Welcome back!

Greetings! Well, I do not usually back down from a challenge, but as we all know, 2020 presented a set of, shall we say, extenuating circumstances. With a global pandemic, widespread civil unrest, global quarantine policies, and wildfire devastation around the world with Hazardous-level air quality, I figured that it would be best for everyone involved to put this on hold in the interim. Wow. When I say it like that, I’m really amazed at what we have weathered this year.

On a personal note, cancer has claimed another family member this year, my cousin, Michael Dodd. Mike passed away from metastatic kidney cancer this fall. More of an older brother to me, he is dearly missed, and now I fight for him as well. Needless to say, 2020 has been a difficult year.

The 2021 52 hike challenge

Given the circumstances, I have had to get creative with the format of this challenge, since all the things got put on hold. There are two aspects to this challenge:

  • Total hikes for 2021 will be 52. One thing Dad taught me, is if you’re going to do something, do it right. We are resetting the total number of hikes for 2021, so that we can complete the challenge in its intended form. Some, if not all, of the previously blogged hikes will be repeated in 2021.

  • Total unique hikes since inception. Believe it or not, blogging the hike is actually more difficult for me than doing the hike itself, and given that there are a finite number of trails to choose from, I will be continuing the blog from where we left off.

  • Donation challenge. I thought about this one quite a bit. I have decided that the monetary goal against the amount that we have collected so far, will not be reset. The reason for this, is that I did not want to devalue the contributions of those who donated last year, nor put an implicit obligation to donate again. This effort is intended to be an inspiration, not an obligation, and I want to honor those who have already contributed.

Logistics

The methods of donating, and for requesting a hike with us have not changed from last year. The only alteration being that we request that you wear a mask when congregating for a break if there is more than one unvaccinated person in the party. Once we start building herd immunity to COVID-19, this policy will be redacted. For now, though, we need to be safe. The goal of this fundraiser is to save lives, not endanger them.