THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 9, 1995 TAG: 9507070141
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 18 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAWSON MILLS, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 97 lines
To heed the call of the great outdoors it's only natural for some people to head for the hills. In Virginia Beach, that means Mount Trashmore.
Early morning visitors there, for the past few months, have been treated to the sight of two earnest backpackers hiking up, over, around and across the city's highest peak. In late spring, they were joined by a third climber, carrying a walking stick.
Arriving about 6 a.m., they can be seen having coffee atop the summit between 7 and 8 a.m. before vanishing from the grassy slopes as quickly and quietly as they came.
Has Virginia Beach's only mountain gained a following among the mountain-climbing set?
The answer is yes and no.
The regulars are Virginia Beach residents Bob Liberman and Alan Manzie, both 47. The newcomer is Bill Richard, also 47.
Both Liberman and Manzie work in the insurance field - Liberman as an agent and Manzie as a broker. Both have been hiking and backpacking up mountains and through gorges for years. For the past 15 they have been doing it together about once a year.
The early morning outings to Mount Trashmore are their way of preparing for their next foray, scheduled for late August.
``This year we'll probably do Seven Devils Mountain, Big Horn Crags or the Jarbidge Mountains in Northern Nevada,'' explained Liberman. ``It'll probably be Seven Devils Mountain but it depends on where we fly into.''
Past treks into the wild have taken them to the Canadian Rockies, the Wind River Range, the Sawtooth Mountains in Idaho, the Brooks Range in Northern Alaska, the Northern Cascades and Nahanni Country in the Northwest Territory. They've also journeyed to Auyuitug (meaning ``Land that never melts'' in the Inuit language of the Eskimos), Baffin Island, the Crazy Mountains of Montana, Jasper in the Canadian Rockies, Wrangell in St. Elias National Park and the outside coast of Glacier Bay. Then there's the Canyonlands of Utah, San Juan Range in Southern Colorado, the Yukon and Kenai Peninsula in Alaska, Death Valley, the Ruby Range and Snake Range in Nevada. And don't forget the High Uintas in Utah. There's also been 50 or 60 outings in Virginia and West Virginia.
``If I have four days I like to go to West Virginia,'' Liberman said. ``But I do a lot of two- or three-day weekend deals in Virginia.''
If you like ice water with your meals, guided tours and air conditioned motor coaches, these are not the folks you want to plan your next vacation.
Part of the lure for the well-traveled twosome is to take off for two weeks or more at a time with everything they'll need, except water, neatly stowed in the packs on their backs.
Those packs can weigh up to 70 pounds. That's enough weight that, once it's in place, the inertia as it bounces and sways can throw the uninitiated off course, if not to the ground.
Ideal weight is 25 to 35 pounds but to train, hikers work out with higher weights.
That's what Bill Richard, who joined Manzie and Liberman in June was doing. On June 30, he and two friends took off to climb Mount Whitney in California, at 14,495 feet the highest peak in the lower 48 states. Bill was attacking Mount Trashmore with a 65-pound pack to get ready.
According to Liberman, ``You can do any kind of exercise you want, but it always seems you haven't worked out some muscle. So you might as well do the real thing.''
Carrying a camera has enabled him to collect enough photographs to assemble slide presentations that he frequently shows to Lions, Kiwanis and Rotary clubs. ``I got inspired last winter,'' he recalled, ``and put them all together - 18 or 19 slide shows.''
Framed color prints of the best of them line the walls of each room in his office, just across from the entrance to Mount Trashmore.
Liberman also said they run into some real characters on their trips. One such memorable individual was leading a group of hikers several years ago. Liberman remembered that he seemed to have a grudging respect for them because they were going it on their own.
It turns out that the same man is now a supervisor with the Canadian Park Service at Ellsmere Island, in Northern Canada at about 82 degrees north latitude, where Liberman, Manzie and several others who hike with them hope to go next year.
``We all want to go there,'' Liberman said, ``but it's Al's dream trip.''
Both are married. Manzie and his wife, Nancy, have a 5-year-old daughter. Liberman and his wife, J.J., have a grown son and daughter and two granddaughters. Their family members share their love of backpacking to varying degrees. Manzie's family enjoys camping and daughter Kylie, he said, ``already likes to climb on furniture.''
Speaking of granddaughter Kayla, 3, Liberman said, ``We're going to break her in early. We've already taken her to the mountains, when she was 1 1/2.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo by DAWSON MILLS
Bob Liberman, left, Bill Richard and Alan Manzie hike Mount
Trashmore daily as training for real mountain climbing. Liberman and
Manzie plan an August trip to Nevada; Richard just returned from
Mount Whitney in California.
by CNB