Simply My Best: Date chosen: May 11th, 2013

SIMPLY MY BEST

UPDATE: This was the website where we figured out what SMB would be. Then we created a new site for SMB 2014. Then, in March, 2014, we launched a REAL website for the event and our nonprofit called Pilot Butte Summit Seekers. Check it out...

WWW.PILOTBUTTESUMMITSEEKERS.ORG

Kind of cool to watch it change from something we literally made up as we went along to something that was built on the efforts of so many and actually planned to some degree. It will be fun to watch the new website take shape over the coming months.

Btw, if you haven't heard, SMB 2014 is May 10th!

Note: Many functions on this old site have been removed or disabled, but the blog remains as a record of the SMB journey.

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Date chosen: May 11th, 2013

The date is now set and I just finished updating everything I could find that needed to be changed, including the RSVP form that was a bit of a mess but is now shorter and better. Now is a good time to start telling people about the event if you haven't already. We are having some "Ask Me About..." pinback buttons made. I know we've been

a little pushy the past week, but now that we have our date we can proceed at a more relaxed pace. If you are a regular hiker and want a button, let us know. It is a great way to spread the word without having to walk up to people and start a conversation. You may have noticed that Carol has no difficulty starting conversations, but now they don't all have to be about SMB.

If you have not yet RSVP'd, please do so as soon as you can. This information is still extremely important as we move ahead.

Btw, after getting feedback from a lot of people, it seems like there is no big downside to holding the event on Mother's Day weekend. There may even be some upsides. One is that

if this becomes an annual event, it will be easy for folks to remember as it will always be the Saturday before Mother's Day. The second is that people may tend to stay in town that weekend more so than other weekends. Don't know for sure if that is true, but the info from our RSVP's would back it up since no one listed that date as one that was bad for them. So we have our date. Thanks everyone for turning in the RSVPs. They really helped us to pin down a good date. We still need everyone who hasn't done so already to RSVP as soon as they can. I helps us set our fundraising targets and it gives us a better idea of how many hikers to expect. The response has already been so amazing and it has become clear that the last thing we want to do is guess at these numbers.

Happy trails, Bill

THE INSIDE SCOOP

This is not your typical event. It is informal and casual by nature. We hope to never be out there aggressively spreading the word because we think the event will always have a certain magic if we let it grow at a natural pace. Plus, as we have already found, Pilot Butte itself is the perfect place to spread the word. Not only are there a lot of hikers who already know each other, we have really been surprised by how many regular hikers there are that we don't know. It is no accident that the parking area gets over 15,000 cars per month. People love Pilot Butte.

If you haven't yet noticed, this event is really set up to take what you already do and then make that an outstanding experience one day out of the year. It is almost more a celebration than anything else. So you just show up and hike, something you'd probably do anyway. There is no entry fee, no official start time, or anything like that. There have to be a few formalities, but we are doing our best to make them as painless and fun as possible. We are also focusing a lot on the social aspect of the event. We want the normal encouragement that people always experience on the Butte to become infectious and reach new heights. In other words, while this is a day in which it could be easier than most to hike a personal best on the Butte, the overall focus is still on having fun. Then, as a side benefit, we end up solving one of the problems that people are most concerned about on the Butte. So there is actually a kind of reward in place if you decide to go for a personal best that day. But you don't even need to do that. Hiking your normal distance, or even less, still helps us raise the funds we need. Your being there is what is most important.

As much as possible, SMB is what you need it to be. We purposely left the term "personal best" a little vague and we are glad we did. Some people have already indicated that they go by a different standard than what we had in mind. That's great and we are trying very hard to work them into the event.

In designing this event, we are kind of taking our lead from Pilot Butte's Century Club, now a 13 year old tradition on the Butte. It demonstrates the power that a simple idea can have. This event will be a big success if we can keep it simple for both the hikers and the organizers. So we invite you to come out and "hike your butt off on the Butte." You can RSVP by clicking here.