Why you ought to recognize her:
Connie Locher-Bussard is an 87-yr-antique freelance dietitian in Springfield who took journey sports activities and travel tours at 55.
Why did you start taking them?
“My daughter, Marie (Bussard), requested if I wanted to move backpacking within the Canyonlands (National Park in Utah). I said, ‘Yes, what do I need to bring except cash and the car?’ (She laughs.) The motive being is I had the auto; she didn’t have one. It was a tremendous adventure. That made me suppose I’d love to do greater.”
What turned into next?
“My daughter located a collection in Minnesota referred to as Woodswomen (Inc.). They did an adventure tour for women over 55. (The organization is now defunct.) ″The first trip I took with Woodswomen, we went to Nepal, trekking within the Himalayas. We were long past for 3 to four weeks, and we did something called the Ganesh Himal trek (in eastern Nepal). This changed into no longer where all and sundry else goes. We didn’t see every other traveler. That was an exciting ride because one of the ladies fell off the facet of the mountain. She sustained annoying mind harm. They delivered her back to camp, this becomes overdue in the day, and they turned into lifeless via the following morning. We were on a 3-day trek from the trailhead where we’d get a motorized vehicle. There changed into no way they may convey the frame lower back because once we were given to the trailhead, it became nearly a day’s experience back to Kathmandu. What we had to do, and this is what the Sherpas did, they constructed a funeral pyre of logs, and we cremated her frame.”
What else have you ever carried out?
“When my dad turned into a young man, he’d canoed inside the Boundary Waters (a desert location in northeastern Minnesota). That’s what I wanted to do. So, the year I became 75, Woodswomen turned into doing a canoeing ride there. We stayed in tents every night. We stayed as soon as with an Indian woman on her island and cherished it. We had to bring the canoes to the truck on the way out, ready to get us. I become just like the 2d or 1/3 lady out, carrying the canoe. And there have been two antique guys sitting in chairs at the beach, and one of them said to the alternative, ‘I don’t recognize who the hell they’re; however, I don’t need to mess with any of them!’ (She laughs.)” For her 80th birthday, Locher-Bussard went on a rafting and camping journey on the Colorado River. Last 12 months, her stomach surfed on seashores alongside America’s northwestern coast.
Is there whatever you need to do which you haven’t?
“Go to Bhutan. It’s rustic that borders Nepal; it’s within the Himalayas, and I want to trek in Bhutan. … But that’s the last one I’m going to do. I’ll probably be 88 or 89 by the point I do it!”