On the trail of history

This past weekend i went on a hike in the Olympics with a few of my college friends. The event was formally called the First Principles Hike: George Washington and the West (Lower Lena Lake, Olympic Mtns.) The event was organized by the Evergreen Freedom Foundation. My friends and I got there a little late but made up for it on the trail. The overall distance wasn't too far; the over all trip was about 3-4 miles each way.

Its always fun to talk about politics and history. Then again I'm a little bias as those are both of my majors At Washington State University. It was interesting to see what we ended up talking about along most of the hike. Of all the topics we could have dwelt on we ended up discussing the qualities of true leaders, and who should, or could lead our nation. Being that the November election is right around the corner its not to surprising that the topic of leadership was in the back of our minds.

We met up with Trent England about half way though hike. Trent was the speaker that was leading the hike and main discussion. In our discussion we talked about Washington and the factors that led him to become the leader and the man that he was. The conversation brought up a number of issues to think about. Could there ever be a leader like Washington in the modern world? Does the ivy league graduates and children of influence have a strangle hold on American leadership? Or could an average Joe rise to prominence like they once did in America history?

My friends and i agreed that the hike was a nice excursion, from the classroom and the work place. If there are anymore events like this hike I would be more then happy to go again. It is rare to be able to to enjoy the outdoors and history at the same time. To often we are bombarded with information in our busy lives and don't have the luxury to truly try to understand what is going. Understanding history however allow us to at least frame the information we get, to better put it in prospective to better understand were our nation is headed.