Many Trails To Travel, Many Tales To Tell
By Barbara B. Baker, Event & Volunteer Coordinator
Let's Talk!
Sometimes when I’m walking along the trail I meet people who aren’t in a hurry to get wherever they’re going or aren’t lost in their own private thoughts. Out in the open space it’s easier and more acceptable to talk to strangers; when I take a moment to say or return a hello or linger long enough to put a dent in my self-imposed timetable, I seem to lose that feeling of detachment that’s crept into everyday life. The irony of the age we live in, I think, is that we’re so tuned in that communication no longer enlarges our world, but in fact makes it smaller and less personal. We’re at once more in touch and less connected. Because I’m just a click away from conversing with someone faceless halfway around the globe I find that I’m not actually talking to the people around me often enough. Out on the trail, however, I might cross paths with someone who I may never see again but in a few snatched minutes relates a tidbit or tale and reminds me of the importance of slowing down the pace. On this particular morning that person was Douglas Harkreader. Harkreader isn’t the kind of man who is in a hurry or lost in his own meditations.
Douglas Harkreader, with photo of himself on horseback at the Sikes Adobe Farmhouse in mid-80s.
I couldn’t tell you how we got started talking. I’m sure it began with an exchange over the weather since that’s the typical time-honored way of beginning a conversation between strangers. Before I knew it I was hiking down the Mule Hill Historical Trail, a 1.25-mile segment that leads into the San Pasqual Valley Agricultural Preserve, alongside an 81-year old version of the Marlboro Man – not that he smokes; his features are just similar to those handsome, rugged, kind of weather-beaten cowboy looks that the cigarette company packaged and sold. As it happens, he did rope steer for years! Harkreader is more familiar with this territory than most. He worked for 37 years as a Lineman for Pacific Bell in the Sikes Adobe Historic Farmstead area and he painted such a vivid mental picture of the telephone poles that he and three others on his crew erected that I actually thought I saw them. He explained how the 50-foot poles were spaced so many feet apart and how, before being replaced by underground cable, those aerial copper wires represented the cutting edge of technology. His route stretched from Scripps Pomerado to Temecula.
The most difficult part of Harkreader’s job back then was installing open wire over Lake Hodges; he and his team had to work from boats. Converting the old telegraph lines constructed along railroads from San Diego to Anaheim was quite a process. Prior to 1955 toll calls went through a switchboard and operators really did advise and assist – an all but bygone practice in our automated age of caller id, blocking, and call return. When dial telephones made their debut a new era of telecommunications was ushered in and in 1964, less than 10 years later, the touch-tone phones replaced the rotary dial, providing unlimited menu options to telephone service. Now digital and high-speed satellite equipment has advanced communication and cell phones are so common that we’ve had to come up with a whole new set of etiquette rules for their use. As Harkreader told his story I could feel his passion for his work and his life in general. He maintains that the secret to staying fit and healthy is an enthusiasm for something – it could be anything, he says. In his case it seems to be communication, its history and his story in being a part of it!
He brings to life the people who dreamed of pushing past the boundaries of their horizons – Samuel Morse, a portrait painter who invented the dot and dash telegraph system, paving the way for Alexander Graham Bell who was credited with inventing the telephone and then having it patented in 1876. In the same breath Harkreader will tell you about the men he worked with who knew that they too would be pioneers in the field of talking with electricity. It was a lonely job back then. The mall and the surrounding restaurants and businesses were years away from them. But he loved and still enjoys the scenic beauty of this place. He and his wife Barbara, a telephone operator in San Diego when they first met, have been married 55 years and have raised two daughters in Escondido. The trails of the San Dieguito River Park allow him to revisit his past every day and marvel at the changes around him. But he’s especially thankful as he hikes along for the vista in front of him. It’s an open space that remains a valuable resource close to his heart, a piece of the past not swallowed up by housing developments and freeways. Even the telephone poles are gone now.
Did I say something about slowing down the pace? As I hiked back with this man I struggled to keep up! His secret to staying fit really does work. As we passed by other people on the trail I wondered what their stories are. I’m sure everyone’s got one. The next time you’re out on the trail and you see someone just smiling as if in anticipation, stop! It’ll probably be me just waiting to hear from you. Let’s talk!
If you have a favorite trail or story please contact me at Barbara@sdrp.org. History isn’t always in the books; sometimes it’s in the stories! Share your history with the San Dieguito River Park.
