Geezer? Geez, I think you mean me! I have lurked around this board for several years and I think I introduced myself the first time I joined but I don't really remember. So, let me introduce myself again. I am a geezer, female variety. Like most women of my generation, I started backpacking in college w/boyfriends. Women didn't pack by themselves then. I did grow up camping and my earliest memories are of camping at Lake Tahoe, with my brother & I sleeping on the front seat of the family station wagon, covered w/blankets, while my parents slept in the back of the station wagon (I guess the seats folded down) and my mother taped newspapers around the windows to achieve privacy. My 4 year old brother called "dibs' on the steering wheel (he wanted to sleep under it) and I recall thinking "He is so dumb."I was 5. I fell in love with granite on that trip, listening to a state park ranger explain about granite while I held my father's hand. This was in the early 1950s. We camped every summer, often for weeks at a time, until college.
I continued backpacking and eventually, I took my son and later my nieces. By that time we did see women hiking together. Several of my woman freiends formed a group of women who felt very daring, backpacking together several times a year. I have hiked a lot in Desolation wilderness, since it is close by, but also in the Carson-Iceberg and one of my favorite wildernesses for backpacking with children is Caribou Wilderness next to Lassen Park. It is a very lovely & gentle environment.
Don't get me wrong, I love the high country, espec. The Ansel Adams, the area around Banner Peak. Oh, and Evolution basin, Oh! And the area around Bear Creek, along the JMT. Oh, and I could go on & on
About 6 years ago,we started using llamas to get into the backcountry. Some of you may have run into us as we have been trying to finish the JMT using llamas. We are known as the llama ladies. I would prefer to just carry a backpack but my back is not up to that so we use llamas and it has allowed me to continue to backpack well into Geezerhood.
This year we are going up over Taboose Pass again to try to get a section of the JMT that we haven't finished yet (Over Mather Pass). I am slow but that isn't due to age, I was always slow as a hiker, but I love being out there and I am OK with slow progress. I will give a trail report when we finish. We went up Taboose pass last year and while very very very steep, it is also very very very beautiful. Stunning in fact. I guess I'll sign off as 'the Lurking Geezer woman."