Time to call it quits

[Moondog55]

I think it's time to hang up the boots.
My beloved doesn't "do" camping and I think I'd rather spend the time with her than camping on my own.
So although I have a few years left I reckon it's time to move on.
I think most of my basecamp gear and almost all of my bushwalking gear will be up on Market Place pretty soon [ although not at garage sale prices]
Also all my mountaineering and Arctic gear. I'll spent the money on some new speaker building supplies and Cecile may finally get her diamond eternity ring
Kids and grandkids have first dibs naturally but they don't ski or bushwalk so there will be plenty.
I'll keep the spare cots and big mattresses for unexpected house guests tho.

[johnw]

Sorry to hear that but I can relate. Maybe don't give up altogether though if you still enjoy going into the bush? Just scale things back a bit and spend more time at home?
I've ended up in a similar situation. Mrs has never been a bushwalker etc, occasional car camping used to be OK but since her hip replacement won't consider it these days.
Various surgeries and medical issues (another one tomorrow, albeit minor ) have kept me away from any remote backpack camping for the last few years, and had only been volunteer trips for several years prior. I'm also contemplating with what to do with excess gear. Post major surgery fitness has really improved and hoping to eventually resume some occasional overnight trips.
So will keep a minimum necessary for that but most activities have been day trips for quite a while and likely continue that way.
I did manage to get Mrs to walk around the base of Uluru last week, very much an exception, we were visiting to celebrate the recent passing of my 70th year.
Getting old is a *&%$#! but I'm still reasonably fit, ignoring the aches and pains. I suggest not hanging up the boots entirely just yet, maybe a foot in both worlds. Best wishes.

[crollsurf]

Wash your mouth out. What are you going to do now? Walk hand in hand down main street to the local cafe, when Smashed Avacado on Soughdough is as good as it gets!

And sorry for being misogynist, but if she has a problem with your gear, check out the crap she has laying around the bathroom. (Now there's an argument in the making) Probably don't go there, but you know what I mean.

Okay, maybe you do have to get your kit sorted, but no way throw it all out.

I'm going to walk until I can't.

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[Eremophila]

Hope we’ll still see you round the traps, MD.

[Tantell]

Such a shame, but please continue to share your wisdom!!

[Avatar]

It's free entry and stay at Mt Stirling for those 65+. Just saying.

[craigprice]

Do we need to start a seniors group on this forum ?

[Warin]

At least keep the day walk stuff.

And I'd keep stuff for an overnight walk too.

[stry]

No need to abruptly quit 100% MD.

I've been gradually winding down on a couple of my activities as health and strength suggest is appropriate. Even diminished participation is good for the soul.

[JohnnoMcJohnno]

Comes a time I guess. I've got so much good advice from your posts that I hope you continue to frequent the forum, but regardless, best of luck with your future endeavours.

[Moondog55]

I will keep some of my lighter weight gear naturally.
But the great big basecamp stuff and all the extreme cold weather and mountaineering gear needs to go and my kids don't want it, neither do the grandkids.
I simply can no longer sleep on the ground no matter what mattress I have.

[Biggles]

Qué? Curious timing.
Only a fortnight ago you were ready and packed for a long-planned encampment at Pretty Valley, the only concern being a lack of snow, which was soon resolved by a proverbial snowmageddon that dumped heaps and heaps. I presume you went and it was a cracker, as no doubt such a large dump of snow was, as has been and continues to be widely reported. And now...hanging up the boots??

[Moondog55]

I've been skiing
Still love skiing.
It's a health issue that has been coming and going for the last few years. Was fine when I got to the snow but a couple of times I really felt too damned weak to really do well. I'll go back and get some more schussing in and I've got maybe one more season left.
But there comes a time when you have to stop dreaming and simply accept that you're not going to live much longer and you need to leave your kids something other than old climbing gear.

[north-north-west]

But there comes a time when you have to stop dreaming and simply accept that you're not going to live much longer and you need to leave your kids something other than old climbing gear.

One more good reason to be glad I didn't have any.
I'll walk until I can't; with any luck, I'll cark it out there with my boots on so the quolls and devils get a good feed.

[ricrunner]

Well I also called it quits in 2022. The last time I bushwalked was walking in Guy Fawkes for 3 weeks just to get away from the rat race. After that trip. I gave up bushwalking, due to age but 2 years later I took up Adventure riding by buying an ADV motorcycle, 30 years after I last rode, so I could keep on camping. Some of you would barely remember me, it's been about 5 years since my last post here. I still love camping, the wife comes 50% of the time, especially now on the bike, and the other %50 I am on my own, something I still love to do. Came back here because I need some new gear and you blokes know all about that.

[mikethepike]

Moondog, this is s*** serious stuff that you are talking about here! I've just been knocked back from joining a club walk - routine Tassie stuff of big hills, thick scrub and white water descents - I think because the leader is concerned about my age and me asking that he carry my still-to-be-and-no-longer-to-be purchased raft. This episode has made me just about question everything, you know - life, ambitions, things left undone and what are friends for anyway. I got my first inkling that something might be amiss in NZ's Arthurs Pass in April while walking fully laden up a rocky creek-bed. I paused 300 m before the saddle. It just seemed too hard so I turned around and headed back down. Eighty meters or so later, I told myself not to be so pathetic and headed back up again. Forty meters later I stopped again, thought seriously about things and turned back for the second and final time. Maybe, I argued, it has nothing to do with age but about not being sufficiently recovered from the month of walking that proceeded it. (And my intention back then was to walk the whole of Te Araroa Trail starting later this year. Ha!) After that, I splurged recklessly on ultralight gear to hopefully extend my 'big trips' career but even that hasn't stopped creeping doubts and thoughts of money wasted. I recall reading of a trout-fisher returning from a trip and just knowing that that would be the last time he would ever be going fishing and it stuck me as incredibly sad. And that's just fishing! (And yes, I know trout-fishers can put tremendous physical effort into walking up and down streams chasing quarry.) As I was saying earlier, this is SERIOUS stuff!

But trying now to be positive, what's so enjoyable about walking with a heavy pack anyway? Yes it gets get you to places much further afield but what else? (Hopefully you've done most of what you always wanted to do in this regard). There are 'lesser' kinds of walking that can still be enjoyable and an example is Wainwright's book for the older walker that focuses on the lower hills of the Lake District. Well OK maybe, but I am trying to be positive.
You can only hope that any decision to finish multi-day walks will come when the body tells you that it is 'definitely the time' (and that hopefully not when you're a 3-hour helicopter ride from safety when you feel obliged to press that red button) and that you don't preempt that time by wrong or pessimistic thinking. (Has anyone pressed that button, I wonder, just to get evacuated because they didn't realize that they were too old for the walk they'd undertaken?)
Enough! And thanks to moondog for bringing up this almost taboo - at least amongst soon-to-be-entering the ranks of older walkers - subject.

[Warin]

There are 'lesser' kinds of walking that can still be enjoyable and an example is Wainwright's book for the older walker that focuses on the lower hills of the Lake District. Well OK maybe, but I am trying to be positive.

Every time I've been to the Lake District it has pored on me. There are better plaes in the world to walk, some of which I am yet to see. So the Lake District is out for me.