Early Retirement Extreme Forums

On Saturday, while out fishing, I met my hero.
A friend and I hiked downstream on the North Fork Nehalem River a good mile, over a couple waterfalls. The rain had fallen heavily on Friday in the Nehalem drainage, so the water was up by about 6" compared to our first trip two weeks ago. That much water made it a more challenging trip across slippery rocks and through deeper water than two weeks ago. Several carloads of fishermen had the same starting point, but apparently we were the only ones up to the challenge of wading/hiking downstream.
When we started back upstream, at the lowermost falls, we finally saw another fisherman climb down into the canyon... we had no idea you could even come from the direction he did!
Not only was this guy doing something we didn't know was possible, but he was old. Like age 75-80, slightly stooped shoulders, and aged face. Really nice man. He had a couple fishing poles and a net and a daypack. We chatted with him, turns out you can come upstream (from about a half mile away), cross the river, climb out of the canyon to get around a spot where you'd otherwise need to swim, and then climb back down.
He complained that he doesn't move so well these days because of his age. I told him he was moving just fine. He strode; he didn't shuffle his feet like most old people. His daypack is filled with supplies in case he spends the night in the woods. When we left him, he was casting in the pool where we knew there were 3-4 salmon. Can you imagine him carrying out 5-15 pounds of salmon in addition to his gear?
OK, so here's this guy out fishing in the manner that I fish and he's OLD. He's my hero and I sure want to be like him at that age!

It is important to latch onto people like your hero and embed in our minds that we absolutely WILL age like him.
Helen Langer did an interesting study that reinforces the importance of mindset with regarding to aging.
http://harvardmagazine.com/2010/09/the- ... chronicles
If he can do it, we can do it. Thanks for sharing the story.

Incredible! I love my grandparents to bits. Materially and financially, they have much less than their children but they are so much more content.
I wish my aunts and uncle were more like my grandparents in that respect.

That's awesome. I love old people that give me hope.
As a side note to all of this, a personal trainer at Athele's Performance (they train a ton of professional athletes) was asked if he could only do one exercise to prepare him for old age what would he do? He said, "Squats." He stated that running was great, but a strong heart would be useless without strong legs. Obviously, it's good to have both. Sounds like your hero had both.
@Ego

Great article.
As a side note to all of this, a personal trainer at Athele's Performance (they train a ton of professional athletes) was asked if he could only do one exercise to prepare him for old age what would he do? He said, "Squats." He stated that running was great, but a strong heart would be useless without strong legs.

George an inspiring post! thanks.
Another inspiring moment was when Jacob made a casual remark. Only after some months returning to office work, he noted that his tighs were losing muscle (atropy). He reacted by starting to spin-bycicle and got his muscles back.
These forum goldnuggets gives me mental support doing daily excercises, to be able to do (outdoor) sports I love so much as long as I live.

Thank you for an inspiring story; he sounds like a man who never lost his grip on what he truly enjoyed doing.
I think that much of old age is attributable to lifelong conformity to external rewards and punishments. It leaves people listless, if not lifeless, as though they had been institutionalized. From what I've seen, pursuing (or rediscovering) something you genuinely enjoy for its own sake, apart from any external rewards, can erase decades.

Oh, I could introduce you to some amazing old people if you came to Alaska, George.

Not too unusual in the sailing community either.

Revisting this post... last week my friend and I took the old guy's route. Most of the hike went as we expected, but when it came time for the final descent into the canyon, OMG! I have even more respect for his capabilities after following his route!

The final descent turned out to be roots and branches used as a living ladder on a wet basalt cliff face, 25' near vertical, switchbacking twice. Took us about 20 minutes to figure out that it was possible and if I hadn't known an old guy could do it, I might have passed it off as impossible. Not so bad once you know where your hands and feet should go; 2nd and 3rd trips were only about 5 minutes.