Something I have been doing since I was 12 years old is backpacking. My mom and my dad got into it back in the early 80’s after car camping started to get loud and popular with better technologies becoming available. So too was backpacking, but far less people than car camping. My dad used to fly F/A-18 jets for the Navy and when flying over the Sierra Nevada he would stake out some remote and beautiful places to hike into. The next trip would be to one those places he had spotted from his plane.
So, 30+ trips for my mom and some 20+ trips for me, we set out on our every-two-years Sierra trip to Dusy Basin this year. You get there from Bishop, CA and drive into the mountains to South Lake and the trail head from there goes over Bishop Pass and into Dusy Basin. Most hikers go onward to Le Conte Canyon, usually doing a loop, hiking and setting up camp everyday. But I like to hike in one/two days and then day-hike around one location…get some rock scrambling in, get a sense for a place, play in an amazing playground and fitness gym, etc.
The photos of my mom and I at Bishop Pass: make note that my mom is 63 years old and still doing high elevation hiking at a steady and rock solid pace! She is a perfect example of what we can do IF we take care of ourselves through lifestyle decisions and take all precautions with preventative healthcare measures. I am SO proud of my mom and her abilities to hike a total of 4,000 feet in elevation gain and down again another 4,000 feet over the entire 7 days we were out there in the Wild. Thanks for the great genes Mom!
The question that we all need to answer: What is my Lifetime Health & Fitness Goal?
More on this in a future post. But for now, keep hiking, keep swimming, keep walking, keep dancing!
Be good to yourself,
ISAAC