“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.
What is called resignation is confirmed desperation…”
- Henry David Thoreau, 1854
When I crossed sixty I decided I wasn’t ready for the rocking chair. Both my grandfathers died in their very early sixties and I wasn’t about to join them. Way back when I was thirty-six I moored my sailboat on the same dock as the famous mountain climber, Jim Whitaker. He had been the first American to successfully challenge Everest. It was formidable to have such a famous neighbor. When he decided, at age forty-nine, to become the first American to conquer K-2, (he succeeded and subsequently at age 70 climbed Mt. Everest a second time) not only was I impressed I made a promise to myself that the adventures would go on and on and on. As Macarthur wrote, “People grow old only by deserting their ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up interest wrinkles the soul. You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fear…
I include this section in my website to give a reader a few new and maybe different ideas of how one has maintained that spirit of which Thoreau wrote after his years on Emerson’s Walden Pond. As an upcoming adventure firms I will detail on my adventure blog, plans, considerations, equipment and preparations for the upcoming outing. Upon returning I’ll recap highlights and prove a list of lessons learned.
