Leading a Pilgrimage, Yesterday and Today

When Geoffrey Chaucer's motley collection of pilgrims set out for Canterbury 600 years ago, they needed a leader. They found one in tavern owner Harry Bailey, who volunteers to travel with them as a guide. He promises to keep everyone happy, arbitrate disputes, and act as judge of the tales to be told along the way. Chaucer's pilgrims begin their journey just as spring rains are awakening new life across the natural world, around this time of year, in fact. They came to mind recently while I was slogging through muddy woods to a chorus of spring peepers, newly awakened from their frozen winter sleep. Bird song sounded nearby. Maybe an Eastern Phoebe, an early migrator. Or a Northern Cardinal, a year-round resident. The skunk cabbage was already in bloom. Chaucer/s pilgrims were on their way to the shrine of St. Thomas Becket in Canterbury. As outdoorspeople, we're pilgrims, too, making our way into the woods or across the water. For some, it's a social activity. For others, it's in pursuit of good health. Or it might be a spiritual journey, or a form of ecotherapy that the Japanese call forest-bathing--shinrin-yoku. And like Chaucer's pilgrims, most of us need a guide to safely get us to where we’re going – and back home again. We trust our guides to plan the route, monitor weather and trail conditions, know some basic first aid, and be able to calmly handle the unexpected. ADK's Mohican Chapter urgently needs more people like Chaucer's Harry Bailey to serve as leaders, and what's more, people who take on the volunteer role knowing they will need to take the training now required of ADK hike and paddle leaders. Because if more people don't step up, the Mohican Chapter's future will be in doubt. For a variety of reasons, we don't even have enough people to fill all our board seats. Our leaders have long been the chapter's stalwarts, ensuring that hundreds of our members each year get to experience the joys of nature together. But the numbers have dropped precipitously in the last year since the new training requirements were implemented. The amount of training required depends on a new system that classifies outings by difficulty and distance, from easy to very strenuous: Levels 1, 2 & 3. Level 1 training can be completed online in just 90 minutes. As of this writing, 17 of 27 Mohican leaders had completed the training that qualifies them to lead Level 1 hikes, or roughly 60%. It's disappointing. Just look at the outings in this newsletter. Half are listed as "WTA hikes," offered by the Westchester Trails Association, our sister organization, which doesn't require its leaders to receive any formal training. In January and February, the WTA ran more hikes than we did. Why get certified? Personally, I'm proud to be a certified ADK leader. There's also the confidence that comes with being trained to handle situations that might occur on an outing. And let's not forget the moral imperative, giving back to the community that's done so much for you. If you'd like to learn about how to volunteer as an ADK leader and where to sign up for leader training, contact me at belaymon@gmail.com or Trish Johnston at patcjohnston@gmail.com.