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Long-distance hiker ditches all life’s distractions

Eb Eberhart says he has covered six of the 11 National Scenic Trails.

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By Hannah C. Bealer, Staff Writer 12:49 AM Saturday, July 4, 2009

“It’s the people, the places, the pain and the trials. It’s the joy and the blessings that come with the miles. It’s a calling gone out to a fortunate few to wander the fringes of God’s hazy blue.”

This is Eb Eberhart’s poetic answer for one of the most common questions he receives: Why?

Eberhart, 70, has been a long-distance hiker since he started out on the Eastern Continental/Appalachian Mountains Trail in 1998. He is working his way through the North Country National Scenic Trail, a 4,600-mile trail that begins in North Dakota and ends at the border of New York and Canada. The trail cuts through western, southern and eastern Ohio following parts of the Buckeye Trail.

Eberhart was an optometrist in Florida before he retired after 30 years and took up long-distance hiking. “I’ve always been an outdoors person,” he said Friday, July 3, while making a quick stop in Xenia. “I guess I just took it to the extreme.”

During his hikes, Eberhart doesn’t listen to music or carry novels in his backpack. He carries a hand-held e-mail device to communicate with his friends and a tape recorder to vocally make notes for future journal entries. He sees other material objects, such as radios, as a distraction.

Eberhart believes distractions keep people from thinking about themselves and who they really are. While hiking alone, Eberhart has plenty of time to ponder.

“You’re by yourself for hours and days and weeks. You think about who you are as a person,” he said, “and how you treated your brothers and sisters, your mom and your dad. You have all these things you wish you could take back and do over again.”

Eberhart has covered six of the 11 National Scenic Trails. The North Country National Scenic is his seventh. He plans to hike the remaining four next spring. The 11 trails total about 17,889 miles.

The only states Eberhart hasn’t hiked through are Hawaii, Alaska and Utah. He has crossed the U.S. border to trek through Quebec, Newfoundland and New Brunswick in Canada. During this year’s hike, Michigan and Wisconsin were new states for him. In the past, he went through Ohio on a transcontinental hike.

With so much distance to cover, weather complications are inevitable. Eberhart started his current hike March 23 in North Dakota and was almost immediately faced with the flooding in Fargo and two blizzards. During the blizzards, he fell victim of frostbite which covered the tip of his nose and his cheeks.

“I thought my face was going to fall off,” he said. “The frostbite was an eighth of an inch thick. You could tap it.”

Brent Anslinger, outdoor recreation manager for Five Rivers MetroParks, said. “It’s great that guys like (Eberhart) are hiking through and raising awareness and showing people that trails are out there.”

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-9370 or hbealer@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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