Getting Old…and none too happy about it

[Paul Wagner]

I spent this last weekend working on projects around our cabin in the Sierra…

Since we only go up for a few days at a time in the winter, we don’t need that much wood…but we still haven’t burned up all the wood we created by cutting down a few dead trees and rebuilding parts of the deck. And over the years it had grown into a mass of a mess. So I pulled out everything from the woodshed and put it back into place. What fun.

And once I did that, I also took a few hours to dig some larger beds in front of the cabin where we can plant some groundcover—all part of making the place look a little more like part of the living forest, and a little less like a desert compound.

So imagine my delight when i started doing a few stretches this morning and felt a pop in the back of my leg as I pulled a hamstring muscle. I haven’t done in nearly fifty years—and that was back when I was playing very competitive soccer.

So now i get to loll around and do very little. Just what the doctor didn’t order for someone my age. As a dear old friend of mine liked to say: “Getting old sucks. But it beats the alternative.” Sigh.

[d k]

I can certainly sympathize!  Ouch, so sorry to hear that.  This, too, shall pass, though.

On my recent Yosemite Conservancy backpack, I was describing to one of the younger hikers how, since turning 60, it seems like one by one, a body part malfunctions, followed by a period of PT, only to have the next part malfunction, etc.  He commented, “it sounds like you’re playing Whack-a-Mole.”  My new metaphor for aging!  Until a really big mole whacks me, I guess.

[Dave Heiss]

When the day comes that you realize you have injured yourself while sleeping, that’s when it really hits you…

[obx hiker]

“When the day comes that you realize you have injured yourself while sleeping, that’s when it really hits you…”

Thanks for the hearty but rueful laugh   ;)

The hardest part for me is the balancing act between pushing towards strength, fitness and flexibility without pushing over the edge into injury. Takes more patience than I received as part of my standard equipment. And then when you pop something it takes a LOT of patience AND then you have to regain that edge when recovery permits.

As my (deceased) mother-in-law (AKA “the Sarge”) liked to say: This getting old ain’t for sissies.

[Tipi Walter]

In July I turned 70 during an 18 day backpacking trip w/o resupply into the Snowbird wilderness of NC and my pack started out with about 90 lbs of gear—mostly food and fuel and books.  Read about how a geezer does short mile days and carries tremendous weight here—

https://www.trailjournals.com/journal/entry/630010

And I just got back from an Aug/Sept trip of 27 days w/o resupply where my pack started out at 100+ lbs (with 7 books and about 65 lbs of just food and fuel).  My longest hiking day was 8 miles and several 7 mile days.  See the adventure here—(and I burned the books of course)—https://tipiwalter.smugmug.com/Backpack-2020-Trips-202-/My-Longest-Trip-27-Days-wo-Resupply/

Sure, things pop or get sore and you slow down—one time I heard a pop in my right calf muscle and it threw me to the ground in pain—and I had 9 days left in the trip.  If I walked with my right foot sideways I could make slow progress to each day’s CS.  It eventually self-healed.

Another time an ankle got tweaked and bonked so I favored it and it too self healed.  Recently my right knee went south during a trip and so I now carry a bandage wrap on every trip to tie it up for support when needed.

My biggest problems with Age are with my teeth—eating a Larabar and a crown comes off—tremendous toothaches in the middle of nowhere (sucks)—going out just after a couple molar extractions—and the sockets staying inflamed during the whole trip.  What fun.  My philosophy is—Whatever We Love Will Kill Us—so why not do it backpacking and outdoors??

[David Thomas]

Walter: My wife has heard from some dentists that they’re seeing more crown / tooth failures than normal.  Apparently 2020 has more of us gritting and grinding our teeth, literally.  I had two corners of a molar pop off 2 weeks ago so I suspect I’ll be getting my second crown next month (no pain, so I didn’t ask for an urgent-care appointment).  At least I’ll get anesthetic with my golden crown.

[David Thomas]

My most annoying old-age thing has been tweaking my shoulder from putting on a pullover too fast.  A few times now.

Really?  I have to stretch first, before getting dressed?!?

[Tom K]

Stop whining, and focus that energy on healing yourself, says I.  We’ve all got our aches, pains, and injury timeouts.  The trick is to focus on getting back into the game ASAP, because we’re all running out of time.   Yeah, definitely get used to stretching/foam rolling regularly, and learn your limits, which aren’t what you could do 30 years ago or even 5 years ago in a lot of cases.  Listen to your body and back off when it starts to raise its voice.  We’re all beyond the point where we have anything left to prove, so why waste time doing just that?   Avoiding injury in the first place beats the hell out of fixing broken parts.  Don’t ask how I know.  ;0)

[Tipi Walter]

Tom K—yes, we’re all running out of time.  “Too much of Nature, too little of Me” about sums it up.  Staying active “in the game” is important.  Look at NFL players, how long do they last?  So backpacking even with tremendous loads is much safer.  One important way I stay in the game when not out on a backpacking trip is sleeping out every night in the backyard—to get my bag nights and to keep my body on a thermarest and my head in the game.  “Life is too short to be indoors.”

[David Gardner]

I turned 64 in July but I’m in denial. My wife used to say I was immature, but I call it young at heart. My grandfather walked every day and made it to 102, so that’s my plan.

[AK Granola]

I can’t recall now where I read this, and I’ll paraphrase, but something along the lines of – if we’re hiking in the mountains and one of us oldies goes flailing arms and legs akimbo off the side, it’s where we wanted to go. It’s been good. How many people who have ever lived on this planet have had the chance to do what many of us have done? super privileged, super grateful.

Creak, crack, pop.

[David Gardner]

@granolagirl: +1 Gratitude for being born into the American White middle class in the  50’s and living in one of the best places during one of the best times in all of human history.

(so far at least)

[Tom K]

“My wife used to say I was immature, but I call it young at heart.”

It a condition listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders:  The Peter Pan Syndrome.  No known cure.

[David Gardner]

“No known cure”

Thank goodness!

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