Kyle wrote:



>

>Man, Bobby, if you're not used to altitude >5000 ft, it can MESS YOU

>UP!  Once you get about a mile above sea level (Memphis is pretty low by

>comparison), the O2 carrying capacity of those red blood cells starts to

>diminish.  Above 10,000 you can get altitude sickness rather quickly.

>

>I spent two weeks at 11,500 in '98 and the first couple days were a real

>drag.  A headache like you wouldn't believe!  I also remembered a lesson

>learned a long time ago in Wyoming:  Do not drink alcohol in the High

>Country.  What's nice is spending time at altitude and then coming home

>to 800' above sea-level.  Man, what energy!

>

>I think what gets me more than anything is the rapidity with which my

>balance, flexibility, pain-level got bad.  If it had been a relatively

>gradual process I think I could have coped better emotionally.  I get to

>thinking,

>

>The other thing that sucks is that if I take enough

>pain-killers/antispasmodics to let me hunt/hike/fish without undue pain,

>then I'm not really being safe.  Fishing would be bad enough, but

>hunting???  No way!

>

>(Sigh)  Like Laura says, "Kyle, ain't it a bitch?  You've got the body

>of a 70 year-old, but the mind of a seventh-grader".  ;>)

>

>-Kyle



Yeah, we were at about 10,000 ft. Even going to Cripple Creek(7-8,000) gets

to be a drag on the blood thinners I take!



 "Sh*t, if it's this bad now, what's it going to be like in

>five years?"



Yeah, I know the feeling!



Bobby