Hi everyone. 51 year old father of 6 with a bad knee, arthritus and determined to do some lightweight (me, not the pack) backpack camping before it's too late. Spent 21 in the Air Force so moved around a lot and didn't get to do some things I always wanted to like backpack camping. So I've decided it's now or never. Within a few hours drive there's the Mark Twain National Forest. I have a few young ones willing/wanting to go with me.
I love the outdoors and as a kid I'd sneak out of the house before sun up so I could watch the woods "wake up". I know I'll never hike up to a high altitude trout lake in the Rockies but I think a little creek out on some conservation land can be magical, especially with one of my kids with me.
I take my kid's to Montauck State park in Missouri each year; it's a trout park; we car camp and it takes me weeks to get ready and weeks to clean up and put it all away afterwards but they'll never forget it! So the idea of backpacking sounds good. 26 or 27 years ago I went on a few day backpack trip with a buddy in North Carolina. Loved it but never went again for a lot of reasons. Now I want to have this back in my life before I physically can't. I started researching the subject and that's why I'm here. I have a large 8 person tent for my family and that's it so I started considering shelters and started reading about Hammocks.
Anyway, I love the Lord, the outdoors, guns, my family and this whole backpacking idea/goal is important to me. Good to be on the forum!
Gideon
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Originally Posted by Gideon
), reading through this forum the last few days makes me wish I was twenty something again...but then again I'm not so sure I learned my lessons the first time around so no telling how badly a second go would be 
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