[pct-l] Ross Lake angel-ing; second-tier angels

[Jon Smith]

Hi Andrea, 

Please bear with me--I'm completely new at this. 

"How long it will take you to meet up with the hikers": I would like to say, "Call me and we can arrange a time and place to meet." If they're thinking they can simply show up somewhere and call me and I can leave work and come pick them up in three hours and fifteen minutes or something--that might work if the time to the trailhead were short, or if I didn't work, but neither of those is the case. (Yes, I realize delays happen on the trail, but there are ways to convey that. For example, when JJ picked me up at the Pines to Palms a couple of months ago--thanks, Jim!!--I had been sending him Spot2 transmissions once a day all week, and every few hours on the pickup day.) 

I don't have a cell phone that works in Canada, just one for the trail. What you have on the flyer I made up and attached to my previous email to you off-list is our home number, which has a machine. The work number that you see in my email signature won't be much help, because next fall I'll be teaching on our other two campuses, and I won't be in my office on our main campus very regularly. 

And I honestly can't be certain enough to make an absolute offer ("Here's what I offer, here's what I will do") because, again, I work. (This is also why I haven't been able to respond until now to your email of last night--please don't think I didn't read it!) Given 48 hours' notice or so, I can often move my schedule around, but not always. Next fall I'll be teaching night classes, which will help some. 

I'm posting this to PCT-L because maybe our discussion could help clarify what angeling is all about for other would-be angels who would like to help but can't make the sort of commitment that you famous ones are, well, famous for. I could make maybe six 6-7 hour trips to northern Washington in September and early October to shuttle people to Bellingham and help get groups back together who separated at the border. If what you're suggesting is that, in the face of 500 thru-hikers, the kind of limited and contingent help I'd be able to provide is not really worth it, or could raise more problems than it would solve, well, that would be good to know, and probably for others as well. Maybe I should eschew the flyer and just quietly give my contact info to people I get to know on the trail--the original plan, actually. 

Thanks, 
Jon ("Devil," not the best trail name for an angel) 

----- Original Message -----
From: "Andrea Dinsmore" <andrea at dinsmoreshikerhaven.com> 
To: "Jon Smith" <jsa106 at sfu.ca> 
Sent: Thursday, March 3, 2011 10:06:37 PM 
Subject: Re: [pct-l] Ross Lake angel-ing 


What I need it a Flyer style info sheet with what you offer, where you will go, how long it will take you to meet up with the hikers, where you can pick them up and where you will take them and probably more than one phone number to reach you. When they get here they only have a day or two to coordinate arrangements with you. 

Thanks, 

Andrea 


On Thu, Mar 3, 2011 at 5:37 PM, Jon Smith < jsa106 at sfu.ca > wrote: 




Here you go, and thanks again!