This short story is mainly for all of you “old guys,” who like me are considered vintage or just over the hill.  I prefer to call us wise and experienced.  I will be turning 80 this year and I am hoping to spend my birthday with family members in the majestic rugged Alaska mountains that I love so much, chasing those beautiful Dall rams.  I have a few other hunts I hope to go on this year, like a spring black bear, a family caribou hunt, a whitetail deer hunt in Illinois with my good friend Matt Caldwell and a mountain goat hunt if a family member gets drawn!  God has blessed me with great health for which I thank him every day.  The cold hard truth is I’m just not as good as I once was as a mountain hunter.  Climbing those mountains is a young man’s game but I plan to do it as long as I can.  That’s the part about not letting the old man in. 

To me it’s a mental game or just plain old positive thinking.  You do everything you can to stay in the best shape but it’s still going to be hard.  You make yourself do it.  That is the way I have always operated.  It might take us a little longer but that’s not a big deal.  We just can’t give up!

The thing is at my age when I wake up after a night’s rest, I feel like I’ve been beat up.  Shoulders, hips you name it, it hurts.  Lying in one place too long makes it hard to get these old bones moving.  Give me about 30 minutes or so and I’m ready to go and climb a mountain.

I was recently seeing a physical therapist about disc problems I have in my neck.  He was really good and was able to help me relieve my pain.  He told me he was impressed with my posture especially for my age and for me to continue to always stand as straight as possible.  He asked if I was concerned about losing muscle mass.  I told him I was but thought that just doing a medium weight workout and cardio training would maintain the mass.  He is also a body builder so he showed me numerous weight training exercises that would help increase some of my muscle mass that I am losing.  He told me cardio is good but if you don’t have the muscle strength, you wouldn’t be able to move.  Worst case scenario is you would just lie there and breathe.  I have always said, “If you don’t use it, you lose it.”  I think that is important for us older guys.  So, slowing down the loss of muscle mass is vital, especially if you are going to continue to hunt in mountain country.  If you ever need a good physical therapist, Louis Greene of Integrative Physical Therapy and Spine Treatment Center, Inc. does a great job.

I know that, personally, I’m not able to do those long, heavy backpack hunts that I have done so many of over the years, but the normal sheep or goat hunts of 4 or 5 miles with a backpack loaded with 40 or so pounds are doable at least with my current abilities.  I have so many friends that have quit hunting because of health issues or that it’s just no longer fun anymore with their aches and pains.  I hate that and tell them just to do easier hunts with young guys especially young family members who can still pack the heavy loads.  If physically able get into some kind of workout program to keep you in the game.

As I said before, I’m going to do everything I can to keep hunting.  If something happens healthwise to where I can’t hunt anymore then I want to end it like a story in the book that my good friend and fellow sheep hunter, Lynn Soiseth, wrote titled, “Hunters of the White Sheep.”  It’s the last chapter in the book called “The Hospital Caper.” As the story goes an 80 year old man whose wife had passed is dying of cancer in an Anchorage Hospital.  He escapes with his walker and gets a cab driver to drive him to one of Anchorage’s many mountain trails.  He attempts to climb to a knob that he had climbed many times before just one last time before he joins his wife in heaven.  That’s the way I want to go.  

But until then I’m going to do everything I can to “not let the old man in.”  I hope you all do the same.  Good hunting!!

If you like sheep hunting and want a good read of sheep hunter short stories pick up Lynn’s book, “Hunters of the White Sheep.”  You can find it on his web site.  www.lynnsoiseth.com.