Please read this whole email as it contains important information.

Congratulations to the next round of folks who have completed their graduation hikes already. What a great accomplishment!!

Note: Heidi Walker's company has been sponsoring a series of volunteer events with the Mt Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. The next event will be held at Mt Pilchuck Sept 27th. They're working on some erosion control on the trail. This would be a good opportunity for people to fulfill their maintenance requirement if they haven't already, or just come out and have a little fun on the trail. Here's the link and sign-up: website

Volunteering for CHS

As we come close to finishing the course for 2008, I want to remind you that every activity was made possible by the work of volunteers. Every hike was led by a volunteer. Volunteers monitor the signups for the trips. Every extra activity, including the Soda Springs campout and the Baker Lodge weekend, was organized and run by volunteers. Put simply, CHS would not exist without volunteers. I cannot thank each of our volunteers enough. You should thank them, too.

Who are these volunteers? Some of them are long-time members of The Mountaineers. Others are newer to the club. Most of them are themselves graduates of the Conditioning Hiking Series. They'll tell you that a big motivation for their own service was the powerful and positive effect CHS had on them.

If CHS has been a positive experience for you, and you want to help pass that experience on to others, please consider volunteering for next year's course.

In fact, many of you have already expressed interest in helping with next year's course. I truly welcome this interest and this help. There is room for more. For those whose abilities and interest may be more "behind the scenes," there are opportunities for organization and recordkeeping. Please let me know of your interest in these areas, and we'll find work where your help will be best used.

Many of you may feel moved to serve as hike leaders. There is a great need for hike leaders both for CHS and for the club's general-membership outings. Becoming a Mountaineers hike leader is not difficult; it does not require extensive training or exotic certifications. There are two simple steps: First, attend a two-hour workshop for prospective leaders; second, partner with a qualified and experienced leader for a "mentored hike." The mentor will help guide you through the process and will provide feedback on your performance. Often, following the mentored trip, you will be qualified to begin leading trips yourself; some people prefer two mentored trips before "flying solo." That's it.

The next workshop for prospective leaders will be on October 16 at the Mountaineers Seattle headquarters. It runs from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. that night. In order to plan adequately with materials, you need to register for the workshop. There is no cost, however. You can find it by searching all Hiking activities for that day. Signup will be available after Sept 16th. We can also assist in pairing you with a mentor for the second step.

Please consider volunteering for CHS. The time to being preparing is now. Let me know if you want to help, and we'll get you started.

September Hike Signup

There is still space in some of the remaining graduation hikes. I've attached an updated list to this email. Open hike signup is available now for all hikes.

ACHS/CHS Graduation Party

The graduation party for all three groups will be on the afternoon/evening of Saturday, October 4th. I sent out the invitation to the graduation party earlier this week. If you haven't received it, please let me know.

Trail Maintenance Requirement

All of our scheduled WTA/CHS trips have been completed, so if you haven't completed your trail maintenance requirement yet, check out the note earlier in this email or you can schedule an outing on a non CHS trail maintenance trip with either WTA or some of the other outdoor organizations. Once you have completed your trail maintenance requirement, please email me to let me know what date you did it on as we keep track of this information for graduation purposes.

CHS Pictures:

The drop-dead date for providing pictures to be included in the graduation CD is rapidly approaching. Please be sure to send all pictures to email by Monday, Sept 29th. Be sure to include the name and date of the hike in the subject line.

If you want to view the pictures, click on the following link and you will see an album for each hike: website

Have a great week and I look forward to hiking with each of you soon. Please contact me if you have any questions.

Kelly Cleman