The post about the lady who rolled her car down a Colorado mountain, and survived sucking water from her hair made me think about how I've modified my gear over time.
Age is the greatest thief known to man. It will eventually steal much of your ability to do the things that you take for granted now. Hand strengh goes down, arthritis raises it's ugly head, and there may be other problems healthwise. But do we give up our love of the outdoors and surrender?
Now in our 60's, the better half and I still like to get out and hike, and will go to National Parks to take overnight trips into the woods. We have went to the lightest weight gear we could find, pack only those things really needed, and travel carefully. But there is always the possability of a accident.
To compensate, we have went to what we call old fart survival tactics.
Karen has arthritis in her hands, and cannot chop with much, so she carries a Gerber/fiskars sliding blade saw. I do the same. The saw allows us to get wood to split with no shocks on the hands. There's no way I could do the chopping I used to do in my younger days. With the saw, I can cut a pretty good amount of wood, and if its damp or it's rained, sawing halfway thru the wood and wacking it against a tree cut side toward impact, splits it right down the grain. Wau easier on the old hands.
For shelter, we carry a lightweight nylon tarp, instead of trying to make a leanto or debris hut. It rolls up the size of a loaf of wonder bread and is about the same weight. When we don't carry the tarp, and are just out for a day trip, we each have one of those disposable plastic drop cloths you get from the paint department at Walmart. About the size of a paperback novel, and weights a few onces. It's kept in the factory wrapper for the 'just in case' thing. Since the better half has one, and I have another, we can rig one up for a waterproof shelter in way less time it takes to make a shelter, and use the other one to wrap ourselves up in like a plastic cacoon. Fairly warm even on a cold night. We experimented last winter, and it was doable.
One plus of getting old is, that we find our food intake is not near what it used to be. It was one of those shocks when we found ourselves at resturaunts ordering from the senior menue. So we can get by with less food than we used to. If we had to, one of those wax wrapped gouda or edam cheeses will take us for a day or two. Water is way more important than food. I figure we can go a few days with little little to eat, but we don't want to get dehydrated.
Being older makes us do things different that we maay be used to doing. Think about your survival tactics now, and ask yourself will you be able to do that when you have all the time to go hiking and camping when you're a retiree.
Just some food for thought.
Age is the greatest thief known to man. It will eventually steal much of your ability to do the things that you take for granted now. Hand strengh goes down, arthritis raises it's ugly head, and there may be other problems healthwise. But do we give up our love of the outdoors and surrender?
Now in our 60's, the better half and I still like to get out and hike, and will go to National Parks to take overnight trips into the woods. We have went to the lightest weight gear we could find, pack only those things really needed, and travel carefully. But there is always the possability of a accident.
To compensate, we have went to what we call old fart survival tactics.
Karen has arthritis in her hands, and cannot chop with much, so she carries a Gerber/fiskars sliding blade saw. I do the same. The saw allows us to get wood to split with no shocks on the hands. There's no way I could do the chopping I used to do in my younger days. With the saw, I can cut a pretty good amount of wood, and if its damp or it's rained, sawing halfway thru the wood and wacking it against a tree cut side toward impact, splits it right down the grain. Wau easier on the old hands.
For shelter, we carry a lightweight nylon tarp, instead of trying to make a leanto or debris hut. It rolls up the size of a loaf of wonder bread and is about the same weight. When we don't carry the tarp, and are just out for a day trip, we each have one of those disposable plastic drop cloths you get from the paint department at Walmart. About the size of a paperback novel, and weights a few onces. It's kept in the factory wrapper for the 'just in case' thing. Since the better half has one, and I have another, we can rig one up for a waterproof shelter in way less time it takes to make a shelter, and use the other one to wrap ourselves up in like a plastic cacoon. Fairly warm even on a cold night. We experimented last winter, and it was doable.
One plus of getting old is, that we find our food intake is not near what it used to be. It was one of those shocks when we found ourselves at resturaunts ordering from the senior menue. So we can get by with less food than we used to. If we had to, one of those wax wrapped gouda or edam cheeses will take us for a day or two. Water is way more important than food. I figure we can go a few days with little little to eat, but we don't want to get dehydrated.
Being older makes us do things different that we maay be used to doing. Think about your survival tactics now, and ask yourself will you be able to do that when you have all the time to go hiking and camping when you're a retiree.
Just some food for thought.
My wife and I like to hike often but most camping today is car camping. State and national parks are our most frequent trips. We too go light. There is something soothing about a wood fire-good coffee-and a good woman.
