GETTIN OLD.......

JimP

Administrator
Mar 28, 2016
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Gypsum, Co
Keep going hunting it will keep you young.

On the points, you might start looking real hard at the point situation and give up on those great units and settle for a pretty good one.

4 years ago I gave up hope hunting up in the NW corrner on a muzzle loader elk hunt. I figured that I was 5-7 years away from drawing it as a resident. So I picked a pretty good unit and drew it with 1 or 2 points to spare and had a great hunt.
 
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minn elk chaser

Active Member
Jan 6, 2014
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Problem is that the units that you could draw as second choice are now getting out of reach. Like unit 61 that you hunted is almost as bad as the 4 units in the northwest corner. I was able to hunt unit 10 a few years ago but my son who has 23 points, has few options unless he hunts guided in unit 40. He really would prefer a do it yourself hunt.
 

Colorado Cowboy

Super Moderator
Jun 8, 2011
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Dolores, Colorado
UPDATE

The first PT stint didn't seem to help. My Surgeon ordered a CT scan with contrast (injection of dye into the joint/muscle). It showed more extensive damage than expected. The rotator cuff was damaged more than he thought. If another surgery is done, he will do a reverse replacement. The ball part of the shoulder joint is moved to the upper part of the joint and the receptacle to the arm. But we are trying a different approach to more pt. Started the sessions 3 weeks ago and I can see an improvement. Taking it real slow and looks like pt for several more months.
 

JimP

Administrator
Mar 28, 2016
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Gypsum, Co
Good luck with it Roger, we are getting there.

I know that it takes me a little bit longer to get moving now days and I am only 66. However I saw age really catch up with my brother in law on this last deer hunt and he'll be 80 this coming February. It is sad when you just can't do the things that you used to do or when you have to to a hours worth of stretching to get the appendages to start moving where you want them to go.
 
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BKhunter50

Member
Jan 14, 2017
81
22
Canton, Mississippi
I was thinking about this post this morning while I was at the gym.

I was a tall, skinny kid growing up. Lived in the country and had to ride my bike anywhere I needed to go. I loved football and baseball. My mother wouldn't let me play football because she was afraid I'd get hurt. I thought my mother was totally unreasonable for not allowing me to play. I did play baseball. LOVED IT! Played as much as I could growing up. Despite my passion for the sport, I was an average player and got cut from our class A high school team. I was extremely upset about this. The truth is, looking back, I was a tall, skinny, uncoordinated kid.

Now I'm 52 years old and no longer skinny :) I don't have any old sports injuries and still get out and elk hunt the backcountry with my 27 year old son. While I don't have the awesome memories one must have of being an outstanding athlete, I'm making up for it with backcountry adventures in my autumn years. I guess everything is a tradeoff.
 

JimP

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Mar 28, 2016
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I was also that tall skinny kid all the way through high school and into college. I was 6'5" and 120lbs, I could hide behind a light pole. I did do a lot of sports outside of school but just wasn't big enough weight wise for school but I could hold my own with the best of them. The coaches just didn't believe that I could handle it.

Anyway I used to do anything and everything that I wanted to do. After college I took a 3 week hike through north eastern Utah across the Uinta Mountains with a good friend. A lot of the injuries that I came up with in those years I would just walk off and was fine a day later. Then as I got older I would just shrug off problems. Then I retired at 55 and my health problems caught up with me 2 years later. You just never know when they are going to show up.

But I will say that I have done more and have had more fun since I turned 60 than in all the years before. I have done a lot more hunting with a safari and a hunting trip up to British Colombia under my belt. However I have learned to slow down and take things a lot easier than I used to. It is as I told my PH over in Africa: When I was a youngster I would run up mountains, as I got older I would jog up the same mountains, then I started to walk up them, now I just mosey up them. But I also told him that I'll never walk down a hill that I can't walk back up. It might take me a while to get there but I'll get there.
 

RICMIC

Veteran member
Feb 21, 2012
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Two Harbors, Minnesota
Not being a star athlete can be a blessing as you get older. Thinking about the 6 best athletes in my high school class; 2 are in prison, 3 are dead, and the biggest star of all (he was actually drafted by the NFL after a stellar college stint) is a virtual cripple. In the last ten years, I've canoed over 3,000 miles in wilderness areas of the US and Canada, and made 19 hunting trips out west. It hurts more but you have to just keep on moving.
 

Colorado Cowboy

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Jun 8, 2011
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Not being a star athlete can be a blessing as you get older. Thinking about the 6 best athletes in my high school class; 2 are in prison, 3 are dead, and the biggest star of all (he was actually drafted by the NFL after a stellar college stint) is a virtual cripple. In the last ten years, I've canoed over 3,000 miles in wilderness areas of the US and Canada, and made 19 hunting trips out west. It hurts more but you have to just keep on moving.
You are correct, BUT if I hadn't been good enough to get a college scholarship to play football, I probably would not have earned a college degree. It is truly a double edged sword.
 
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