Beloved 90-year-old Provo hiker remembered after tragic house fire

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Henry Miles, a 90-year-old man known for hiking Y Mountain daily, inspired many with his dedication.
Miles is being remembered for that dedication after he died in an Orem house fire earlier this month.
His daughter finds peace in imagining him continuing his journey beyond this life.

PROVO – On most mornings, the Y Mountain Trail in Provo is filled with hikers pushing themselves up the steep path to the giant white letter on the hillside.

But lately, something about the trail just feels quieter. That's because the most familiar face on the mountain is gone.

Henry Miles, a 90-year-old man who hiked the Y nearly every day – more than 4,000 times – died earlier this month in a house fire in Orem.

His daughter, Terese Hickey, said she still can't believe her father will never hike that trail again.

"I knew he was well-known," she said. "And the connections I have made with people, they're like, 'That was your dad?'"

In May, KSL-TV featured Miles in a story when friends and family surprised him on the trail for his 90th birthday.

"He wasn't slowing down," Hickey said with a laugh.

Now, the hikers who often saw him on the trail are realizing just how much of an impact he made.

"It was so beautiful, and my dad was so inspiring," Hickey said. "People who were struggling to do it, they would look at him and go, 'If he can do this, I think I'm going to make a better effort to do this.'"

Hickey said returning to the trail after his death brought her a sense of peace.

"I couldn't sleep, and I just thought: What better thing to do than just come up here?" she said. "So, I kind of chatted with him a little along the way and imagined him."

But the grief quickly returned when another hiker approached her.

"The very first person that I ran into, from about 10 feet away, she was like, 'Where is your dad?'" Hickey said. "We both started crying, and she said, 'Your dad was so inspirational.'"

Henry Miles' son, Nelson Miles, said the trail helped define who his father became later in life, but his personal journey started much earlier.

At one point, Nelson Miles said his father made a decision to leave behind old habits.

"His bishop said, 'I'll give you six months,' and so he quit his smoking, he quit his drinking, and he never looked back," Nelson Miles said.

He also shared a story about how his father once walked in the historic March on Washington with Martin Luther King, Jr.

"This friend of my father's reaches out to him and says, 'Hey, come here,' and he pulls him in and says, 'Hey, this is Martin Luther King,'" Nelson Miles said. "My dad shook his hand and then walked with him."

Even though Nelson Miles joked that he doesn't hike as often as his father did, he is proud of the life his father led.

"There's a large set of people who have been influenced by him," he said.

Hikers who heard the news have begun leaving small mementos in Henry Miles' honor. At the trailhead, someone left a bunch of pictures from some of Miles' hikes.

His daughter said she knows her father has touched a lot of lives.

"Much more than I thought," she said.

And while he's no longer hiking, Hickey finds peace imagining her dad continuing his journey somewhere else.

"Can you imagine? He's jaunting wherever he wants to go, and he has seen his family," she said. "It's just bringing me a lot of peace to know that he's with his mom and dad."

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