This Makes No Sense At All

heading towards Donahue Pass approaching Glen Pass  Every once in a while we meet some young men on the trail - 30ish, and they go on and on about how great it is that we are out on the trail. We have figured out that they think we are old and thus a novelty. We thought we were just other hikers, participating in what we sometimes look at as an extreme sport. Hiking and backpacking are one of the few areas where I can talk the usual trail topics, gear, food, weather, and feel like any other hiker. I guess we will have to live with being categorized by a few. At 72 and 77, we may be getting past middle age. viewing Rae Lakes We see our older friends beginning to be impacted by aging, so that threat is always out there. As a consequence, each of our trips over the last few years is an intentional pushing of our personal envelope. How else do we find our limits? This does lead to making mid trip changes to adapt to the circumstances. For the most part, age seems to be a ...

That was my response to a Facebook friend's poll for 2012 goals.  Colored perhaps, by our immediate condition of aiding, abetting, instigating Susan's 100 (101 in Jan) year old mother's move from independent living to emergency, to rehab, and as we speak, to a assisted living facility, all over a few days time where we had no expectations other than the usual goodwill and conflict of our seasonal family gatherings. God grant me a long and happy life, followed by a painless not waking up some day. My images are of life's collections, spoons on the wall, a grandmother's stitchery, and then the spartan walls of the later stage facility. Nice, caring people, but an existence under observation  We keep hiking, maybe a little slower, but still enjoying the process. The glimpse of the life ahead is not a pleasant one.

No doubt about it. Consider your normal recreational backpack - hike six hours, find a beautiful campsite, hangout, bag a peak, read, swim, photograph, etc. Definitely a vacation. Active, yes, but if asked what you did for vacation, you answer "went backpacking" with no hesitation. Now, our recent 300 mile section hike on the PCT. Up at dawn - roughly 5:30. On the trail by 7. Gorp break at 9, PopTart break at 10:30, jerky, powerbar, dried fruit & cracker for lunch, Gorp breaks thru the afternoon & finally finding a suitable camp spot at 7pm. A dry camp of course. You only hit water once or twice a day, and rarely is it when you want to camp. So, on the last water, pump about 3 liters extra for supper and breakfast at the dry camp. Some days we might stop at five pm. On those days the thru-hikers will be going by, sometimes saying "stopping early?" as they go on to complete their 30+ mile day. So why do we do it? Because it feels so good to stop? Possibly ...

As our backpacking miles approach 500 miles per year and our ages continue to advance (I'm 71, Susan 66), things hurt. Each trip has it's moments of splendor, but the number of days to become trail hardened keeps increasing. Eventually we get to the point where few people pass us while we are hiking, though they do pass us after we have stopped for the day around five or six pm. At that point we are usually talking about food at the last trail town, food at the next, etc. But, a question we think about, but don't discuss much anymore, is: Are we using up a scarce resource, or toughening up and extending the life of our joints. Well, it turns out that question has been answered, by some physicians writing in the Journal of Sports Medicine in 1997. Kaiser Permanente has summarized that article and some related ones in: https://xnet.kp.org/permanentejournal/Fall00/Osteoarthritis.pdf The short answer is no, you are not wearing out your joints, or doing much to them at all,...