The East Bay Barefoot Hikers held a very well attended Media event (I mean hike) on Sunday, 19th November.
We had the Contra Costa Times (very large-circulation Bay Area newspaper) along on a four mile hike through the foothills on the Clayton side of Mount Diablo.
I got in contact with the reporter through a lead provided by Richard Frazine. The reporter, Joe Garofoli, had seen the piece about Richard in the current issue of Backpacker Magazine.
We had thirteen people altogether (including the reporter, his wife and the photograper). There were eight adults (four men, four women) and five children including my son Gareth (12) and my daughter Gillian (10). The photographer was the only one who didn't go barefoot.
This hike was a great success !!. The reporter (Joe Garofoli) seemed really positive about the experience, and asked everyone a lot of good questions.
The photographer was amazing (to me). He must have shot off about four rolls of film. He was running up and down the trail to get shots of us approaching/departing. He lay on the ground with his camera to get shots of our feet as we were walking by.
The lead-in for the article was put on the front page of the December 3rd, Sunday edition of the Contra Costa Times. They included five color photographs and almost a whole page inside the newspaper. The Times is part of the Knight-Ridder newspaper group and the article was re-published in other parts of the country.
-- Mike Berrow
-- East Bay Barefoot Hikers (San Francisco Bay Area, California).