While rummaging through the cruft and crumbs of my hard drive, I found a forgotten Word document from 1999, twenty years ago, outlining my 49-year-old’s future goals, a bucket list. My 69-year-old self read the following, rewritten with comments, but the ideas are unchanged.

First Retirement Year

At age 62 to 65, hike the 2200 mile Appalachian Trail, from Springer Mountain, Georgia to Katadhin, Maine in one of several ways.

• Thru-Hike south to north in six months in one year, a feat requiring a minimum of 14 miles a day, rain or shine, healthy or injured. A rest day means you have to do 28 miles on another day. Most commonly done by very fit, young people with the ultimate bragging rights. Typically from early March to mid-October before Mount Katadhin closes.
• Two-section hike from Harper’s Ferry WV to Georgia one year and Harper’s Ferry to Maine the second year. While section hiking lacks the bragging rights of doing it all in one year, it offers a later start (May instead of March), fewer months of body wear and tear (three to four instead of six), better weather (a lighter load without heavy cold-weather gear), fewer daily miles, and time to take a “vacation” from the hike if needed.
• Many-section hike over many years. Keep in mind that it takes a month to get your “trail legs”, that is, the first 30 days are harder than the rest of the trip. If your yearly sections are only two weeks at a time, you never fully get in shape.

In 2000, while on a Blue Ridge preparatory hike for a trip to Philmont Scout Ranch that year, Morgan and I met “Yogi B” (trail name), at a lunch break. He was 70 years old (I was 50) and had just started his southbound two-year sectional hike. Instead of starting with 300 people on a cold, wet, sloppy late Winter/early Spring day in Georgia, with everyone slogging up the same narrow trail, fighting for walking space and room in the small shelters, he started in Harper’s Ferry in warm, dry May, walked South without crowds and got to meet the people on the trail working their way North.

The following year, he was going to start again in Harper’s Ferry in May and walk north for a traditional celebratory finish on Mount Katadhin. Oh, his trail name came from extensive yoga pre-trip physical training.

Yogi B, I hope you finished, made it to 90, and have fond memories of your trip!

The soonest I could think of doing a sectional hike is Spring 2020 at age 70. While some, like Yogi B, hike the full trail in their 70s (Grandma Gatewood!!!), it is not common. Not sure I have the interest, energy, and determination for this level of exercise and creature discomfort anymore. Maybe a few days on the trail is enough.

Or even better, hike the Cotswolds which we did in 2017.

Modify your goals to meet your current interests, abilities, and opportunities.

Second Retirement Year

BikePack the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, a mostly off-road, 2,468-mile trail from Canada to Mexico down the Great Divide. I now have a BikePackable bike, that is, a bike that can do rough terrain while carrying clothing and camping gear, but my legs lack the energy and endurance that I once had.

A 65-year-old patient of mine told my 45-year-old self, that they felt the same as a youth but just couldn’t do as much. Now I understand. I keep trying diet and exercise changes but little helps.

My 49-year-old me identified this age versus time of retirement theme twenty years ago.

Can I retire financially comfortable soon enough before being physically unable to do my goals?

The order of these year goals reflects the reality that I needed to do the hardest goals first before I aged out. I needed help to retire earlier but didn’t have it.

Third Retirement Year

Spend a summer going to multiple bike rides between loafing at the beach in Southern Shores. See the blog post, Handyman Summer Camp, to see how loafing turned out! I thought of Bike Virginia (I have done 13 of them), Cycle Montana, Cycle North Carolina, and many other state-sponsored rides. You could spend a whole summer driving from one multi-day organized ride to another.

Again my legs are the limiting factor in group rides, I don’t want to be the slowest person. Yes, I know the advice “ride your own ride”, “don’t let other people influence you”, but in reality being the slowest in a group is very disheartening, especially if you were once faster. You try to pedal faster than you can, wear out quickly, and feel inferior. Training more doesn’t help.

I had the experience many years ago of a Saturday morning ride in Powhatan with a group of seven people (two were close friends) but was quickly left far behind, alone. One of the lead riders was a fat hospital administrator who delighted in leaving behind a skinny doctor. His disdain for me was verbal and palpable and their pace was deliberate. Even my friends didn’t notice that I was dropped. I turned around, rode back to my car, and have never ridden with others since. Yes, experiences like this can have a lasting impression. It reinforced my natural loner tendencies and low self-esteem.

But, Rail-Trails are doable without groups, gentle inclines, no traffic.

Modify your goals to meet your current interests, abilities, and opportunities.

Other Ideas

• Motorcycle around America – Did that from Texas to Virginia and could do more! Not leg strength dependent but I don’t enjoy the noise, traffic, and heavy clothing.
• Spend a month in Germany immersed in the language, finally learning a second language. Seems less interesting today and I don’t want to study that hard.
• Hike the Alps – Didn’t hike but visited the Alps this year!
• Hike the Cotswolds – Did that in 2018 and would love to do it again!
• Take a professional Bicycle Repair Course such as Barnett’s Bicycle Institute. Why bicycle repair? It seems like a small enough, yet useful body of knowledge that I could actually get good at, working with my hands.

So that is all I found in my time capsule. In another post, I will formulate my revised 70-year-old goals, a useful exercise for most people.

I would love to hear comments on life goals, successes, frustrations, and mental attitude from friends. Please help me think through this.