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Ahaaaaaaaaaaa
Age and treachery overcome youth and strength..

I was in the Marine Corps for a while then worked for DOD for a while more. I try to keep myself in good shape. I don't think staying in good condition makes you live longer (Only God makes those calls) but I do know staying in shape makes you live better.

So I try to enjoy life every day. I am not "Old" now, but I sure am not "young" anymore either.
The older a man gets the MORE important it is for him to keep fit. And in my younger years I was somewhat reckless and as is the case with most such men, I received 33 bone breaks and 4 wounds for my efforts.
Now at 51, I feel some of them coming back to visit. I find that resistance and range of motion training (stretching) are very important to me now. I will never be a 25 year US Marine again, but for a 51 year "old guy" I do quite well. I have some of the young men in camp (elk camp) amazed on regular basis. That's not so much a statement to my condition of strength, but to the fact that out whole country is getting soft and softer. Young people don't so the kind of things now that they dis 30-40 years ago ------- at least not many of them do. I have guided a LOT of young men and women in their 20 and 30s that look as if they are in good shape, but 1 hour in the high country shows that they are part of the "Nintendo Generation" and hiking up hill with a 30 pounds pack on is well beyond their abilities. When I was in my 20 and 30 and working for DOD I carried 82 pounds as part of my day in-day out job, and thought nothing of it. But I didn't sit down as I worked in my job either, and many of this generation does that.
The WORKERS, that still do REAL work these days, don't make the money, of have the time to come on this kind of the hunt, and those that work in the cities and sit down to earn their money do. But many of those can't get out in the mountains and move, the way they need to, to really hunt Elk, Mule deer and moose, the way it's best to hunt them.......

SO I have to modify my tactics to accommodate them, and I do OK, but not as well as I could do if they could hunt the way I like to hunt. Don’t misunderstand.....they are fun people to be with and some have become good friends, but they can’t do a dog-trot around a 3 mile mountain to get downwind of a heard of elk in 90 m minutes at 8,000 feet. (as an example). Horses make too much noise and motorized vehicles are out of the question because the timber is far to heavy.
Oh well............. enough of my ramblings