Adventure-Forward Aging: Keeping Adventure Alive As You Age
Marie-Josée Vasseur backcountry skied across the Chic-Choc Mountain range in Quebec when she was 63 years old. James Cook canoed 120 kilometres through northern Ontario’s Wabakimi Provincial Park when he was 55. Brenda Trenholme biked more than 9,000 kilometres from Beijing to Istanbul along the Silk Road when she was 65.
I get so excited thinking about these inspiring humans’ adventures. The physical and mental challenge, the puzzle of the itinerary, the feeling of fully embedding yourself in a place—these are three of the many things that make active travel so addictive.
While the thrill of discovering a new place and culture under your own power never gets old, I, unfortunately, am. If I’m being honest, thinking about active travel is starting to make me feel a bit tired. My excitement is increasingly accompanied by self-doubt, exhaustion and, as obligations and consequences feel heavier, a skepticism about the worthiness of this kind of travel. The horror!
A change may be coming, but I want to fight it. So, I talked to adventurers in their 60s and 70s who are keeping the spirit alive at an age when many are dialling down their risk and challenge quotient. Are they made of different stuff than the rest of us? How is their experience of active travel changing as they age? Is there a formula to keeping your spirit of adventure alive?
James Cook lives in Toronto. He’s probably biked, hiked and paddled thousands of kilometres in his lifetime: in 2018, he hiked the Akshayuk Pass on Baffin Island with his 15-year-old son. In 2023, he, his wife and their friends biked across Kyrgyzstan. He makes a point of getting away on a multi-day canoe trip each summer. His happy place is in the wilderness, with nobody around for miles.
“I have enough of a fool in me that I’m not slowing down yet. The only thing that’s really changed is I feel a bit more desperate to hurry and do things before this thing that I’ve caught glimpses of catches up to me and actually limits my ability to do stuff,” says Cook, now 60.
Having the will is half the battle. Being able to portage an 80-pound canoe is the other half. “I really just don’t want to carry one of those around anymore,” says Cook. Opting for more lightweight gear is an option on some trips, but for remote excursions, it’s the heavy and durable equipment that you want. “So then it becomes a question of, ‘Can I do this trip?’”
Montreal-based Marie-Josée Vasseur has backcountry skied all over Canada and biked through more than 35 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas. In 2024, when she was 64, she rode more than 13,000 kilometres from Cartagena, Colombia to Ushuaia, Chile over four months with the tour company TDA Global Cycling.
Vasseur cared for her husband during a long illness, and thinking about being back on her bike was a light during those difficult days. But it took her quite some time after his death to feel the will to go. Encouraged by friends and family, she finally signed up for a cycling trip from San Jose, Costa Rica, to Tulum, Mexico.
“I gave myself permission to go and be happy and do things for myself. But I arrived in San Jose feeling a bit reluctant,” she remembers. “I quickly realized that it was exactly what I needed. It made me want to open up to the world again.”
Getting back into active travel hasn’t been without its challenges. “We get told after 60 that we should slow down. It’s easy to find excuses: I’m not feeling 100 percent, I didn’t prepare 100 percent. But we have to push ourselves, especially when we’re healthy and have the inclination. It’s too easy to sit in our comfort zone. Breaking out helps you appreciate life,” says Vasseur.
Like Cook, Vasseur finds she’s more active now than ever. While she sometimes questions her physical ability to ski or bike day after day, she doesn’t let that stop her.
Both Vasseur and Cook have been fortunate to have good health and the time to maintain their fitness. When they experience dips in strength or endurance, they know that their long-nurtured physical confidence kicks in and fills the gap. But it can be harder to find that physical confidence when you’re embarking on an active adventure after dealing with health challenges.
Brenda Trenholme is a retired physician who lives in Rossland, BC. She’s kayaked, skied and cycled around the province and the world. But in 2016, a near-catastrophic bike accident put her in the hospital for three months and left her with lasting health challenges. Two years later, in 2018, she got back on her bike for an epic journey on the Silk Road.
“[The injuries] didn’t fell me for very long because I still really wanted to see things. I knew I’d enjoy the trip, but that I might not be able to ride as much or as hard as well. And I did have a couple of times where I wondered if I should go home because I had terrible gastrointestinal issues,” she says.
“In the end, I was really glad I went because I saw such amazing things that you can’t now. You can’t ride through Iran anymore. Or Siberia. There are so many things that I’m so grateful that I had the privilege of seeing.”
Trenholme’s story is a testament to the age-defying power of curiosity. She and a friend are now planning a self-supported bike trip to Japan in 2026, when she’ll be 72.
Whether you’re starting again or for the first time, Vasseur suggests trying short, low-pressure trips with friends to build confidence and whet your appetite for more. And Cook says to ignore the people who look at you weird.
“We get people who are astonished to find us in the places where we are, and that we’ve arrived there by bicycle or canoe or foot,” says Cook. “People think we’re older than we are because we’re wrinkly with white beards and stuff. But if you don’t feel old, then you’re not old, in some way.”
And age, says Cook, has its benefits. “I have way more confidence to be out in the world. Travel—especially this kind of travel—can be a little stressful and difficult, but I find it doesn’t faze me so much now. I’m more comfortable. I’m a little bolder. And I’m more world-aware, so I find what I observe and what I learn just that much richer.”
