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No More Tripping Yet Here?

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I’d be interested in knowing how many older folks have “aged out” of tripping, yet still hang around this and other Internet forums to discuss and lend their knowledge to others who actively participate.

I’m probably on the tail end of my tripping days. Don’t really know if I can do it now, given my health. If I can’t, I’ll still pass time reading and discussing, although it may be a source of frustration.
 
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I went thru that phase a while back and now at 72 am re-invigorated and working on all the little things i never took time for before. Along the way, ferreting out some short little floats in prime moose country And a canoe friendly lake system (free of portages).
Don't sell your gear Yet!!
 
Don’t say things like that Black Fly- you’re in the twilight of your youth! And you give hope to us middle agers. I need to believe I will still be at it in some form 20 years from now. I trip with guys in their 70’s regularly. I enjoy their company more than my younger friends mostly. Better stories and they find their joy in simpler things. I’m guessing you are comparing yourself and your adventures to your younger self. The time spent tripping is a gift in any form. Keep at it!

Bob
 
I'm not there yet, but it's always hard to know where we are on the path of life until we get there. Maybe try to live a little outside the lines?
It might be my own eclectic noncommittal nature but I have any number of interests. I am a master of absolutely nothing, but I do have a lot of interests. "Hard sciences" mixed in with "soft sciences" and a whole lotta arts in-between. I won't list them, but believe me, I have so many daydreamy interests I don't have enough time in my days, and trust me, I am not a scholar, just a flakey curious guy.
Having all these attractions/distractions might be a good thing or just another bad thing in my life, IDK, but there sure is a lotta colour from this side of the glass. I'm hoping that when the day comes I can no longer trip, even with the help of my children, I will be far too involved with other stuff to occupy myself with.
So what else interests you? Can they be related to canoe tripping? History? Botany? Craft design? Indigenous cultures? Art?
Go ahead and cross the line. See where it takes you. Once that line is blurred, it becomes far less important.
What I mean by all this bafflegab is that there's more to canoe tripping than the mere physical act of moving your body thru air and water.
Let your mind follow. Maybe even let it lead. Now there's a thought.
 
I’ll be 75 next spring and I’m still keeping the door open to some canoe trips next season. I do have some limitations these days but I still was able to get out a few times last season. I would have gotten out more but it seemed every time I wanted to get a trip in something would come up…unplanned family visits, my grandsons sports, moose scouting trips with SIL, the moose hunt, bad weather, family events, etc.
I had even planned another trip to northern Quebec on the Cree First Nations area (it requires registration one month before the trip) but that fell thru and I had to cancel for some reason I can’t even remember.
This coming year I have a new plan. It’s ok to miss a few little league games, I need to be ready to go when the weather window looks good, nobody will remember if I missed a birthday or back yard barbecue. I want to be sitting here next year this time thinking back on the great trips I took in 2023.
 
Sometimes you have to put yourself and your goals first or you'll never get out. Besides, little league games can be dangerous. I jammed my thumb a couple years ago trying to catch a foul ball that required surgery a year later. LL games are better than cheerleading competitions so it could be worse.

After injuring my back almost three years ago I not only missed out on a season of tripping but also what was to be my last year of work. The following year I did a couple no portage trips and a couple one portage trips. Last summer I did my first ambitious trip doing almost 30 miles that included over 6 miles of porting in three days. It reinvigorated my desire to do such trips and the stoke lasted a good month. That might have been helped along with my purchase of my Bell Seliga. It was such a good feeling knowing that my long time goal to still be tripping after retirement was coming to fruition. I'm also very blessed that my wife is on board too.

I've posted this before but I think it deserves repeating. If you are well enough to plan for, pack for and can load your gear and boat for a trip I think there is a trip out there for you.
 
Just turned 75 and I have several health issues that may preclude the Canadian trips I have done for the past 15 years. But I still enjoy going into the bush and will probably be more base camp than travel oriented. A number of years ago we ran into a older lady solo tripping in NW Ontario. She explained that her husband had aged out of tripping in Canada but she still wanted to go. So she would be flown into a lake where she could easily portage into maybe another lake or two and would base camp in one or two spots for a week before being picked up by the plane. That approach is looking more interesting to me.
 
If I scale back my trips to just regular paddling and porting, I should be good for a few more years. It's the work trips that are killing me right now, and unfortunately, those are usually the only ones I get out on. However, compared to what i used to do, my trips are practically non-existent now.
 
She explained that her husband had aged out of tripping in Canada but she still wanted to go. So she would be flown into a lake where she could easily portage into maybe another lake or two and would base camp in one or two spots for a week before being picked up by the plane
That was my plan but Covid came, I’m still thinking about it for this coming year, I have never taken a bush flight and a week or more on a remote Canadian lake would be perfect. I tip my paddle to her.
 
What I've always wanted most has been to trip with my wife and kids, assuming that once the kids got settled into their young adult lives, they'd once again join my wife and I in our tripping lives. I was naïve and assumed way too much. It feels a little like the Harry Chapin song Cat's In The Cradle. They're all leading successful fulfilling lives and I'm happy about that. But feeling a little bit selfish (or maybe a lot selfish), I'm disappointed these days to find them often too busy to fit in a canoe trip with Dad. Mom now preferring to unwind at home with the g-kids. So then I feel guilty for suggesting a trip while this couple are busy with home renovations, that couple busy with other vacation plans, this couple involved with little league coaching, and that couple just starting a new family...and so my pendulum swings...selfish-guilty-selfish-guilty...Ha ha. My wife tells me "Just be patient Brad", but I hear (or rather feel) that biological clock ticking away the seasons. My retirement isn't working out quite like I'd "planned" it. Fall freeze-ups bring some regrets, paddling plans haven't worked out; spring thaws bring some hopes, maybe paddling plans will work out this year. One son has recently sold both his canoes, and replaced them with fishing yaks, while a daughter has recently bought a beauty 17' Keewaydin.
Regrets-tick-hopes-tock-selfish-tick-guilty-tock...and we'll get together then kids, you know we'll have a good time then. Still learning patience.
Aaand that's enough moaning from me.
 
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I thought of that song yesterday as my wife and I were talking about how our ideas and dreams aren't those of our sons. I never wanted to be that guy in the song. But if I'm honest with myself, I am, or at least a part of me is, that dad. Maybe our sons should be allowed (even encouraged?) to be the son in that song. Our sons are kind to us and make some effort to humour us and we're happy that they're generous that way. Time did fly by, didn't it? As for canoeing and canoes for years I was on a trance-like quest to gather up a flotilla of beautiful boats thinking epic paddling trips awaited us all within some vague idea of our extended family out there somewhere tripping in an even more abstract and infinite future...
Well, the infinite future arrived quite noiselessly in stockinged-feet when I must have been snoozing, and now I realize that the trips that haven't yet happened probably aren't going to happen and that time has flown by and I am left here with quite a ridiculous number of beautiful but extremely heavy boats that nobody close to me is particularly interested in paddling. This is not a terribly sad realization. It is, simply, life. I can forgive myself that naive hopefulness that I felt. Each generation pursues its own dreams of the good life. And to me there's something a little bit pathetic about feeling all proud and validated because the youngsters opted to pursue my idea of what the good life ought to look like.
I can see it like that on a good day.
 
Not too old but I have moved on for the time being. I was in the middle of my tripping prime with ambitious trips lined up for the next few years. I unexpectedly decided to sell my house and took on another that needed a lot of restoration. I also started mentoring a young boy and both of these suddenly shifted my focus. Then I hurt my back, which eventually required surgery, and that entire process knocked me out for 1 1/2 to 2 years.

As my back was recovering I started tentatively planning another semi-ambitious Canadian trip but then Covid happened so that was out. Now I've purchased the family business and, again, my focus and priorities have shifted.

Will I take up tripping again? I don't know but I hope so. I can't believe it's been 6 years since my last real trip.

Alan
 
Even at only sixty, I'm much less capable than I was five years ago. I still paddle, row and sail, I've taken up bicycling again after twenty years. But this week I hurt my shoulder just taking a shower. We all age. Reading and dreaming about our activities is a big part of enjoying them, maybe even the most time spent. No reason to give up forums, magazines and books because we're not as active. I no longer own a seventies Chrysler, but I still participate in those forums. I have experience that may help others, and I enjoy seeing their cars. Stay here and enjoy.
 
A great question. Just got out of the hospital Sunday after a heart attack.
Backpacking except for easy trips in flatter country is starting feel out of reach.
River trips however, are at low elevations, requiring no climbing and heavy lifting.
I plan to keep running rivers, especially with drift boats. We do some lining, but no portaging.
My outfit continues to get lighter.

Great trip planned for June, a remote part of Oregon with no road access. for a week. I have 6 months to get strong and ready for the outback.
 
Best wishes ppine, my thoughts are with you for a quick turnaround. Find a good Phd physical therapist and follow her instructions to the letter. The old saying of “No pain, no gain” is not much in vogue with my young friend, that is a PT with a PhD. You might need to find a young woman Buckaroo to help with any heavy lifting.
To maybe miss-quote Red Green, “Remember I’m pullin’ for ya—we’re all in this together.”
………BB
 
That was my plan but Covid came, I’m still thinking about it for this coming year, I have never taken a bush flight and a week or more on a remote Canadian lake would be perfect. I tip my paddle to her.
You would love Wabakimi.. Great fishing and remote lake.. Don Elliott of Mattice Lake Outfitters will fly you in with your canoe in his Beaver. You need to do this and deserve it.. Smoothrock is the busiest lake.. I love Wabakimi and Kenoji and Oliver

As we get creaky non portage trips are favorite. We still do the West Branch from Seboomook to Caribou Lake at the foot of Chesuncook and are packing for another five week trip to Florida. It is day paddling though so does not involve the work of camp.. Well we are camping.. er no we aren't .. we are in a RV. That is another aspect to extending canoe tripping life.. Redefine camping and trip.

Everything evolves. Gone are the days where an ensolite pad was enough.. Not we must have a Downmat or ....eek a regular bed.
 
As with anything else, I suppose we merely do the best that we can and keep trying to move forward (or at least move). Ppine, hope you have a full & speedy recovery. We'll be looking for the TR. Robin, If at all possible, make the trip. We'll be looking for the TR. BF, I sincerely hope you find some way to get out on the water again. You didn't buy the new boat and train the pup for nothin'... (maybe you're noticing a pattern here but...) Yep; we'll need a TR.

And, yes, when each of us has eventually made our last trip, I hope that we continue to come around, participate, lend advice and (perhaps) even live vicariously through the adventures of others. Which reminds me... YC, day trips count too, especially in the winter when the water is hard up north. Hope you share your adventures (from the comfort of your glamper).
 
I'm turning 69 next month and had heart surgery last spring. I've done 7 trips since the surgery, all in the Adirondacks. None of them had long or difficult carries. I'm finding that now I am doing more base-camping (and taking day excursions) with the Sawyer canoe because I like to be more comfortable on the trips and that involves more gear. The other thing that has changed is that having retired, I can now take longer trips, pretty much whenever I want to. On the trips, I've found that I don't want to be bothered getting camping permits, so I just move campsites after 3 nights. Despite it being a bit more work, I am actually liking it, as I am experiencing the area I am visiting from different locations.

This off-season I'm trying to get better conditioned so I can use my Hornbeck canoe over the next few years to do some trips that involve longer, more difficult carries. I must admit that at times, it does feel like the "clock is ticking" on my being able to go tripping. Not so much because of age or physical condition, but more that my family will eventually start to discourage me from going, most likely because almost all of my trips are solo. That being said, I found Robin's post encouraging. Hopefully, when I am 75, I'll be able to do the same.
 
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