'Mountain Goat' not about to slow down

Mina Henke smiles when she tells the story of a hike a few years ago into Glacier National Park's Granite Park Chalet.

Henke, of Kila, was resting a bit at the chalet when an older gentleman and his daughter arrived.

The man plopped himself down and proceeded to tell everyone within earshot that he was "getting too old to do this."

His daughter laughed and said, "He's been saying that for 10 years. He's 84!"

Henke will be 79 in December - but she has no intention of slowing down any time soon, either.

Nicknamed "Mountain Goat" by her friends, Henke has done nearly every day hike in Glacier (all but Dawson-Pitamakan in the Two Medicine area) and she has hiked as high as 13,500 feet in Colorado.

She has been known to hike from Lake McDonald Lodge to Sperry Chalet - a distance of 6.7 miles with a 3,300-foot vertical gain - just to have a piece of pie.

Her friends "bought me a patch of a mountain goat to put on my pack because I do hills really well," she said. "I want to hang in as long as I can. It's just so pleasurable. I have good equipment, thanks to my kids.

"I like to move. I've always walked, walked, walked. I love it. It's so good to move, for one thing. And once I discovered [Glacier] ... it's a passion to go in that park. Nothing compares," she said. "I can't get enough of it."

Among her favorite hikes is Linehan Ridge in Waterton Lakes National Park, a trip she calls "absolutely spectacular."

The hardest hike she's done in Glacier? Swiftcurrent Lookout from The Loop.

Exercise was a way of life when Henke grew up in Colorado.

"I spent my whole life ... I have six brothers and two sisters. We lived at 8,000 feet in the mountains. As kids, we rode our bikes.

"I've always hiked, always walked. I walk my dog at least two miles every day."

She married Marion Henke at 19, moved with him to Alaska and spent the next 32 years following him around that state.

"I traveled everywhere he went," she said.

"I've always been an outdoors person. I tried running - I couldn't do that. But I followed my husband for so many years ... on skis and snowshoes, we traveled a lot," she said.

She helped with a trap line, raised two children and kept a home in an area so remote the only contact with society was a once-a-month flyover by a friend with a plane (they were instructed to put out a flag if they were in trouble).

Help was far enough away that her husband gave strict instructions whenever he was away from home.

"I was not to chop wood, not to do anything that I could hurt myself," she said.

The couple trapped everything from coyotes to wolverines, wolves, seals, beaver, mink, lynx and even eagles for a government bounty. Marion Henke worked at whatever jobs were available. During the winter, the family lived mainly on moose meat and canned fish.

"All the work was seasonal and everybody lived pretty simply," Mina said. "In our whole lives we never had a mortgage."

The advice her husband gave her back then was to always expect to go two miles further than her destination and always be in better shape than she had to be.

"My daughter and I have done that. It works," she says.

The Henkes found the Kalispell area on drives. They bought 10 acres in Kila in 1976 and retired there in 1984.

"Basically, I didn't do a lot when I first came," she said.

But it wasn't long until she discovered an aerobics class being taught at Kila School.

Another neighbor, retired from Kalispell Regional Medical Center, invited Henke to join her hiking group.

She's been all over with those women.

Her hobbies are still few, she says. "I hike and I quilt."

And "just because I needed more social life" she joined the American Legion and is an officer in the Eagles.

She's especially motivated this year to get in shape - her two younger brothers and a nephew are planning a trip here next summer.

"This winter I'm going to work at it. If my brothers are coming up I want to do something major."

They're hoping to get the long elusive Dawson-Pitamakan under their belts.

To that end, she keeps an exercise bike and a Total Gym in her basement and she does exercises to keep her knees and back strong.

One of her favorites is to put 10 to 15 pounds of weight in a backpack and climb up and down steps. Sometimes she'll do squats as she goes down.

"I do that one and that's a good one," she said.

"I'm not trying to be a role model, but I would encourage people to stay in shape, because it's just so enjoyable."