Hiker Greg Eans and His Day Job at the Newspaper

Greenville, N.C.'s "Daily Reflector" has an editorial by Al Clark on 15 July 2007 titled "Our news journeys bring special messages back home." It summarizes the newspaper's decision to let certain staff members be away from the paper for lengths of time in order to create more in-depth stories.

One of the stories involves the Appalachian Trail.

"Greg Eans, the Reflector's editor of photography and graphics and a man who truly loves the outdoor life, always had the itch to spend time along the Appalachian Trail. He approached me, a bit hesitantly back in February or so, to ask if he could do just that — for the entire month of April. Thinking about all those photo assignments he would not be here to handle made me shudder a bit.

"But we agreed to arrange for him to take the month to explore the Virginia portion of the trail, on his own. Along the way, he developed excellent stories, before and after, about what's involved in the planning of such a trip, why he wanted to do it and just what it's like to sleep on the ground for most of a month.

"With his wife, Marion Blackburn who is a local writer and former reporter and editor for the Reflector, Greg also put together a near daily Web log, or blog, on his adventures. ..."

Hmmmm. I wonder if I could suggest something similar to my boss?