His 80th—which is May 14 but will be celebrated in June—is already planned. He's rented out a bed & breakfast at 10,200 feet, halfway up the summit of Pikes Peak near Colorado Springs. There's only three ways to get there: hike 6 miles up, take the Cog Railway to the top then hike down or hike all the way up then halfway down.

Langlois will go with Plan A. He already has done the ascent seven times, while failing twice either because of weather or leg cramps.

It was on Pikes Peak that Langlois also suffered the only big health scare of his life. It was August 2000 and he was at about 13,000 feet when he went into atrial fibrillation, with his heart rate jumping from 90 beats a minute to 212. He ended up being airlifted off the mountain but was out of the hospital that night, and within months set out to successfully bike across the country.

Another cross-country biking trip, however, would turn tragic when he and his second wife, an energetic woman named Patricia Sparks, were on a bicycle tour across Vietnam in 2002. The two had met bicycling with a group in Phoenix and Langlois proposed atop one of the Valley's peaks they frequently hiked.

Kay Martin and Lyle Langlois under
Kissing Camels Rock in Garden of the Gods

They wed December 13, 1997 and had just celebrated a 50-month anniversary. As she rode in Vietnam, a motor scooter struck her from behind. Though wearing a helmet, she died of a skull fracture.

The popular woman with the vivacious spirit would have three funerals—in Singapore, Phoenix and her native Indiana. Though Langlois had lost a soul mate, he took solace in the fact she had lived life to the fullest.

It's what Langlois and Martin do now, whether at their small cabin in Manitou Springs, their home in Phoenix or while training for yet another adventure in Garden of the Gods. Yes, the man who starting making bucket lists long before they became en vogue may be turning 80, but that likely will only bring a new set of goals.

Consider the map in his Colorado home, with places visited the first 25 years of life color-coded green, the second 25 years marked in yellow and those he's visited since turning 75 color-coded blue.

Part of it's good genes, Langlois assumes, and clean living (he's never smoked or done drugs, drinks alcohol in moderation and tries to concentrate on veggies, whole grains and not too much red meat). But attitude and exercise no doubt are keys as well.

Just listen to him chuckle as he thinks back on the icon one presses to get the senior fare on Hong Kong's subway system. It's a rocking chair.

"Now that I'm approaching 80, my kids are asking me, 'How long are you going to continue to do this?'" he said.

He doesn't really have an answer.

"I enjoy it, and I enjoy interacting with people," he said. Plus, they're supportive.

"They all say I want to be like you when I'm 75," he said. They better get going.

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