AMC Outdoors, October 2003

By Katharine Wroth

At 5:30 every morning, Leon Barkman works out at his local gym. In addition to stints on a rowing machine and in the weight room, he plays basketball with a group of men in their 20s and 30s. It’s not an unusual schedule for a devoted athlete, but Barkman — who also often hits the tennis court and leads several hikes a month for the Connecticut Chapter — is twice the age of some of his teammates. When asked if he is quite possibly the most fit person in the state of Connecticut, the 71-year-old AMC leader demurs. “I’m in good enough shape to lead the kind of life I like, and that’s what counts,” he says.

Barkman is part of a legendary crowd: the earliest crop of Appalachian Trail hikers. He was the 37th person to complete the entire journey, hiking it in two sections in 1967 and 1968. “It wasn’t well known then,” he says. “I met one other thru-hiker, a south-bounder in Tennessee.” He has also bicycled across the country and twice through the Canadian Rockies, and belongs to the Highpointers Club — those who seek to climb to the highest point in each state. Last year he reached his final Lower 48 apex on a trek to Montana with his nephew, Lee. (He accomplished the first, unintentionally, on a picnic with his parents and sisters at New Jersey’s high point near his childhood home in Port Jervis, N.Y.)

Barkman, who lives in Newtown with his wife, Patricia, shares his exploits through slide shows at Pinkham Notch Visitor Center and AMC meetings. The avid birder — who has published and distributed a checklist of Connecticut species — is also an AMC volunteer naturalist, spending a week each summer helping hut visitors explore their surroundings. Now retired from a career as a biology professor at Housatonic Community College, he says it’s the teacher in him that led him to volunteer. “I meet a lot of interesting people, and I get to help them enjoy life in a different way than they might otherwise,” he muses. “I can help them find a better route from A to B.”

—Katharine Wroth is Senior Editor of AMC Outdoors.