The decorated record holder and pioneer of his sport lives in an unpretentious apartment in Flagstaff’s tree-lined streets. Now 86, his Robert “Bob” Packard has spent the better part of the last 60 years climbing mountainsides and rising in the rankings as one of his sport’s most successful figures.

Packard now makes a name for himself as one of only three people to hike the entire length of the Grand Canyon on both sides of the Colorado River. Many other achievements in sports.

Now, with the help of a pacemaker, Packard is slowing down, but it’s not perfect yet.

early beginnings

For most of his childhood, spent on his family’s farm in rural Maine, the outdoors were a place of work, not exploration and hiking.

“Growing up on a farm was where I learned a lesson in hard work,” he said.

Both his parents worked, but the farm served as a way for his family to save money on food, said Packard, who is the oldest of five children. After school I spent milking cows, slopping pigs and digging potatoes.

Packard ended up at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, where he went on his first few hikes, planting the seeds of a passion that would eventually grow when he moved west.

From there, Packard completed his Ph.D. With a PhD in Mathematics from Dartmouth College, he was soon looking for a place to settle down with his teaching position and young family.

He eventually joined Northern Arizona University as a mathematics lecturer, and the family moved over 2,000 miles west to Flagstaff. Packard felt familiar with the pine trees of mountain towns, which reminded him of Maine’s nickname, the “Pine Tree State,” but saw limitless possibilities in a whole new field.

“It’s close to desert country and mountain and canyon country,” said Packard. “I think that’s one of the reasons he’s drawn me to Flagstaff. It’s not a big change in terms of the local everyday climate, but the fact that it’s really close to an exotic area.”

Luckily for Packard, NAU’s mathematics department already had another trailblazing hiker, Harvey Butchart. Packard was immediately taken under his wing.

“One of the reasons I came to Flagstaff was to meet him and get close to Canyon Country. I think it’s one of the 10 most prominent hikers in the Grand Canyon, says Packard.

His dedication to the trail at the time even prompted his then-wife to refer to the Grand Canyon as Packard’s “mistress.”

Packard completed the south length hike of the Grand Canyon in 1998 at the age of 61, and completed the north just two years later, making him one of only three people to complete the mission to this day. rice field. Besides Packard, Robert Benson and Andrew Hollycross completed the hike, with Hollycross completing his 2013.

“My first 30 hikes in the Grand Canyon were [Butchart]Packard said, “Whatever I do in the Grand Canyon, I have to say I’m either following in his footsteps or standing on his shoulders.

goal change

Packard didn’t start his hiking career with lofty goals. Instead, one trip led to another, and in the end he realized he had done a lot more than he thought. was very close to achieving

“At first, I wasn’t going to walk the full Grand Canyon, but I started doing it every weekend, and gradually I realized that I didn’t have that much time.

Over time, his goals changed and he came across new aspirations. His focus shifted from conquering all of his 14,000 foot peaks in the United States to 13,000 foot peaks and more.

“One thing led to another and I was in a high pointing state,” he said.

When his son, Eric, was a teenager, he encouraged his father to attempt the highest points in all of Arizona’s 15 counties.

Packard eventually became the first person to reach the highest point in every county in the western United States and, in 1995, reached the highest point in all 50 states, including an 18-day trek on Mount McKinley in Alaska.

Eric is now an accomplished climber and mathematician in Colorado, and still remembers growing up with his father on hikes, including carrying his brother on his back up Mount Humphrey at 7am.

Their adventure gradually developed from reaching their first 14,000-foot summit at the age of 12 to finally climbing Mount McKinley together in 1990.

Evolving with sports

Throughout his life, advances in mapping, radar, and other technologies gradually transformed a sport that required advanced knowledge of map reading and navigation skills.

“It’s almost like you’re just doing the bootstring with very little information at first,” he said. “And remember, when I was doing most of my hobbies, you didn’t have a GPS.”

For example, when Packard first started keeping track of state highs, he picked up Rand McNally’s highway map of the highs in each state and started going through the list. It was only a few years later that advances in radar technology began recording new elevation measurements, sometimes completely changing the state’s highest point.

As a result, he had to return to several states to reach new highs. Some states have been slightly moved with very little elevation change, but I don’t feel the need to go back to all the states. Instead, he’s happy to have completed his original list.

“There is a general agreement among people in this hobby that if you complete a list under the circumstances it was considered a list, you will get credit,” he said.

Packard also began to become less active with age.

With the help of a pacemaker, Packard’s career slowed, as evidenced by his recent 3,000th Arizona Summit.

Eric has noticed his father has become sluggish lately, but when we go out on the trails together, he is often amazed at how fast his father is still climbing mountains.

As much as he admired Butchart, Packard has built a reputation as one of the fathers of the sport.

Eric remembers one particular instance when a group of young hikers recognized his father and huddled around him like a celebrity.

“There were like 10 LeBron James guys around him,” Eric said with a laugh.

But Packard sees it as a natural progression in the sport. He has a hero to look up to, and while he may be filling that role for someone else right now, there will eventually emerge the next generation of prolific hikers and climbers.

“It’s very important to point out that it’s a generational thing, which means that there will always be someone in front of you that you look up to and aspire to be like.” I am in a position in my life to have other people behind me who aspire to be like me.”

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Contact Northern Arizona reporter Lacey Latch at llatch@gannett.com or on social media. @laceylatchNorthern Arizona coverage on azcentral.com and the Republic of Arizona is funded by a grant from the nonprofit Report for America and the Vitalyst Health Foundation Associated with the Republic of Arizona..