Beyond The Bio - NOTC Hall of Fame
The "Beyond the Bio" series dives deeper into the history, background, and life of our New Orleans Track Club Hall of Fame inductees. Check back for regular updates to read more about your favorite long-time NOTC members and volunteers.
Phil Gioia - Bayou Mountain Man
Katahdin Summit, Cadillac Mountain, Mount Washington, Mount Greylock, Mount Frissel, Clingman’s Dome, Mount Arvon, Timm’s Hill, Taum Saulk Mountain, Borah Peak, Chimney Tops, Mount Rainier, Gannett Peak, Mount Hood - these are just a sampling of the mountains that Phil Gioia has hiked.
Like the “Ancient Mariner”, Phil will inflict his oral history on anyone with even the slightest interest in highpoints of the states. If you want to know about mountaineering in general or a particular highpoint, just ask Phil and you will hear more than you ever want to know.
The decades-long quest to stand on the highest point of each state has for this flatlander been a journey of discovery. Each highpoint has something interesting and unique and has afforded the opportunity to see much of this great country. Experiencing snow glaciers altitude, uphill scree and extreme mountain weather is another journey of discovery for someone who has lived his whole life (so far) in southern Louisiana.
Some of the high points like Florida. Delaware and Iowa are as simple as driving up and taking a picture. Others like Wyoming, Montana, Utah, and Washington require multiday backpacking, alpine climbing and marathon determination. Indiana, Iowa, and Louisiana are on private property and the owners are very accommodating to high pointers. Illinois and Rhode Island are also private property, and they are not. At Charles Mound, Illinois, Phil jumped the fence, pet the dog, took a picture, and fled.
The trailhead at Louisiana’s Driskill Mountain (535 ft.) is about a half mile from where they shot Bonnie and Clyde.
The best highpoint is Washington’s Mt. Rainier. The first attempt ended about 500 vertical feet from the summit when a huge crevasse opened just ahead. The second attempt ended at base camp with a blizzard. In the third attempt he brought a support team; his daughter Jennifer and her friend doctor Lorie instead of a first aid kit. The new strategy included camping on the Ingram Glacier a thousand feet above base camp and starting the final climb at midnight. The strategy and great weather worked and at 9:30 a.m. he reached the summit of Mt, Rainier which qualifies as one of his top five lifetime events.
Mt Hood in Oregon took six attempts.
The hardest, by far, is Wyoming’s Gannett Peak. A five-day trek by Phil and his son Jason ended in surrender. Equipment was too heavy to carry the twenty miles to the base of the mountain. A close encounter with two grizzlies hastened their retreat as well. For the second attempt, Phil’s wife Janel contracted an outfitter to take the two of them and friends Mary and Charlie on horseback to their camp in the Bridger Wilderness. In three days the outfitters took just Phil as far as the horses could go and planned a rendezvous in thirty hours. It was a strenuous three mile hike to the tarn at the base of the mountain. After a few hours of very good sleep, he started the climb at about 11 p.m. Forgoing the favored ice bridge because it looked precarious, Phil found another bridge higher up. The summit was reached shortly after sunup. The weather was so clear that the Tetons 80 miles away could be seen! He was only an hour or so late to the rendezvous. It was great to see his wife and friends, but even better, his horse.
His all-time favorite is Maine’s Katahdin. This mountain does it with attitude not altitude. After a half day of hiking on rocks, three boulder fields must be crossed. These are huge boulders. Put your trekking poles away and get out your climbing gloves. Next is a merciful flat plateau followed by a last steep rocky climb to the summit. In the 1930’s an eight-year-old boy got lost going down from the plateau. He barely survived about ten days in the wilderness. While recovering, he told his story, and an adult wrote a book in the boy’s words about his ordeal. The book is Lost on a Mountain in Maine. Phil, having climbed this mountain four times, knows the exact spot where the boy went off trail all those years ago.
Phil will never again climb Nevada’s Boundary Peak. Thirty feet from a ridge, two lightning strikes out of a clear blue sky rained rocks on him and split his lip. Sliding down in the scree at breakneck speed, his cloths were rags when he got to tree line. A few days later, with new blue jeans and good weather he reached the summit and avoided the infamous Boundary triangle going down where many had gotten lost. He is one of two in Nevada and won’t be back.
As to getting lost, ask him about Utah.
Pick a state, any state. Beware of the Ancient Mariner.
Don and Charlene Brinkman - A Love Story
Picture a front porch in New Orleans, spring and summer 1964. Music playing on a record player, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison. Neighborhood kids, hanging out and having fun. Getting to know each other, transitioning from grammar school to high school. This is where Don Brinkman and Charlene Silcio met when Don was a freshman at Holy Cross, and Charlene an 8th grader at St. Vincent dePaul..
No one in the crowd were boyfriend and girlfriend at that point, just friends. Back to school time, and Don goes back to Holy Cross, and Charlene starts school at Annunciation. In 1965, the Silcio family moves to Metairie, and Charlene’s mother wants Charlene to go to Chapelle. Charlene’s asks to stay with her friends at Annunciation, and her wish is granted. Don and the friends from the neighborhood borrow cars to drive to the suburbs and see Charlene.
Charlene’s grandmother back in New Orleans needed company, so Charlene started spending the week days in New Orleans at her grandmother’s house. That gave Don the chance he needed.
But Charlene wasn’t convinced. She even set Don up for dates with other girls. Junior Prom, Charlene’s mother told Charlene she should invite Don to the prom, and Charlene listened to her mother.
Don persisted. Their first date was a quadruple date to a drive-in movie. More dates followed. Charlene’s dad would lend Don his car for them to date, and started calling Don “son-in-law”. Money was tight, and a nice date was 2 RC Colas, a bag of peanuts and a trip to Algiers on the ferry and back.
Don gave Charlene a sweetheart ring, a cedar chest, his high school letter sweater, and his senior class ring. They both graduated high school and worked and saved until they pooled their savings and bought a house. They were married two months later at Holy Trinity, where Don had been baptized, received his Holy Communion, and been Confirmed as a Catholic. As the limousine’s passed Don’s house where he was getting ready with his groomsman, Don joked that he had been waiting years for Charlene, and now she would be waiting for him at the church.
From the beginning of their running careers, they were volunteers at the New Orleans Track Club (NOTC), and generations of athletes have been welcomed by Charlene’s warm smile and Don’s gift for small talk. While Don and Charlene grew their nuclear family from two to four, with the birth of their son and daughter, Charlene believes they grew their family by much more, with the friends who became family in the NOTC. Don served as NOTC President in 1991, and Charlene served as NOTC President in 2002 and 2003. Don likes to remind people that he may not be the oldest NOTC volunteer, but he is probably the longest serving volunteer. Don and Charlene were both inducted in the NOTC Hall of Fame in 2014.
A lot has changed over the fifty-three years of Don and Charlene’s marriage, and their volunteer service to the NOTC spanning five decades. But there are a couple of things that haven’t changed. Don and Charlene’s love story continues to grow, and they continue to share that love with the NOTC and its’ members.
Learn more about the Hall of Fame HERE.
To learn more about the history of the NOTC, you can browse the Footprints archive online HERE.
