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- Gary Bybee, 86, is reportedly the oldest person to ever complete Peru's Inca Trail.
- The Sunset retiree completed the 26-mile trek to Machu Picchu over four days in May with his son and other friends.
- Tour guide Urbano Gamboa lauded Bybee's persistence and resilience.
SUNSET — Now back home in Sunset, Gary Bybee, fresh off his hike along the Inca Trail in Peru, wonders how he did it.
"I couldn't imagine ... what I was going to go through when I first signed up for it," he said. If he'd known, he joked, "I might have changed my mind."
He stuck with it, though, finishing the 26-mile hike to Machu Picchu over four days and, according to his tour guide, becoming the oldest person — at least in modern times — to ever complete the trek.
Bybee, who ran an appliance repair business before retiring, is 86 years old. "Looking back, I can't imagine that I even did it. But I felt great," he said.
To be sure, many have hiked the popular Inca Trail, one of Peru's top tourist draws. Machu Picchu, the historic sanctuary of the Inca Empire and the endpoint of the trail, is on UNESCO's World Heritage List. Still, for an 86-year-old to complete the Andean trail — which ranges from 7,218 feet to 13,780 feet above sea level, according to Mountain IQ, a guide company — is something of an anomaly.
Mountain IQ said the oldest person to complete the trail prior to Bybee's feat was 84 years old. Urbano Gamboa of Vidal Expeditions, the company that guided Bybee, his son and four of their friends, dubbed Bybee the oldest person to ever officially complete the trek. In a blog post, Gamboa said he initially doubted whether Bybee would be able to finish the hike. Monitoring his progress, though, he started to rest easy, calling Bybee "a man who persists and pushes the body to the limit."
Gamboa consulted with Peruvian Culture Ministry officials, who told him the oldest people to hike the trail before Bybee were 84, 78 and 70, he said in a message to KSL.com. The ministry oversees entry to the trail, managed and controlled as a safeguard. "The average age of those who hike the trail is between 20 and 48 years old because of the difficulty and danger it can pose for those over 50," he said.
Bybee, for his part, said the trip had its tough moments. He did some weightlifting in the months leading up to the trek, which took place April 30 through May 3. Otherwise, his usual exercise routine consists of walking about 2.5 miles a day and playing lots of golf.
Sometimes, the incline on the trail was so steep that Bybee had to climb on his hands and knees. The last 100 yards or so on one arduous day, his companions had to help hold him up, though he recovered and managed the next day. Porters, as is standard on the Inca Trail, hauled camping and cooking gear for the trekkers.
"I didn't see anybody close to my age," Bybee said, describing most of the other hikers he came across as being in their 20s or 30s.
According to AB Expeditions, another tour guide company, there are no age restrictions on who may hike the Inca Trail. "Of course it's important to remember that it is a difficult hike, which means those who are older will want to make sure they are in good physical shape and don't have any extraordinary medical conditions," its website reads.
Corey Bybee, Gary Bybee's son, said his dad was an unexpected addition to the group that made the trek. He mentioned his plans to travel to Peru last December, and the elder Bybee essentially invited himself along. "He just said, 'I want to go.' I was shocked," said Corey Bybee, a firefighter who lives in Clinton.
Gary Bybee described the trip to Peru as a bucket-list sort of thing. "All my life, I've seen pictures of the Inca ruins, and I just wanted to see them," he said. Being able to make the trip with his son "made it special for me."
While he's proud of his accomplishment, Bybee doesn't have any sort of follow-up plans to the South American visit in the works.
"Just golf," he said.
