Photo Courtesy of Bernie Harberts
Bernie Harberts, along with his mules Brick and Cracker, spent a few days in Trenton this past week as part of his journey from Lenore, NC to Hailey ID. He hopes to be in Idaho by October.
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R-T Editor
A North Carolina man traveling by mule to visit his wife’s family in Idaho stopped in Trenton on Thursday, spending three days in town before heading to his next stop on a trip that is anticipated to take six months to complete.
Bernie Harberts is an author, photographer and filmmaker who left Lenore, NC on April 5 with his pack mule Brick and his saddle mule Cracker and, after 900 miles, found himself in Trenton. Harberts is hoping to be in Hailey, ID, located east of Boise, sometime in October.
Harberts said his journey averages around 15 to 20 miles a day, depending on the weather and the people he meets along the way. It’s those people who provide him with a place to stay during the night, whether it’s letting him pitch his tent in their yard or offering him a bed and a chance to sleep in a more normal environment.
“I get the chance to meet people I’ve never met and don’t necessarily need to meet,” he said. “And it also gives me a chance to get a deep look at America.”
On his trip through Trenton and Grundy County, Harberts spent Wednesday night with the Brubaker family, a Mennonite family living in the north part of the county. He came upon two of the children in the family as they were working on a roof and it was the children who invited Harberts to be their guest for the evening. The stay included a hot meal before getting up the next morning and heading into Trenton.
Because he likes to rest his mules gor a few days every four to five days, Harberts said he began looking for a place that would accommodate not only himself but Brick and Cracker as well. A conversation at Orschlen’s led him to Affordable Vet Care and Dr. Dale Alumbaugh, who agreed to house the two mules and let Harberts pitch his tent in the grassy area near the business building.
While taking a break, Harberts wandered into Trenton to do what he likes doing best – talking with people and learning their story.
“I’ve met a lot of great people on this trip and Trenton is no exception,” he said.
Harberts’ first stop was at the Trenton Post Office, which also has general delivery services and allowed him a place to pick up a sorely-needed canvas bucket mailed to him by his wife. A conversation at the post office led him to the Republican-Times and from there was headed out to “see the sites.”
“I love history and architecture,” he said, adding he had plans to visit the Rock Barn, Crowder State Park and other places suggested to him by those he had met along the way.
An avid photographer and “a compulsive chronicler of stuff,” Harberts said he likes to record his adventures through photo essays of unusual things he finds along the way. This trip involves road-side trash, which he said he is using to “classify” the states through which he travels.
“It’s amazing the crap people throw out,” he chuckled. “Until I got to Missouri, I would find all kinds of things. But here, the roads are cleaned up and what I am finding now is a lot of seeds. I’m sure that has to do with the planting season and it’s such a refreshing change.”
Harberts planned to head out of Trenton on Sunday, with his next stop being Rock Port and then on through Nebraska. He said he was well aware of the flooding situation and may have to alter his route somewhat.
“But that’s all part of the trip,” he said, adding he has developed a better understanding of what it must have been like for pioneers as they traveled west to settle the U.S.
“(This trip) has given me a better idea of what it was like for them to walk for half a day, then encounter some obstacle and having to walk back to their original destination and find another route,” he said.
The trip from North Carolina to Idaho is not the first for Harberts, whose year-long journey from Canada to Mexico was chronicled in a 2017 PBS special, “The Lost Sea Expedition.” He has also traveled from North Carolina to California. His wife remains at home, tending to the couple’s business of growing timber and managing hunting leases from their 450-square foot home. She will be meeting Harberts in Idaho when he arrives there in October.