The trail is a big thing at St. Benedict's. Its official name is the Backpacking Project, which all freshmen take; they spend the month of May prepping for a 5 day hike on the Appalachian Trail. We fully believe - and have been told by generations of alumni - that it is the most significant experience during their time at Benedict's.
Fr. Mark, the "Big Bee" of our school's Backpacking Project, asked me to have my class cook for the trail staff (approximately 50-60 students and adults) back when the cooking course started in 2002. I initially balked, thinking that there was no way we could manage preparing all that food for all those people. Fr. Mark is such an amazing individual, however, and I couldn't bear the thought of letting him down on his request, so I went back to him the next day and said we'd do it. 10 years later, going to cook at the trail is my favorite part of not only the course, but the year.
The kitchen is small and gets hot. We only have one stove to cook quantities such as 10 lbs. of macaroni and 30 ears of corn. Sometimes we can't eat until 10 pm because a freshman team got lost on the trail and we have to wait for everyone to find them. The ticks...don't even start me about the ticks. But the experience of grilling in the waning daylight together, shouting orders across the kitchen, and ending the day with a hotly contested spades game - as the commercial says - is priceless.
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