Outdoor Adventure USA

Outdoor Adventure for Seniors

One of the many benefits of the type of outdoor adventures that we enjoy is its attraction to every age. In fact, for some, the prospect of retirement opens up a whole new world of virtually unlimited enjoyment of the outdoors. As with every age, there are some things that need special attention, and this will be the subject of our net this week.

Paul, KK6DYO will lead this discussion, with a focus of how Seniors can get full enjoyment on any outdoor adventure. Since we are all either heading toward this age or have Senior family members with whom we would like to share our adventures, this should be a great topic, and appealing to all.

Outdoor Adventure for Seniors

I love being outdoors! Taking a scenic "jeep trail", watching the desert sun rise, enjoying a good propane- or coal-cooked meal, mellowing with the camaraderie and warmth of a good campfire conversation, gazing at the stars and planets with such clarity, imagining life when various ruins were someone's home or workplace, and even ... I enjoy it all (except maybe loading up for the trip in the first place).

Here I am, recently retired, 66 years old, 2nd Moderna injection, seeing the end of the COVID-19 pandemic and an imminent return to normal, assuming our governments at various levels let us.

None of us knows how many years we have left, especially years where both mind and body are healthy enough for high-quality living. For me, in some ways, my life seems like it's just beginning. I am, finally, "Free at last!"

So, given our love for outdoor adventure, how do we get the most out of our "Golden Years"?

The Golden Years are generally defined as the span of time between retirement and the beginning of age-imposed physical, emotional, and cognitive limitations, and today would roughly fall between the ages of 65 and 80+.

I wanted to research this topic and see what I could find out to better enjoy being outdoors and to prolong my enjoyment, maybe for decades. Much of this may be obvious, but ... that's the topic of this net: Outdoor Adventure for Seniors.

Effects of Aging - A Review

• Decreased circulatory efficiency
  • Arteriosclerosis - hardening of arteries
  • Decreased lung capacity
  • Heart rate can't increase as much during activities
  • Decreased heart capacity
  • =>Lower maximum capability
• Muscles lose mass and strength, endurance, and flexibility
• Skin loses tone, oil, and fatty tissue underneath skin
  • =>Harder to maintain body temperature in cold
• Sweat glands shrink and become less sensitive
  • =>Harder to maintain body temperature in heat
• Bones shrink in weight and density, become more brittle
  • More subject to fracture
• Degeneration of joints
  • Fluid and cartilage can decrease and wear away
• Loss of elasticity of bladder
  • =>More frequent urination
• Deceased muscular activity of intestinal tract
  • =>More likelihood of constipation
• Vision
  • Difficulty with near vision focus
  • Low light sensitivity decreases
  • Dry eyes
  • Spots and floaters
  • Loss of peripheral vision
  • Decrease in color perception
• Hearing
  • Overall hearing loss
  • High frequency hearing loss
  • Tinnitus (ringing in ears)
  • =>Especially important for communication and environmental awareness
• Body metabolism slows
• Memory and cognition

https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-life ... t-20046070

It all looks pretty depressing!


Thematic Recommendations for Seniors (and Everyone Else)
Use it or lose it! Diet and exercise can delay or reverse some of these changes!

• Properly nutritious diet
• Age-appropriate exercises to maintain and improve stamina and strength
• Sleep well
• Self-awareness - listen to your body
• Routine doctor examinations (not hypochondriac paranoia)
• Special doctor appointments (e.g., "my knees hurt")
• Following doctor's advice
• Self-protection
  • Hearing protection or enhancement
  • Vision protection or enhancenet
  • Clothing suited to environment and comfort
  • Respect bodily function / circadian rhythm schedule
• Don't drink, smoke, ...

Benefits of Being a Senior

Besides overwhelming wisdom ...

US Forest Service Senior Pass

Covers

• Entrance and day-use recreation fees
• Discounts on other recreation fees (e.g., camping, guided tours)
• Per-vehicle fees: all passengers in non-commercial vehicle
• Per-person fees: owner and up to three additional adults

For six federal agencies

• National Park Service
• US Fish & Wildlife Service
• Bureau of Land Management
• Bureau of Reclamation
• US Forest Service
• US Army Corps of Engineers

Lifetime Senior Pass $80 (was $10 until 2016 legislation)

Annual Senior Pass $20/year

Note that various federal agencies increasingly turn over management of their responsibilities to concessionaires, which often raise prices and ...

From: https://www.fs.usda.gov/visit/passes-pe ... ees-passes

Concessionaires may or may not honor this pass, according to the terms of their current permit.

For example, much of Los Padres National Forest in California, about 2 million acres, is managed by Parks Management Company (PMC). From: https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/lpnf/hom ... eprd523710

The 18 sites newly added to the concession Special Use Person (11/1/2016) that currently require an Adventure Pass ($5.00 per day or $30.00 for an annual pass) will now require a $20-$35 per night camping fee or $10 day-use fee. Interagency Senior and Interagency Access pass holders will receive a 50 percent discount on camping fees. An annual pass for day-use sites will be available through PMC for $50 and will be good at any of the concession-managed picnic and day-use sites on Los Padres. Interagency Senior, Access, Military and Annual Passes and “Every Kid in the Park” 4th Grade Passes will not be honored at concession sites, but will remain valid at the 23 recreation sites that require an Adventure Pass.

In any case, if you visit national public outdoor recreation areas, you will likely get benefits from a senior pass.


Senior Discounts

While not specifically outdoor-related, many restaurants, grocery stores, retail stores, airlines, car rentals, and some hotels provide senior discounts, often around 10%, some on particular days of the week, in some cases as young as 50 years old. Save a little money while preparing for or traveling to/from your outdoor adventure.

One Senior Discount List


There's no harm in just asking the cashier, server, or whoever is taking payment.

Senior Outdoor Activities

"A man's got to know his limitations."

DirtyHarry.png (252.54 KiB) Viewed 852 times

What do we do outdoors? A partial list:

Typical OAUSA Event/Expedition

• 4WD trail running
• breathing fresh air
• day hiking / nature walk
• mine exploration
• camping
• campfires (in California, remember your campfire permit!)
• cooking (e.g., Dutch oven)
• photography
• videography
• stargazing
• sightseeing (e.g., scenic geography, historical places, ruins, petroglyphs)
  • vehicle
  • foot
• hunting

Other Outdoor Recreational Activities

• guided tours
• biking (electric?)
• backpacking
• rockhounding
• birding
• picnicking
• fishing
• target shooting
• off-highway (all-terrain) vehicles
• water-related activities
• skiing
• canoeing
• iron man (uh, person?)

Fundamentally, it appears that most outdoor activities are perfectly well suited to seniors. However, with a senior's diminished circulatory capacity, higher altitudes (less oxygen), colder temperatures, irregular sleep, improper nutrition and hydration, outdoor recreation can become a challenge.

Your mission as a senior adventurer is to stay prepared for future outdoor adventures.

Senior Health and Fitness

Researching how seniors can stay active reveals the following fairly obvious and repetitive admonitions:

• Maintain health and fitness
• Maintain health and fitness
• Maintain health and fitness

Anything specific should be agreed on between you and your doctor, and will factor in your entire health picture. I personally use a treadmill and do limited workouts with weights and stretch bands.

I've wondered about getting a personal trainer, though wonder about the expense and potential for results.

Does anyone have a personal trainer?

Senior Seating

Your camp chair is an individual choice.

• Seats too low are difficult to rise from and hard on the knees.
• Armrests (padded) help older folks get into and out of the chair, besides providing comfort.
• Reclining chairs are nice for relaxing and stargazing.
• Chair backs often compress jacket material and can let cold in; extra back padding is nice.
• Note: Many chairs made of synthetics will develop instant burn holes should embers pop out of a campfire.

The Helinox One is reasonably comfortable, but its 10.5" seat height makes it difficult to rise from. However, its light weight makes it nice to take on hikes.
The Helinox Savannah is very comfortable, has a 14" seat height, high back support, wider seat, and a pillow can be attached for neck support, so would be much better. Arm rests would be a nice addition, though it’s easy to push off from the seat corners. Two drink holders.
The Savannah has an available warming seat cover for cold nights, though is made like a puffy jacket ... campfire embers would burn right through it.
This Eureka Highback Recliner is my current overall favorite ($90). High back, arm rests, drink holder, reclines.

Senior Driving

Assuming you're lucky enough to still have roads to where you'd like to visit, seniors need to be aware of the risks of operating motor vehicles. Most seniors are aware that driving becomes increasingly hazardous as they age, and in fact, those over 65 are more likely to consider elderly drivers more dangerous than drunk drivers. Interestingly, 40% of adults are more comfortable talking with their parents about funeral arrangments than restricting their parents' driving.

All of these effects of aging diminish your ability to drive safely:

• Visual acuity declines
• Reduced peripheral vision
• Reduced night vision
• Hearing loss
• Longer reaction times, cognitive slowing
• Reduced coordination
• Reduced physical strength
• Joint (e.g. neck) rigidity or pain
• Medications
• Increased vulnerability when accidents happen

While physiological issues stack up against senior drivers, most are well aware of this and drive accordingly:

Older drivers no more dangerous, accident data study says

older drivers compensate for their declining powers by driving more carefully, slowing down, leaving larger gaps, and choosing better weather and quieter times to go out in the car.

What Risks Do Older Drivers Pose to Traffic Safety?

One of the main reasons that older drivers are not found to be significantly riskier drivers, despite medical evidence that demonstrates that their driving skill declines with age, is that they change their driving habits to compensate for their diminished competence as drivers.

https://seniordriving.aaa.com/resources ... -research/

• Per mile traveled, fatal crash rates increase beginning at age 75 and rise sharply after age 80. This is mainly due to increased risk of injury and medical complications, rather than an increased tendency to get into crashes.
• Since older drivers are more fragile, their fatality rates are 17 times higher than those of 25- to 64-year-olds.

The major problem is not their driving, but the physical frailty of seniors when accidents happen, especially 70+. Nearly 70% of traffic deaths in 2018 were a 65+ driver and/or their 65+ passenger.

Senior Driving Skills Improvement

The AAA offers good information on senior driving, and even (during non-COVID times) a Senior Driver Improvement Course. Please takes a look at the following link at your leisure.

https://seniordriving.aaa.com/
https://seniordriving.aaa.com/improve-y ... ng-skills/


So, we older drivers are off the hook as far as causing crashes goes! All studies that I could find involve on-road traffic, not off-road.

I personally feel much more relaxed driving off-road than in traffic. There's usually little to no oncoming or cross traffic and no road signs. You primarily maintain your distance if there's a guy in front of you, watch your GPS map for turns, check where folks are via APRS, engage in some radio banter, and enjoy the distractingly beautiful scenery.


Off-Road Driving Training

However, there are good classes you can take to improve your off-road driving skills.

Since Tom's not here, I can pitch his off-road training classes: Badlands Off-Road Adventures

Daughter driving Anza Borrego; has taken Tom’s off-road driving class.
As a senior, with years of experience driving and awareness of your limitations, you're probably driving safely. However, the consequence of any error is vastly greater, so be extra safe!


A Pet Peeve, Moreso Now that I'm Older

"Conservation" bills are being pushed through Congress:
Democratic-led House makes conservation push with lands bill
Biden commits to ambitious 30x30 conservation target

Biden has set a goal of conserving at least 30% of U.S. lands and ocean by 2030, a move that supporters say will help curb global warming while preserving some of the nation’s most scenic lands for future generations of Americans to enjoy.

To reach the 30 by 30 target [30% more wilderness by 2030] will require conserving an additional area twice the size of Texas, more than 440 million acres, within the next 10 years.

Sounds good, doesn't it?

For seniors, often the only way of getting deeply into and enjoying scenic areas is driving, usually 4WD vehicles. We're not likely to be humping backpacks. In my opinion, the expansion of wilderness areas is some of the worst outdoor-related legislation for senior campers and hunters.

The Wilderness Act not only prohibits motorized vehicles, but also prohibits bicycles and carts. Designating lands as wilderness effectively prohibits seniors safe access to once-accessible public lands.

In California, of the 42 million acres of public land, 15 million acres are designated as wilderness, and effectively off-limits to me.

For example, here's an area of Inyo National Forest that contains California deer hunting zone X10. I was happy to get a deer tag a couple of years ago as there seemed areas that weren't too high in altitude or too steep for this old man, and it had good road coverage. But then I brought up a wilderness overlay and found that the vast majority of this zone was wilderness.

You'd think that new wilderness areas simply preserve existing pristine natural land, but in many cases they revert land that was once accessible to all.

Here's a map of the major non-wilderness part of X10. It appears that there are many through roads, though the official USFS road map shows many roads deadending. Loading a wilderness overlay shows why. Many roads have been here for perhaps a hundred or more years, but are now called wilderness and are gated or legally prohibited to access.
I've been called "selfish" for wondering how many people really get to enjoy some of these wilderness areas and wanting to maintain my own access to public lands


Back in 2012:
Congress Considering Bill to Allow Motorized Vehicles in Wilderness Areas

A new bill making its way through Congress, the Recreational Fishing and Hunting Heritage and Opportunities Act (H.R. 2834), aims to make federally managed public lands across millions of acres of Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management property more accessible to hunters and anglers. And a key element of the bill calls for allowing motorized vehicles and equipment—as long as they are used for hunting or fishing—into these areas.

While I personally would extend this legislation to seniors, needless to say, it didn't pass.

Altitude Effects

Everyone feels the effects of altitude, but seniors with already diminished circulatory capacity can expect a greater impact.


While the percentage of oxygen in the air relative to other components remains relatively constant regardless of altitude, the amount of oxygen available (effective oxygen %) is relative to atmospheric pressure.

We notice this initially as increased respiration and heart rate, as the body attempts to maintain blood oxygen saturation above 95%.

The amount of oxygen in your blood ("saturation") is what's important, and can be measured quickly and inexpensively using a "pulse oximeter", which are available on Amazons are available for as little as $10. Newer Apple Watches and other wrist devices can also measure this.
You can improve your conditioning (heart and lung capacity and efficiency) through exercise.

Dealing with Cold Weather

• Thinning of skin and loss of fat under skin results in inability to retain heat.
• Slower metabolism makes it harder to generate body hat.
• Decreased circulation efficiency makes it harder for body to spread heat throughout body.
• May be less aware of actual cold.
• Seniors can experience hypothermia in mid-70s temperatures.

Unpredictable and cold weather is typical outdoors.

• Stay comfortable. If you feel cold, you're already too cold.
• Be prepared for extreme temperature ranges.
• Bring and wear adequate clothing.
• Consider thermal undergarments.
• Consider warm headwear.
• Consume sufficient calories.
• Consume warm beverages.
• Avoid alcohol.
  • Dilates skin blood vessels, taking heat away from body core.
    • Will give you a false sensation of warmth when you're not.
    • Will accelerate heat loss.
    • Can inhibit body's ability to shiver.
  • Can make you need to urinate during the night.
  • Can cause dehydration.
  • Can impair judgement.

If you can't avoid alcohol, drink responsibly:

Clothing and Thermal Layers

Won't get into jackets as they're well known.
Won't mention thermal layers other than giving a thumbs up for Merino wool.


Hats

Hats are highly individualistic, but consider crushable wool like the Stetson Bozeman. Does double-duty keeping the sun off your face and neck. Insulated beanie-style hat are great for warmth. To each his own:
Electric Clothing

I'm personally a big fan of electric clothing (jackets, vests, and shirts) often intended for motorcyclists.
https://www.thewarmingstore.com/
But you need a way to recharge batteries either in camp (solar, generator) or car (alternator).
Tent / Sleeping
Bring a bag rated for expected conditions and then some.
Bring additional blankets to add inside and/or on top of your sleeping bag as needed.
Use a good, thick, comfortable (R-rated) sleeping pad.

Example: Exped Megamat 10 (R-8.1 rated)
[Tent] Heaters

Diesel Heaters
Example: https://www.amazon.com/Happybuy-Muffler ... 081DXVHD9/

I saw one of these operate two weeks ago. I was impressed.

• Various models ranging from 10,000 BTUs to 26,000 BTUs.
• Relatively inexpensive at $155 - $200.
• Relative inexpensive to operator.
• Forced air heater, all combustion stays outside.
  • Play it safe with carbon monoxide detector in tent.
• Very effective heat source.
• Thermostat controlled.
• Requires 12V source.
• Requires some set up.
• Diesel pump clicks.
• Diesel fuel stinks, and must be carefully stored.
• Diesel can gel at cold temperatures (20 degrees); additives can help
• Long-term reliability?

Propane Heaters

When propane or butane burns with plentiful oxygen, combustion byproducts are carbon dioxide and water vapor. Carbon monoxide can be formed when oxygen is limited.

• Propane stops vaporizing at -44 degrees.
• Canister temperature can drop further through use.
• Propane pressure can be too low at -20 degrees .
• Likely already have propane for stove, lantern, ...

Mr. Heater

A favorite of many, ubiquitous in the field, Mr. Heater has a range of propane heaters. With caution, they are safe to use in a tent.

• Little Buddy 3,800 BTUs/hour
  Portable Buddy 4,000 or 9,000 BTUs/hour
• Big Buddy 4,000, 9,000, or 18,000 BTUs/hour

Provides infrared heat; much heat output goes straight up. Consider using a fan in tent for circulation.

Users typically don't run heater at night for fear of fire, carbon monoxide, or carbon dioxide poisoning. But if so, should use smoke, fire, carbon monoxide detector.

Propex HS2211

• 6800 BTUs
• Relatively expensive at $970.
• Intended for under-vehicle, but works fine on ground with a little DIY.
• Quiet, like home furnace.
• Thermostat control.
• Requires set up.
• Requires 12V source.

Butane Heater - Kovea Cupid

• Butane stops vaporizing at 31 degrees.
• 5600 BTUs.
• Small, convenient, self-contained heater uses inexpensive butane cartridges.