Old People are Better Trekkers

So says this article by Ian Frazier on Oustide.com:

A quote: "Old guys tend to have better connections, more influence, and—how to put this?—more money. Their credit cards work. Their cars don't fall apart five miles after they turn off pavement. They have better gear, and they take better care of it. Old guys spend more time sitting up late after the family's asleep, and in these hours your old guy will plan and replan his upcoming expedition, put new laces on his wading shoes, tie flies, dress in all his Arctic gear in order to see what it's like to move around in, call another insomniac old guy and check out up-to-the-minute river conditions, and so on. Old guys adventure more in their minds beforehand, and that makes them more prepared in the field. Old guys in some cases (not including mine) can do a bit less physically, so they have to use their brains more. You are taken more seriously by people who rent canoes and cabins if you're accompanied by a sober and thoughtful and knowledgeable-looking old guy. On any adventure, it's always an advantage to bring an old guy along as a check and corrective on the more impetuous young. And if he somehow can't or won't be that, at least he can cuss and stomp and have steam come out of his ears in a Yosemite Sam–ish manner."