Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
TAKING A LONG WALK
Area man hikes 25,000 miles
PARKESBURG >> Forty-year veteran Chester County Trail Club member Don Barber has hiked the equivalent of a trip around the world at the equator.
Barber recently reached the 25,000-mile mark, while hiking with 45 fellow club members, on a six-mile walk at Bellevue State Park in Delaware.
Barber, 83, has worn out about 15 pairs of boots and has resoled his favorite pair three times. He said sneakers can be worn on the easier trails.
“I told my daughter to put
them in my coffin,” Barber said about his boots, during a Monday phone interview.
One member said Barber has slowed down a bit but is persistent.
“I’m just glad to be out there walking at my age,” he said. “So many people my age have so many problems.”
The hiker now only takes the flat parts or hikes with gradual hills after triple bypass surgery a couple of years ago.
“I’ve had my share of injuries, but I keep on going,” he said. “I always loved to walk.
“I don’t hike for the miles. It’s good for you physically and I think it has contributed to my being 83.
“I don’t just sit in a chair. I love to read, but I’ve got to get out and walk.”
But why hike with the club?
“You can talk, time goes faster, you learn things and make friends,” the father of two said. “You can hike in a group and fade to the back, and hike by yourself.
“You don’t have to talk to somebody.”
The gardener was president of the club for four years and was in charge of maintenance for 72 miles of trails for the club. He chopped down trees, cut grass and put blazes, or trail markers, on trees.
“Somebody has to do it,” he said. “If something is important to you, you have to make sure the trails are passable.
“If you get something out of something, you have to give back.”
Barber is in a long-term relationship and is engaged to be married. He has picked up more miles at a faster pace since his children grew.
He formerly worked on casualty claims for an insurance company. His favorite place to hike is the Appalachian Trail. An injury prevented him from climbing up Mount Katahdin in Maine and completing the entire trail that stretches from Maine to
Georgia. In 1996, he backpacked for 650 miles, with most of the rest of the AT traveled on day hikes.
“You’ve got everything, mountains, level areas and lakes,” he said about the AT.
The club awards the Trailmaster Award, a hiking stick with a brass nameplate on it with the year and the hiker’s mileage. Barber was CCTC’s Trailmaster for Club year 10/1 /2007 - 9/30/2008 after hiking 1,222.9 miles on club hikes that year. A hundred or more miles more than a thousand is typically what has been walked by a CCTC Trailmaster every year.
CCTC President George March talked about his buddy.
“Don at that time was also a very aggressive and accomplished backpacker, and he thoroughly pestered me to join the club’s backpacking adventures, telling me everything I needed to know (and a few things I didn’t need to know) about hiking and backpacking with him,” March said. “May I say that Don knows how to bend someone’s ear?
“May I say that many club members have bent ears thanks to Don?”
The 400-member club holds hikes seven days a week at different ability levels, with hikes all over the world. For more information, go to www.cctrailclub.org.