Welcome back readers! It is Sunday morning and I am sitting in the Yavapai Lodge cafeteria in Grand Canyon National Park eating my “All American Breakfast” while I pound keys on my MacBook! This place is hustling and bustling with tourists from all over the world. It is apparent that summer is practically here.

I gotta tell you, I just spent one of the most amazing days of my life yesterday. I spent an entire day being trained as a PSAR (Preventative Search and Rescue) volunteer here at the Grand Canyon (GC). This training will enable me to spend time helping people on the trail this summer, which will hopefully result in preventing expensive evacuations.

Let me please back up for a second and give you some background as to why I am here. As many of you that have seen my live talk already know, I love the Grand Canyon and I spend a lot of my free time hiking and backpacking here. I have learned a lot about life from my many experiences at the Grand Canyon. As a matter of fact, I just returned from my annual four day backpacking trip two weeks ago with what I believe was with our best group ever!

Well, this past summer, I was driving cross country with my son Evan, and I made sure that one of our stops was at the GC. It was my chance to introduce him to one of the wonders of the world and perhaps my favorite place on the planet. Evan and I spent the entire day hiking down to Plateau Point and back. This is a very cool lookout point way deep into the canyon and only recommended as a day hike for very strong hikers. The round trip is over 12 miles in length and very difficult in a desert environment, especially in the middle of the summer. The last six miles of the hike are a very steep, nonstop uphill climb!

We did the hike and made out great, partly due to the fact that I have learned a lot about how to hike smart in the GC. This knowledge comes from getting into fairly serious trouble in the past (needing to be rescued) and then simply figuring out what went wrong and learning how to do things right from research and experience.

Anyway, during the very last part of our hike out of the GC last year, Evan and I came across a man hanging out at the 1.5 mile rest house who was apparently helping others on the trail. We got into a conversation with this guy, whose name was Ron Gould, and I asked him immediately how I could do what he was doing. As it turned out, he told me that he was a volunteer for the Preventative Search and Rescue (PSAR) program at Grand Canyon National Park. He pulled out a little notebook and proceeded to write down a woman’s name and phone number on a page of it which he ripped out and handed to me. He told me this is the person I need to speak with if I am interested.

I kept this little piece of paper with me until about January of this year. That is when I finally pulled it out and called the number. I reached a woman named Bonnie Taylor who explained the program to me and pretty much said there is a mandatory training day, and if I am able to come on that day, I am welcome to be in the program. Even though that date was to be only two weeks after our big four day backpacking trip in the canyon, I made plans to be there. After all, I really wanted to get this gig!

So I pulled up to the Grand Canyon Training Center at 8:30 AM. I walked inside to a large classroom type setting where there were about thirty people there altogether ranging from twenty-something women to retired looking men. Seemed like a really nice group of people. I signed in, picked up all of my materials and put on a nametag.

I found Bonnie and introduced myself to her. She was all dressed up in a ranger’s uniform and believe me… she was very cool! Bonnie started the class right on time and the entire day consisted of Bonnie as well as different speakers attempting to teach us any possible scenario that could take place on the trail.

Basically my job is going to be hiking down a few miles into the canyon, hanging out in the very hot sun and trying my best to make sure people don’t get in over their heads. I am supposed to simply engage in conversation with every hiker that I can and in a friendly way, find out what their plans are. I can suggest alternate routes if I think someone is attempting to hike beyond their means but I do not have the authority to tell someone to turn around.

They say that when people go on vacation, many of them leave their brains at home. They do stupid things. Well, as I have found out in the past, the Grand Canyon is a very dangerous, unforgiving place, especially in the summer. Some of it has been there for over a billion years. Some of it will be there for a billion more years. The Grand Canyon does not particularly care if a human being dies there. It just continues being the Grand Canyon.

So yes, I will be back on the trail in July. I’ll be helping people stay out of trouble. And if anyone gets into trouble, I will be there for them. I am fully expecting that many crazy situations will arise. So what do you think I’ll be doing at night? Maybe I’ll write a new book and call it “Seven Days In The Canyon!”

Hope to see you in July!