Layne Pollard, of Gurnee, has a trifecta of milestones hitting around the same time. His doggy day care and grooming business, Central Bark, celebrated its 10-year anniversary this month, and he’ll be turning 60 on June 16, just two days before celebrating Father’s Day with his family stateside after having hiked Mount Kilimanjaro’s 19,341 feet in Tanzania.
With his youngest daughter, Jorie Pollard, 26, by his side, Layne is adamant about not spending his 60th sitting around. So when Layne, an avid hiker, casually mentioned summiting the dormant volcano four years ago to Jorie, another hiking fan, she jumped at the opportunity.
“I want to turn 60, but feel younger,” said the father of three. “I’m turning 60, but that’s only a number. I know a lot of people say that, but I feel a lot younger than I have over the last number of years now. As it gets closer every day, I just get more and more excited and ready to hit the hiking trails for this big adventure.”
For the past six months, Layne and Jorie, who lives and works in Denver, have been training — with Layne walking steeper inclines on treadmills four to five times a week, working on balance, core strength and upper body strength with a trainer, and with Jorie running once or twice a week and doing long and short hikes on weekends and after work.
“The hike is six continuous days, so if we do 8 miles one day, we’ll probably be doing 7 the next,” she said. “So I’ve been trying to mock what that will look like here, so doing 10 miles one day and then 6 the next and I’ve just been doing that every weekend and then some extra cardio during the week.”
Jorie has lived in Alaska and Wyoming, and hiked the Teton Range in the Rocky Mountains in Wyoming, as well as Glacier National Park in Montana with her dad. He said she’s been his hiking buddy since she was 5.
“For a trip, to go do something, she’s always ready to go. She’ll find time, she’ll make a way, she’s always been there,” he said about Jorie. “At a young age, we would take family vacations. We did Colorado Springs when she was about 5 years old, and just walked and walked all day. And then about seventh-eighth grade, we took the family out West and did a Colorado-Utah trip and she absolutely loved it. I think that really opened her eyes to all this.”
Layne instilled his love of the outdoors in Jorie, and Jorie said she and her dad are looking forward to taking her 3-year-old nephew on his first hiking adventure when he is old enough. But the Pollards come to it instinctually. Layne’s father, Jerry Pollard of Northbrook, climbed to 14,700 feet when he hiked Mount Everest in Nepal in March 2016.
For Layne, Mount Kilimanjaro will be the highest he’s ever climbed and his most strenuous hike. Normally, his birthdays entail a big dinner with family. But this time around, his love of nature won out. He’s been a fan of nature for the majority of his life.
“It gets you out of your element. … It just changes the mindset, resets you,” he said. “We’ve gone on vacations in big cities and you come home and say, ‘That was a fabulous vacation.’ But it’s not the same reset as you get when you spend a week in the mountains. There’s nothing like fresh air.”
Jorie can relate. She starting attending overnight camp at 8 years old and continued until her late teens. She said that’s where she truly found her love of the outdoors. With her parents’ encouragement, her adventurous side has thrived. She bought her dad a shirt from Melanzana Outdoor Clothing to keep him warm on the mountain as a Father’s Day gift.
“When you start out, it’ll probably be in the 60s and 70s and as we go up, it gets colder,” she said. “My dad was checking the weather; it’s like 28 degrees at the peak, but it has the possibility to be as cold as 5 degrees, so we will most likely be wearing a winter jacket of sorts at the top, just in case it is that cold.”
Layne isn’t afraid of the temperatures; he knows how to dress for the weather. After all, he’s from Chicagoland. Layne said most of the hike will be done in 30- to 50-degree temperatures, except for the final day, at the top, where the high could be 21 degrees and the low 10 degrees. The temperature increases again as one goes down the mountain, ranging from 59 to 63 degrees.
The pair land in Tanzania on Saturday and the hiking begins Sunday. He said over the first four days, he plans to go from 13,000 feet to about 16,000 feet. And on the fourth night on the mountain, he and his daughter start their ascent in the dark from 16,000 feet to over 19,000 feet.
“The goal is the summit,” he said. “If I have to push myself, I will push — as long as altitude sickness is not involved. The tour guides are not going to let you push through that. It’s too dangerous. But if it’s body aches, that’s mind over matter. At that point, that won’t stop me. God willing, we’ll get to the top and we’ll be home on Father’s Day.”
Layne posted about the trip on his company’s website. What started as something the Pollards didn’t think was that big of a deal is now something special because everybody else thinks it is.
He said Central Bark’s clientele are excited for him, as are Jorie’s colleagues and friends in Colorado. The father and daughter intend to share photos, journal and blog posts while trekking, depending on connectivity on the mountain. Jorie will share her images on her Instagram account and Layne will send pictures to his wife, so she can update the Facebook page for Central Bark.
Layne said he will do his best to take it all in and revel in the time spent with his daughter on this milestone.
“Father’s Day is about either your kids being with you or you spending time with your own parents,” he said. “And we’ll be home for Father’s Day to share this whole adventure with my dad.”
As for Layne’s next steps after hitting age 60, he’s already thinking of taking his hiking to elevations of 20,000 feet.
“Let me get through 19,000 feet and let’s see what happens in a year or so,” he said. “My father at 84, was hiking the route to base camp on Everest, so we have big shoes to follow. If he did this at 84, I have no choice in my own mind that I have to do this at 60.”
Jorie said Layne will push her as much as he’ll push himself. “He’s worked really hard and I have all the faith in the world that he will have no problem at all to get up the mountain,” she said.
