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SALT LAKE CITY — When most people hit retirement age, they tend to slow down a bit. But a Salt Lake man seems to have kicked it up a notch.
Dub Bludworth started taking long-distance hikes when he retired. Since then, he's worn out a ton of shoe leather walking the equivalent of about four-fifths the distance around the Earth.
"I love hiking," Bludworth said. "I love being out in the wilderness."
When asked how many times he's strapped on a backpack over the years, Bludworth responded, "Thousands and thousands."
He's turning 75 this month and he's definitely not letting his age slow him down; he's celebrating his birthday by hiking a long-distance trail near Lake Superior.
"The most I've ever done in a day is about 28, 29 miles," Bludworth said as he hiked a trail in Millcreek Canyon. What I really like is about a 16-mile day."
Those miles are starting to add up since he retired 15 years ago.
"I'm up around 19,000 miles," Bludworth said, estimating that he's worn out 15 pairs of hiking shoes in his retirement.
Part of the allure for Bludworth is the solitude of a long-distance hike.
"I enjoy being all by myself," he said. "I've been where no man's ever been before, and I've been in Manhattan where everybody's at. And I like both of those places. I like lots of people and I like being alone."
A long time ago, Bludworth was an Army paratrooper in the legendary 101st Airborne. His exploits since then have been on the ground, but still, at high elevation.
"I started out mountain climbing," he said, in a bit of an understatement.
He has a collection of photos and newspaper clippings to prove he's been to some of the highest places you can go.
"I identified all the county high-points of Utah, and I was the first person to go to all of them," he said.
Not content with reaching the highest points in every county of Utah, he tried to climb — or walk — to the highest point in each of the 50 states. He failed in just one state; Alaska is the one that got away.
"I did 49 of the 50 state high-points to the very top," Bludworth said. "I didn't quite summit on number 50, McKinley."
He said teamwork issues led him to cancel his final approach to the summit of Mount McKinley, now known as Denali.
In 2000, he hit upon a big idea that would dominate his retirement: he saw a list of 20 long-distance trails in America and he decided to do every one of them, even though most are hundreds of miles long.
"I've finished 16 of them, and I've done some other trails that I've discovered in the meantime," he said.
Others might hike the Appalachian Trail or the Great Western Trail and call it good. But Bludworth is hiking pretty much all the long trails, usually in shorter pieces, 200 to 300 miles at a time.
"The longest hike I've done at one time has only been 540 miles," he said.
He figures all that walking is good for his health, although he's not so sure about his knees.
"I probably won't finish those (last four trails) before I can't walk anymore," he said with a chuckle. "But I might."
