HIKER'S NEVADA TREK GOING WELL, FRIEND SAYS.

Byline: Jim Skeen Daily News Staff Writer

A Palmdale man backpacking through Nevada was reported in good spirits 140 miles into his journey to verify a possible escape route the ill-fated Donner Party could have used 150 years ago.

On Tuesday, Lee Bergthold was at Middle Gate, a tiny central Nevada mining town near Highways 121 and 60, said friend Mike Babcock.

``He sounds real good,'' said Babcock, who Bergthold called from a pay telephone outside a store in the town.

Bergthold, 61, left Battle Mountain, Nevada, on Dec. 23 for a 350-mile journey from Nevada to Death Valley.

Bergthold, a photojournalism instructor at Antelope Valley College and former Marine Corps survival instructor, is an inveterate wilderness traveler. He spends about 50 to 60 days a year in the backcountry, and his previous expeditions include a cross-country trek between the highest and lowest points in the continental United States: Death Valley's Badwater to Mt. Whitney.

Bergthold is being accompanied on the first part of the trip by Tina Bowers, an Antelope Valley photographer. The two hikers have encountered up to a foot of snow during parts of their trek and mud bogs in other portions. Temperatures at night have dropped below zero, Babcock said.

``Weather conditions knocked him two days off his schedule,'' Babcock said. ``It took two days to get to the first day's objective.''

Bergthold is looking to make up time by hiking an additional hour each day, Babcock said.

On this trek, Bergthold will first travel from Battle Mountain to Walker Lake Basin - a path taken by emigrants in the mid-1800s. At Walker Lake Basin, pioneers, including the ill-fated Donner Party, went west to the Sierras.

The Donner Party of 87 men, women and children were caught by heavy snows in November 1846 at a mountain pass near Truckee. Blocked by snow, the Donner settled at a nearby lake for the winter. Thirty-four members of the Donner Party died in the Sierras. The survivors resorted to eating flesh of the dead.

At Walker Lake Basin, Bergthold is heading south to Death Valley - a route he believes the Donner Party could have used to avoid the harsh conditions of the Sierras.

Bergthold is backpacking with a 10-day supply of food. Support workers will drop off supplies every 10 days. Bergthold chose to hike in winter because of possible rain and snow which could provide water.

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Photo: (Ran in AV Edition only) Lee Bergthold, shown in an undated photo, is tracing a possible route the Donner Party could have used to make it through Nevada in 1846.