In every conversation with Steve Garufi after he suggested walking the Phoenix Valley, he would remind me that I should really do it. With every discussion, I became more excited that this would be fun. I had no doubt that I would have any problems walking across a flat valley, even if it was for 50-60 miles. My thoughts were I had hiked 25+ miles in a day in mountains covering elevation gains of over 8,000 feet.

I was at work when I shared with some co-workers that I was thinking about walking across the valley. Almost to a person, the response was “Huh?”  “What!?” “Why are you doing that?” ” What was it you were smoking when you had that thought?”

Chrystyna Golloher kind of stopped, cocked her head a little and with a smile said, “That sounds so cool!” And within 5 minutes of talking about the ideas I was having, she said, “Can anyone go?” It was the first time I had thought about taking the hike/walk with others.

A short time later, Dave Drago poked his head out of his cube and saw us talking. He could see the enthusiasm we were showing about this idea. I told him that I was planning to hike across the valley, to which he replied something like, “You mean the whole valley?” Dave, like Chystyna, had grown up here. He had ever considered doing such an apparently crazy thing nor had he known any other local (or loco) who had walked it.

I asked if he would be interested and his immediate response was “Yeah!”

There must have been some fate behind this, as I do not think there was ANY other person I shared this idea with that responded with such acceptance and like enthusiasm (except maybe Carly, who joined us on Day 4, helped with transportation, and graciously provided Night 3 accommodations for us).

As it turned out, Chrystyna and Dave were the perfect people to spend 4 days with walking through this vast metro area. Between the conversational banter that included jokes, philosophizing, DEBATE, and sharing personal stories, the walk was that much more enjoyable.

So the stage was set. Chrystyna, Dave, and myself started planning the 2009 Valley Walk. That was the spring of 2009.

Day 1, approximately 6 miles into the 15 mile day

We ultimately agreed on the weekend of December 11-14, a Friday through Monday. One of the first debates was that of what we were going to do after each day. Originally, we had talked about staying in resorts along the way. And Chrystyna, with her party planning skills, enthusiastically thought that we would have a big bash in Downtown Phoenix. Live music, food, frivolity, fun!

In my procrastination, that did not get off the ground. And as Day 2 wrapped up, that party would have been missing its primary planners as partying was the last thing we were feeling like doing.

Ultimately, Dave and I decided two days prior to the start of the walk, it would be best to save our money and return home each night. That turned out to be a good decision. What wasn’t a good decision was making it without including our third partner in the discussion. (I’ll let her fill in the details in on that.)

In the months leading up to the walk, we did a lot more talking about it and looked forward to “seeing” Phoenix one step at a time.

Next up: The Route