[at-l] Older Hikers-Extended Trips

[HikingGrandpa at aol.com (HikingGrandpa@aol.com)]

I am new to the list but not new to hiking. By way of introduction. I have 
made numerous day hikes but only a few week long sixty mile backpacking trips 
the last of which I made in Georgia on the AT about four years ago. I liked it 
and would like to return for another hike there but tend to stereotype myself 
as maybe getting too old (67 years old). I still walk four or five miles 
several times a week and occasionally put on my fifty pound pack for four to six 
miles. I seem to tolerate the weight well but this is Oklahoma and what they call 
hills here we pretty much called level ground in my home state of Tennessee. 
The last six day hike on the AT I started out with 47 pounds which included 
all the weight including the weight of the pack as well as food and water. This 
also included cold weather gear and clothing which I needed on the last three 
days of the hike when an ice storm came in with the temperature falling to the 
single digits. What I would like to do is go lighter and slower on my next 
hike. Unfortunately, when you go slower you have to carry more food which is a 
fairly heavy addition to weight. So it seems one cancels out the other.

I was wondering if there are any other older hikers out there on the list who 
are still taking extended backpacking trips. And I was also wondering what 
kind of weight you are carrying and for what periods of time between resupply. I 
define weight carried as the weight of the pack and everything in it 
including water and food and anything else that is dangling off of the pack.

Ozzie