Sen. Haar blazes a trail in public service

Above: Sen. Haar poses for a photo before embarking on a three-day hike in the Blue Range Wilderness Area in Arizona’s White Mountains.

You might not recognize Sen. Ken Haar if you run into him in the woods.

The avid hiker recalled a three-week backpacking trip along the Colorado trail between Denver and Durango.

“I lost weight, put on muscle and grew a beard,” Haar said.

The now clean-shaven Haar, said the hike allowed time for reflection and solitude that can be hard to come by in the modern world.

“It’s amazing how much we are adapted to city life,” he said. “There’s something sort of magical that happens when you’re out alone with nature for that long.”

The Malcolm senator’s love for the outdoors has led him to backpacking trips in Arizona, Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. Haar said he likes the challenge that backpacking provides for both his body and mind.

“You have to take everything with you that you’ll need,” he said. “So you plan carefully, pack your pack and off you go.”

His physical treks sometimes lead him to intellectual conclusions. After his long hike in Colorado, Haar invented a device for hanging food in trees so animals can’t reach it. He called the device a bear hook and marketed it online. REI, a popular outdoor gear store, carried the product at one time.

In the Legislature, Haar said he is on a different kind of adventure, seeking equally useful conclusions. He starts his mornings on the treadmill and ends his days with weightlifting each evening.

“Doing this intense mental work each day requires me to find a physical balance to that,” he said.

Haar’s service in the Legislature follows several other roles in public service. He has served as the Lancaster County Democratic Party chair and was a member of the Lincoln City Council from 1989 to 1997.

In fact, Haar can trace his interest in public service back to his desire to become a teacher when he was studying education at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

“I was going to save the world,” he said.

His first teaching job was at a high school in north Omaha where future football star Johnny Rodgers was one of his students.

Although his new position requires him to spend a lot of time in the capital city, Haar’s acreage home near Branched Oak Lake allows him time to get away from the bustle of urban life. He and his wife Christine live in a house he built himself. He has two sons and three grandchildren in Lincoln, who he enjoys seeing regularly.

Haar credits his three grandchildren as a part of the reason he decided to run for legislative office.

“In some ways they were the reason I ran,” he said. “I wanted the chance to make a better future for them.”