LONGVIEW — At 77 years old, Carl Lindemaier says he’s in better shape now than he was in his 20s.
You need to be in order to hike close to 500 miles across Oregon like Lindemaier did.
The Ryderwood man brought his 39-day trek to a finish Thursday night. After grabbing a hamburger, fries and “the biggest mocha I could find,” Lindemaier walked halfway across the Bridge of Gods at the Cascade Locks and met his goal of crossing Oregon on the Pacific Crest Trail to raise money for the volunteer-run Cowlitz County Search and Rescue.
“It was like the race was over,” he said by phone Friday.
Lindemaier is the oldest volunteer with Cowlitz County Search and Rescue, which receives state money only in the form of the occasional reimbursements for gas.
The hike brought in $755 for the organization by Friday.
While Lindemaier can claim his oldest volunteer title, he doesn’t measure age like most of us.
“Age, to me, is just a number. (Your) actual age is an attitude,” Lindemaier reflected.
And that makes him young, physically and mentally. The retired animal photographer and avid mountaineer said he wanted to do the hike, the longest of his life, because he needed some extra oomph. Lindemaier has climbed every peak on the West Coast but Mount Jefferson.
“Whenever you get in the morning and don’t have any challenge, it’s not worth getting up,” he said. “I needed the personal challenge.”
Asked if he encountered any problems on the trail, which follows the North Cascades, Lindemaier responded with characteristic optimism.
“I don’t think there were any problems. Just challenges,” he said.
Like the ridgelines he followed, the trip was replete with joyful ups and frustrating downs. There was a lava field stretching for miles, covered only by fist-size rocks hikers crush precariously underfoot, made more difficult by the acute sense of boredom many hikers suffer on the trail. It’s a chance to let your mind wander and occasionally go a little crazy, Lindemaier reflected.
“Days and days in and you’re in trees,” he said of boredom on the trail. “I saw a frog, and I wanted to talk to him. And he didn’t want any part of that!”
There was the 69,000-acre wildfire burning up near Warm Springs which packed Lindemaier onto a bus for a 30-mile trip around the fire.
But there were also moments of tranquility, like a perch on the border of deep blue Crater Lake, which Lindemaier described as one of the most beautiful areas of the trail.
There were moments that make any hiker glad to be alive, like unexpected shelter from the rain at the Huckleberry Inn at Government Camp, complete with a warm shower and a laundromat. Or breakfast at Timberline Lodge, from which Lindemaier could see the massive white cloud hanging over the Warm Springs fire he safely avoided.
Lindemaier, who owns and maintains 17 acres of land outside of Ryderwood, is never one to sit down for long. After a solid night’s rest and a late breakfast, he was already planning on doing the Portland Marathon in the fall.
“I always tell them at the beginning, leave the lights on,” he said.
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