Ball Ground Man's Grand Celebration  

On the heels of the blockbuster 2008 film release The Bucket List comes a real once-in-a-lifetime personal challenge set forth by an aging team of four sexagenarians-one from Ball Ground. What was their task? Only to hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and hike back out the next day.

"We wanted to do something special and ambitious to celebrate our 60th birthday season," says Mike Anderson of Ball Ground. "The four of us have remained friends since high school, and it was important to accomplish this quest while we still could."

The four friends Anderson speaks of were all classmates, all originally from Battle Creek, Michigan, and all four turn 60 this year. Anderson is no stranger to Cherokee County, and for 13 years, he owned the New Song Christian Bookstores in Canton and Woodstock (now Family Christian Stores). Today, he is a writer and active with the Christian Authors Guild headquartered in Woodstock.

"In 2007, we agreed on hiking the Grand Canyon and began our training regimens for the strenuous event while awaiting our application approval," added Anderson. "When we were assigned a departure date of July 4th, it seemed quite fitting as we are all proud Americans and military veterans, too."

"Originally, my vote was to take a cruise to celebrate our big birthday milestone," Anderson reflects, "but the more I thought about it, the overnight Grand Canyon hike seemed more like something our generation would do. The Independence Day date coupled with record heat just added to our boomer craziness."

Mike hiked the hills around his Ball Ground residence in preparation but admits, "I should have trained more going down hill. The canyon was like continually hiking down stadium steps two at a time."

After 10 months of physical training, the team gathered at the South Kaibab trailhead to begin their steep descent. On the afternoon of July 5th, after two days and over 17 hours of grueling step-by-careful-step hiking atop the canyon rim, these tired, dusty, sweaty and swollen sojourners proudly announced for all their boomer generation to hear, "We did it!"

More than a checked-off to-do "bucket list" challenge, this is a real story of friendship that can be fully explored on their Can You Canyon at 60 website at www.mlanderson.com.