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I’m 35 and also cannot find backpacking companions my age (HCN, 7/21/14). Most friends my age are more interested in camping at the brewery or a music festival. All my backpacking buddies are pushing 60. Still, I can’t help but enjoy the thought that traffic on the trails is getting better and not worse.

Bradley Reichel
Fort Collins, Colorado

This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Old friends.

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Old friends

by Bradley Reichel, High Country News
August 4, 2014

					<h1>Old friends</h1>
<p class="byline">by Bradley Reichel, High Country News <br />August 4, 2014</p>
					
<p>I’m 35 and also cannot find <a class="external-link" href="../46.12/the-death-of-backpacking">backpacking companions</a> my age (<i>HCN</i>, 7/21/14). Most friends my age are more interested in camping at the brewery or a music festival. All my backpacking buddies are pushing 60. Still, I can’t help but enjoy the thought that traffic on the trails is getting better and not worse.</p>
<p><i>Bradley Reichel<br />Fort Collins, Colorado</i></p>
<div class="wp-block-group hcn-print-edition-box">
<p>This article appeared in the <a href="/?p=187155">print edition of the magazine</a> with the headline <span class="hcn-magtitle">Old friends</span>.</p>
</p></div>

					<p>This &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://country-survey-collabs.info/issues/46-13/old-friends/&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt; first appeared on &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://country-survey-collabs.info Country News&lt;/a&gt; and is republished here under a &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/&quot;&gt;Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;img src=&quot;https://i0.wp.com/www.hcn.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/cropped-HCN_Logo-Monogram_White_Sq-2.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;amp;quality=100&amp;amp;ssl=1&quot; style=&quot;width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;img id=&quot;republication-tracker-tool-source&quot; src=&quot;https://country-survey-collabs.info/?republication-pixel=true&amp;post=117187&amp;amp;ga4=G-0NS3WVPPTN&quot; style=&quot;width:1px;height:1px;&quot;&gt;&lt;script&gt; PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: &quot;https://country-survey-collabs.info/issues/46-13/old-friends/&quot;, urlref: window.location.href }); } } &lt;/script&gt; &lt;script id=&quot;parsely-cfg&quot; src=&quot;//cdn.parsely.com/keys/hcn.org/p.js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;</p>

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