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Are My Hiking Days Over?

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    • Are My Hiking Days Over?

      With orders to stay at home and weather finally warming up I am catching up on some overdue yard projects. This past week I've spread a couple cubic yards of mulch around the flower beds, extended a retaining wall with seven cement blocks, mowed the lawn, assembled a new fire pit and relaid 10 sq feet of paving blocks for a fire pit base.

      These are all things I used to do routinely, but now that I'm out of shape and decrepit (and had my 61st birthday this week), I am feeling I so old I am beginning to wonder if I will ever be able to carry a backpack over a mountain again.

      I could barely lift the 50 lb bag of sand for setting the paving stones, much less carry it across the yard. I then thought of all those people who hike with 50 lb packs. Not that I would have a 50 lb packs, but I felt I should at least be able to pick up a bag of sand. Feeling defeated, I guess. Cof123

    • Happy Birthday!
      I will turn 62 this year. I've let this "Stay at home", get in the way of my gym workouts. I would NOT worry about anything more than what you will be carrying in a pack weight situation. I think back to my building projects and what I "picked up" (2 by 4 walls, RR Ties, hot water heaters) back when I was young and know that is NOT the norm now. I also remember that when I started those projects, I didn't just "pick it up". I'd hurt constantly. I would work my day job, then the project in the evenings and weekends. And I would be several months into the job when I realized I wasn't hurting as bad and I could lift more than I thought possible just months before (Bad back from around age 20).
      Pirating – Corporate Takeover without the paperwork

    • Although I won't reach the numbers leading with the big six until next year, I would hate to say my hiking days are over. Instead just think I might go a little slower with time. :/

      But then again I am more an optimist, probably still holding hope the AT will be open in NH & ME in July right up until the end of June. :)
      The road to glory cannot be followed with much baggage.
      Richard Ewell, CSA General

    • I figure walking slower means ==> noticing more of the nature around me, spending longer at a great vista.
      I figure carrying less weight means ==> fewer fears carried in my back pack and less aches and pains at the end of a
      hike
      I figure fewer miles means ==> more smiles and more time to chat with the folks I meet along the way.
      I figure less stamina means ==> stopping earlier to make camp, giving me time to do a bit of fishing or peacefully
      enjoy the sunset and stars.
      I figure getting older means ==> being wise enough to try to enjoy my many blessings.
      “Of all sad words of tongue or pen,
      the saddest are these, 'It might have been.”

      John Greenleaf Whittier