Longevity

I went hiking at Colorado Bend State Park the day after Thanksgiving. I wasn’t expecting to take beautiful photos and was mostly there for the hike. While I love hiking at this particular park, I have struggled taking good photos there. But just the same I hiked along with my full camera backpack and hoped for the best. I had the route picked out in advance and I wanted it to be a real workout.

I started in the parking lot at the Gorman Falls trailhead, and hiked an unpaved park road downhill to the Tinaja Trailhead. I then took the Tinaja trail back uphill to the cliffs overlooking the canyon that the tinaja is in. The trail then leads down into this canyon, past the tinaja, and back up the other side of the canyon. It then descends and climbs out of another canyon and finally I took the Old Gorman Road trail back down to the river and the park road back up hill to the parking lot. About 6.5 miles of rugged up and down hiking with a full pack.

A Tinaja Trail overlook of the canyon that the tinaja can be found in

Above is a photo from an overlook on the Tinaja Trail before it descends down into the canyon where the tinaja is. I think there may be a sunset to be had from this point. But I had other plans for sunset on this afternoon. And if those high clouds would stick around, it might be a good one. The image below shows the tinaja down in the canyon. The tinaja is basically bowl-shaped depression in the rock that generally holds water.

As I hiked along, my thoughts were drawn to a topic that I have been quite preoccupied with lately – will I still be able to do this 20 years from now? How about 30 years from now? It’s not a given and if I continue on with the way I live now, I don’t think that it is even probable. Aging silently and slowly robs us of our strength, stability, and stamina and this is just a fact of human reality. But I think we can fight back and delay the process so that our advanced years still have good quality.

Five years ago, I don’t think I was concerned about this. I just wanted to go out and enjoy the natural world with hiking and landscape photography. I was confident that I could do this and I was right. But a few things have happened since then that have affected my thinking and goal setting. I have a sedentary office job that doesn’t expose me to risk of immediate injury, but the stress and lack of physical activity does drag your health and fitness down and it becomes more and more noticeable as you get older.

Also, at the beginning of this year, I became increasingly disgusted with myself for once again getting obese. I don’t like to say obese or think of myself as obese, but at 255 pounds even at 6’4″, I was obese by any and all definitions. Being obese increases your risk of developing all sorts of terrible diseases as you get older. Not only that, it would affect my ability to go on rigorous hikes. I was finally tired enough (again) of being out of shape. I changed my diet and began cardio workouts mainly on a stationary bike with the narrow-minded goal of losing weight and I did. As of this morning I have lost more than 50 pounds this year and am not obese, but still a few pound over-weight. That Friday hike was a mini-triumph. I did that hike and an additional 3 mile out-and-back hike for sunset with no discomfort and minimal fatigue while wearing a fully loaded camera backpack. It felt great. I feel like I have the strength and stamina to hike anywhere. I also have a lot of clothing that is too large for me that I plan never to wear again.

A gnarly tree on the Tinaja Trail that you have to duck under

That’s all great for now, when I am 54 years old. How about when I am 74 years old? Whether you like it or not, if your lifestyle stays the same, you gradually lose strength, stability, stamina, metabolism, etc. as you age. If I can hike nine and half miles, climbing in and out of canyons with a 24 pound backpack today; what will I be able to do when my capabilities have naturally degraded? It doesn’t look good unless I make changes to my life now. I have a new goal and I am kind of excited about it. And the goal is basically that I want to hike like this when I am 85. I think that is a very big goal, but this is what I live for.

I weighed myself with my backpack, boots, and clothes and it all adds about 30 pounds

How am I going to achieve this goal? I frankly don’t have all the answers yet, but I do know that you can work to improve your VO2 max which basically affects your stamina during specific activities. You can work to improve your strength and agility to enable you to do these activities with lower risk of injury. And in making these improvements, you can somewhat mitigate their natural decline as you age. And you can take steps to reduce your risk of developing several degenerative diseases which affect us more and more as we age. So, I am developing a plan and the determination to go through with it and may write about it here from time to time so you can hold me accountable.

Back to the hike, sunset was pretty much a bust. My plan was to hike out to the windmill and shoot sunset with that as a subject. But, someone erected a massive red camping tent right in front of the windmill, so I moved down the trail as it got darker and settled on some cactus with a view of the sky. And even then, the sunset was the opposite of spectacular. The clouds never got much light. I took the photo below without putting a lot of effort into it and then hiked back to my truck in the dark because someone took my headlamp out of my backpack. A great hike and a lot of disappointing photos – not sorry I went.

Unimpressive sunset

While my photographic goals for this hike were not met, I do feel like I had a good day. I hope you’ll check back in 2055 to see how this plan of mine all worked out.

25 thoughts on “Longevity”

  1. Worthwhile goals to be sure. One day, and maybe soon, you should rethink how much gear comes along, and what can you leave behind. About two years ago I still carried a full pack, a lot like yours. One day a slight twinge, a little time later a bigger one… you get where this is going.

    You know I still shoot wildlife out in the boonies, however it took a new bionic neck, top to bottom, and lighter gear to continue. Not fun and the general consensus was too many heavy packs. OK, probably a few too many heavy lunches too 🤣🤣🤣

    Liked by 3 people

    1. Yes, I often leave a few things out of the pack, but I wanted the weight on this day. I ordinarily would have left out that 100-400mm as it is heavy, but left it in for the weight.
      Also I find that making the backpack waist straps tight around my hips really transfers the load and saves my shoulders.

      Liked by 2 people

  2. I’ll be sure to check back on your blog, in 2055. That is, as long as I stick with my own plan to stay in shape, and have good luck on my side. (Or bad luck, depending upon my perspective about being in my 90s). I understand that muscle-building exercises, such as weight training, can help keep old people in decent shape. As a Mr. Punyverse, I find that daunting. Maybe I’ll just stick to eating granola bars.

    Liked by 3 people

  3. A 50-pound weight loss is certainly something to be proud of. You deserved a reward hike.
    Sorry the sunset didn’t cooperate but glad you went.
    You make good points that I can identify with, as my life took a U-turn this year. I am not up to a 6 mile rugged hike yet but …… in time. 🙂.

    Liked by 3 people

  4. I know the feeling dude. Although I have had very active jobs all my life, I am too overweight…a little. I have settled in about 205 and at 5’10’ that puts me in the overweight to obese range. I had a minor heart attack at 58 had a stent but in the left coronary artery….the widow maker. This is when I got back into hiking and bike riding. I lost from 240 lbs down to 170. I looked sickly and had no energy so watch how much you lose. BMI etc is just a guide and doesn’t account for lots of things such as bone structure etc. I feel best about 185-190 so I am striving to get there and stay. I have been diagnosed with Hypothyroidism which means my metabolism is low. Dr is trying to fix it with medication, but I hate taking pills so want to try to find another way forward. I hiked a lot as a kid in the boy scouts, been on the Appalachian Trail section hiking 4 times three as a kid and once as an adult. When I started back hiking at 58 I was doing 12-15 miles each time out. Now at 69 I find that 5-6 miles is satisfying although I still hit 10-12 at times. I hope to keep hiking as long as I can but I gotta tell you at 69 it’s quite a bit harder to do and you feel your age much quicker.

    I love Colorado Bend also. I usually start at the Cedar Chopper trailhead take Dog canyon down to the river, follow that up to the falls and go back on the Tinaja Trail. There is a neat hoodoo over in dog canyon maybe a good photo subject for your next trip to Colorado Bend.

    take care…….

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Yeah, I have studied that hoodoo and don’t have a solution for it yet.

      I have tried to be careful how I lose weight and not let it affect my energy. I don’t want to lose weight too fast. When I got started early this year, the first 25 pounds came off in a hurry and it has been more of a slog since then.

      Liked by 2 people

  5. Congratulations on the weight loss! Better for your heart and your joints. As someone in their mid-70’s, I can tell you, moving becomes even more important the order you get. That and keeping yourself flexible. Thankfully the dogs agree and do at least 5 miles a day with me although metabolism hasn’t been as kind to my waistline as it has theirs. Keep on keeping on.

    Liked by 4 people

  6. We all tend to exercise less as we get older, but we keep eating the same amount of food.
    Exercise is obviously the way to go, but you need to ‘listen’ to your body to avoid injuries. Keeping flexibility is key
    The other thing to focus on is food. If you do the numbers on the amount of calories you are eating vs what you are using each day, it will be miles out.
    Even a basic Mcdonalds burger is basically a no no.
    Dare I say vegetables are in, and takeaways are out.
    Don’t fret about getting older, we all are.
    I’ll be looking forward to your post in 2055.

    Liked by 1 person

  7. We seem to be the same age. But you’ll need to take about a foot (or more) off the height, and an according amount off the lean body-mass. Regardless, I wrote about this same thing almost a decade back, in June of ’15. As a runner, one becomes acutely aware that the human body wasn’t really evolved through nature to last much past one’s 30s. Hormones are a whole other aspect. For those of us unable to adapt to sedentary lives, these things inevitably become a problem. Back in ’15, I was making a point to be thankful that I could still do the things I enjoy. But writing about getting to the same place again in May of ’23, I was noting that it required considerably more suffering. So, I’m okay if I don’t make it to 2055. But I’ll be happy to take whatever I can get in the interim.

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