[pct-l] moving on...

[Jeffrey Olson]

I belong to the 55+ facebook hiking group.  Most of the posts are 
selfies.  Once in a while you get a sense of the world the person hikes 
in, but not often enough.  I stopped hanging out on the facebook pct 
pages last year because the stuff coming through was not very 
interesting.  Journals yes - I can talk with someone 22 years old who is 
hiking or has hiked a long distance.  But the facebook reality is about 
youthful enthusiasm with little experience.  That gets old.

The travails of getting older aren't discussed there.  David's post, his 
question, his vulnerability - I am open to the PCT-L becoming an older 
persons place to hang out.  Weirdly, my 56 year old friend I hike with 
has a husband who is my age - 68 - who just had a whole catheritization 
experience and an operation to deal with the underlying condition.

That said, I'm still really interested in hearing of weeklong trips, 
longer section hikes, or perspectives on hitting the trail.  I think 
we're mostly older with lots of experience.  I would LOVE to hear 
stories.  Some of us are no longer able to spend weeks, months on the 
trail.

I haven't hiked the PCT for a while.  I can tell a story of my 
girlfriend sliding down Gibraltar Ridge  in northern california, and me 
leaping after her, of two women with a big dog that laughed when it 
lunged to bite as I walked by, of a 90 year old woman revisiting her 
honeymoon hike at the top of Bishop Pass, of lying in my tent near 
Desolation Pass in Washington, listening to a bear grub, and having an 
out of body experience.

I like to hang out on the page and remember.  I'm ok with that.  Is that 
where we are?

Jeffrey Olson
Laramie WY


On 2/8/2021 8:39 PM, David Hough reading PCT-L wrote:
> My inquiry was basically -
> if an old guy is catheterized temporarily for acute urinary
> retention due to enlarged prostate,
> will he eventually recover enough to be able to go backpacking again?
>