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Unclogging The Arteries

When you get to be my age (72), medical issues are constant. Among these is the buildup of cholesterol, which is known to us old-timers as "clogging the arteries" and is not a laughing matter as it can cause many health issues. We're supposed to watch our diets.

We are to exercise, which is something I do by fishing, hunting, walking, and trying to play basketball. Many of us take medicine, including statin drugs, to mitigate this clogging. I have taken a statin for years.

Anyhow, a recent series of incidents in the outdoors made my heart beat fast and my blood race through my arteries, which should have flushed out some of the fatty build-up.

On the first day of gobbler season, my son, Bob, had set us up in a favorable hunting situation. It involved two hikes up a long, steep "cliff" (no exaggeration) that made my heart pound. When he downed a 25-pound gobbler, my excitement matched his: It was the largest turkey anyone in my family has ever killed. Later, when he called a nice gobbler in for me, my heart again raced in excitement, clearing some cholesterol from my blood vessels.

A couple of weeks later found me fishing to a sulphur mayfly hatch on a surprisingly uncrowded section of water. Trout were rising, and my fly mimicked the real ones. I had already landed a number of nice trout when a huge brown engulfed my fly. The trout ran up and down the pool, pulling line from my reel, making it scream in protest. Upon capturing the trout in my landing net, I found myself shaking like a leaf. This turned out to be the largest wild brown trout I have ever caught and released while using a dry fly. My heart was still pounding when I fished a camera out of a vest pocket to snap a photo of the trout.

Only a week later, I was on an obscure section of stream and was concentrating on trying to fish to a pod of trout rising in front of me. I heard a slight noise. I looked up. No more than 50 yards upstream, I watched a big bear walking/swimming across the stream with only his head and the top of his back above water. When he emerged from the water, he strode away from me. Again, my heart was pounding like a drum. I wasn't exactly scared, but I was concerned.

Maybe if I had a few more adventures like these, I could go off my statin.

 

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