Have an adventure, take a walk Have an adventure, take a walk (November 04, 2005)

World-class hikers help kick off '80 Mile Club' at Mohr
by Carol Bogart

Crash! Something heavy crashes off into the underbrush by the side of the trail. At first, seasoned hikers Ron and Marcia Powers assume it's another deer. Then, in the tree overhead, they hear "Gr. Grrr." Looking up, Marcia relates, they see the source of the growl. The bear cub's cry, she remembers, sounds "like a human child."

The two assume the crashing they'd heard was the mother bear running off after sending its cub up the tree for safety. They think she ran off to try to lure them away.

The Powers' take one quick photo, then leave, Marcia tells a group assembled Tuesday at Mohr Elementary, "... so the baby bear can stop crying."

She uses the anecdote to illustrate a point she's made to these fledgling hikers: that taking a walk is about adventure as much as it is about health and fitness. Maybe you'll see animals, she tells the kindergarten through fifth-graders. Or unusual plants. "Adventure." she said, "Always think of walking as an adventure."

The Powers were featured speakers at the kickoff of this year's 80 Mile Club at Mohr - the brainchild of Phys Ed instructor Dan Maslana. Maslana founded the club eight years ago. Since then, it's grown from about 60-70 members to as many as 125.

Kids of all ages and at all levels of fitness -- even some in wheelchairs -- take part in the activity that challenges them to cover 80 miles in six months, or about the length of the school year.

Walking to school counts. Walking along with the group for even a block is logged. Parents are encouraged to participate. "I thought it would be a perfect time for parents and kids to have some time together," Maslana explains, "Away from television, away from the phone."

Fifth graders Melanie Kwak and Samantha Franco are members of the 80 Mile Club. For Melanie, Tuesday's walk was her second outing. When she was six, she and her sister participated and went for walks around the neighborhood with their parents.

Samantha likes that participation puts the walkers' names in the student newspaper and also likes that she's taking part "in something great." Like Melanie, Samantha, too, goes walking with her family.

The Powers -- who took up hiking after they retired -- are an inspiration, Maslana said, for the club and for him. He's backpacked parts of the Continental Divide, Appalachian and Pacific Rim Trails. Each, he said, is well over 2,000 miles. "To be able to do any one of those is astonishing to me. ... These folks have done all three, plus the entire walk across the country."

That puts the Pleasanton pair in a unique group -- just 50 walkers world-wide -- who can claim that accomplishment. It's earned them a guest appearance on the Today Show -- and an array of photos. Prints-in-mud of an enormous mountain lion alongside a trail, a startled elk in a thicket, a fawn nestled sleeping in a bed of grass. Ancient petroglyphs. A brilliant sunset behind a mountain meadow. And more. Much, much more.

From 1998-2005, the two have viewed America from the ground up for a total of 13,300 miles of hiking. As one onlooker said Tuesday, "That's half-way 'round the world." To see photos from the Powers' many hiking adventures, visit gottawalk.com.

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