It’s 10 a.m. on a Monday morning in January. I meet Dru White at the Living Room Trail in the foothills above Salt Lake City. Haze surrounds the valley like a bathtub ring, but there’s nothing but blue sky above. The weather app on my phone reads 30 degrees.
He’s dressed in black: Salomon Speedcross trail shoes, Nike shorts over leggings, Nike three-quarter zip, neck gaiter, Nike hat. White hair peeks out from under the cap. His smile is broad as we shake hands. This is hike No. 1,807 on the Wasatch Front since he started counting in 2012. He’s done this trail more than 120 times. Why it’s named the Living Room will become obvious later.
But to get there, we have to traverse a mountain formation that has come to be known as the dragon among some older hikers who frequent the area. White turned the notion into a fantasy book — “The Path of the Dragon Walker” — as part of a self-help program to get people off the couch and into the mountains. “Technology has twisted people in a lot of ways that isn’t healthy,” he says. “Going out in nature can help.”
We head off up a steep little pitch into what he calls the fangs. Deseret News photographer Kristin Murphy and I are about to become dragon walkers. White is the OG.
Minimalist hiking
A soon-to-be 74-year-old former owner of a health and fitness company, White was a regular hiker for decades. But his hikes really ramped up after he retired at age 60. He hikes nearly every day now…