman on the other side of the table smiled. “Of course you can sit in,” she said. “I’m Amy, by the way.”
About 15 prospective Trailblaze Challengers listened intently as Amy explained Make-A-Wish and the Trailblaze Challenge.
Make-A-Wish was founded in 1980, initially to grant children with terminal medical conditions any wish they wanted. (The foundation has since expanded to grant the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions.) Amy said the Central & Western North Carolina Chapter was formed in 1985. Since then, it has granted more than 3,000 wishes; this year, they expect to grant 230 wishes. She shared the most recent wish granted, for three girls to attend a concert last week in Greensboro.
One of the girls was local, one was from Vermont, one was a 13-year-old cancer victim from Georgia, who was a “rush wish,” meaning she only had a short time to live. The artist entertained the girls for 45 minutes before the concert. Then the girls went to their seats to watch the show.
“The 13-year-old was wearing a wig because she’d lost all her hair to treatments and was in a wheelchair,” Amy told the gathering. “They were all having a great time, and at one point the 13-year-old ripped off her wig, got out of her chair and starting dancing.
“That,” Amy added, “is the memory her parents will have of her.”
Granting the average wish costs about $6,000. That’s where the Trailblaze Challenge comes in.
Sign up, agree to raise $2,500 and you get a 12-week training program culminating in the June 1, 24.1-mile hike on the Bartram Trail. The training program includes weekly hikes led by a hike leader and a suggested mid-week training program. Participation includes all costs associated with hike weekend, including two nights at the Hampton Inn in Franklin, transportation and food.

The $2,500 fundraising goal can be daunting. After eight weeks if you don’t think you can do it, you can opt out. If you stay, you’re on the hook for the entire amount. (Personal note: From my two years of Ultimate Hike experience, out of roughly 90 hikers I only know of one who had trouble meeting his goal by the hike date, and you typically have a month after the hike to fulfill your commitment.)
The Trailblaze Challenge kicks off Feb. 23 with a 3-mile hike at Bur-Mil Park in Greensboro. It culminates June 1 with the 24.1-mile hike on the Bartram Trail. The section they’ll be doing is from the Appletree Group Campground along the Nantahala River west over Wayah Bald to Wallace Branch. I backpacked that stretch a little over a year ago; it is gorgeous. Find out more about that adventure here.
The timing of last night’s Trailblaze Challenge recruitment meeting was fortuitous. Many in the crowd stuck around to hear Diane talk about her adventures as an ultra athlete sponsored by The North Face. She spoke of the 430-mile Yukon Arctic Ultra, she spoke of her next event, next week’s Rovaniemi 150 Arctic Winter Race in Finland, which only one person has finished on foot (other ambulatory race options are mountain bike and kicksled) and last year’s romp across North Carolina on the Mountains-to-Sea Trail.
Talking about the challenges of a 1,000-mile race she suggested they weren’t that different than what her audience faced in what to many must have seemed an equally insurmountable goal in hiking 24.1 miles in the rugged Nantahala National Forest.
“You have highs and you have lows,” she said. “You have to greet them, especially the lows. Understand them. Learn from them.” That, she indicated, is key toward the ultimate and overriding goal.
“You gotta keep it fun.”

* * *

Trailblaze Challenge

Upcoming recruitment meetings:

• Tonight, 6:30 p.m., Great Outdoor Provision Co., Charlotte
• Thursday, 6:30 p.m., Great Outdoor Provision Co., Winston-Salem
• Saturday, 10 a.m., REI, Huntersville
• Tuesday, 6:30 p.m., Omega Sports, High Point
• Feb. 13, 6:30 p.m., Great Outdoor Provision Co., Greensboro
• Feb. 16, 9 a.m., Reedy Creek Park, Charlotte
• Feb. 16, 10 a.m., Great Outdoor Provision Co., Winston-Salem
• Feb. 23, 9 a.m., Bur-Mil Park, Greensboro

Check out the Trailblaze Challenge Web site here.

Also on June 1, Ultimate Hike will hold its Spring Foothills Hike. That program is aimed at residents of Charlotte and Asheville. Learn more about that hike here. If you live in the Triangle, the Fall Foothills Hike has just been scheduled for Nov. 6. Keep an eye on this blog and the Ultimate Hike site for details.

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Coach Miller! Has a nice ring.

— we’re here to see how many of you would like to really challenge yourselves and help a great cause at the same time.

The challenge: hiking a 28.3-mile stretch of the Foothills Trail in one day.

The great cause: CureSearch for Children’s Cancer.

CureSearch is a non-profit that raises funds for research into children’s cancer on behalf of the Children’s Oncology Group, a consortium of 210 hospitals and 6,500 physicians, nurses and researchers worldwide. (Hospitals in this group treat 90 percent of kids with cancer in the U.S.) Not much more than needs to be said to support its Great Cause standing, though you can read more about CureSearch’s efforts here.

CureSearch is new to the public fundraising game. Until a couple years ago it looked mostly to grants and philanthropic donations. Then, two years ago it started doing walks, and this year decided it wanted to branch out. Now, the obvious go-to active fundraiser is the ubiquitous 5K. Despite their overexposure, they continue to grow in numbers. CureSearch wanted something off the beaten path.

“We were looking at new ways to make it interesting,” says Jim Steiner with CureSearch’s Southeast Office in Charlotte. “We wanted to make it different. And we wanted to offer an ultimate experience.”

Despite hiking’s popularity — about 38 million Americans hike at least once a year, according to the National Sporting Goods Association — fundraising hikes are a relatively untapped market. “It seemed especially good for this part of the country, where hiking is so popular,” Steiner says.

Thus was born Ultimate Hike. (The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation has a similar event, Extreme Hike for a Cure.)

In this, its first year a dozen Ultimate Hikes are scheduled nationwide on such epic trails as the Superior Hiking Trail, Pacific Crest Trail, Tecumseh Trail and our own Foothills Trail. In fact, one of those hikes has already been held, on May 14 by an Atlanta contingent of Ultimate Hikers on the Foothills Trail. That hike drew 50 hikers and raised $150,000.

“We try to keep the number of hikers limited,” says Leah Bartlett, CureSearch Regional Development Manager in Charlotte. “We don’t want to wreak havoc on the trail.”

In a nutshell, here’s how Ultimate Hike works. About four months before the hike date, CureSearch begins holding biweekly training hikes to whip its Ultimate Hikers into shape. In addition to the training hikes, led by hiking coaches, Ultimate Hikers get a supplemental training schedule. Coaches send out weekly emails with tips and updates, and are available to answer any questions an Ultimate-Hiker-in-training may have. Then, come hike weekend hikers get hotel accommodations for two nights (the night before the hike, the night of the hike), transportation to and from the trailhead on hike day, aid stations at three locations (providing hydration, energy bars, first aid, etc.), Ultimate Hike wicking shirt, pre-hike pasta party, post-hike victory breakfast.

Back at the beginning, you may recall, I referred to myself as Coach Miller. Yesterday, I interviewed for and got the job as one of two volunteer hiking coaches for the Raleigh Ultimate Hike contingent. I explain more about the hiking and training aspect of Ultimate Hike at our sister site, NCHikes.com. But let me share one quick insight to put the Ultimate Hike experience in perspective.

Sunday evening I was talking with my buddy Irving in Louisburg. A former marine and longtime activity advocate, Irving had been feeling actively adrift of late. I mentioned Ultimate Hike, which sparked a story about a “hike” from his Marine days. It was an epic, all-day trek during which they were supposed to march in lockstep. At one point, Irving — and the guy behind him — made a brief misstep. They feared immediate retribution, but nothing — at least not immediately. Then, at hike’s end as the platoon was yards away from the mess hall, Irving and his buddy were told to fall out. “Please make it just be 100 pushups,” Irving secretly wished. Instead, he and his buddy had to body roll about 75 yards over hot gravel. He told the story like it happened yesterday.

I explained that this would not be the motivational approach used by Ultimate Hike. Peer support, encouragement, helpful (hopefully) advice, no rolling over hot gravel.

A challenge, certainly.

Likely one of the hardest of your life.

* * *
Interested?

There are two Ultimate Hikes scheduled for October on the Foothills Trail. For Triangle-area hikers the hike will be Oct. 15, for Charlotte hikers, Oct. 22.

Informational sessions will be held in both locations throughout July. Here’s the schedule:

Raleigh

• Wednesday, July 6 | Great Outdoor Provision Co. | 6:30 pm
• Thursday, July 7 | REI – Durham | 6:30 pm
• Tuesday, July 12 | REI – North Hills | 6:30 pm
• Wednesday July 13 | REI – Cary | 6:30 pm
• Thursday July 14 | The North Face | 6:30 pm
• Saturday, July 23 | Historic Yates Mill | 9 am

Charlotte

• Tuesday, July 12 | Great Outdoor Provisions| 6:30 pm
• Wednesday, July 13 | REI – Northlake | 6:30 pm
• Wednesday, July 20 | Bass Pro Shop | 6:30 pm
• Thursday, July 21 | REI – Pineville | 6:30 pm
• Saturday, July 30 | U.S. National Whitewater Center | 9 am

Photo: Atlanta’s Ultimate Hikers on a training hike.

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