aka our first family backpacking trip
I had to take this picture because I loved that Steve was using his foot to help him secure the sleeping pad to my pack. Also, shout out to Lauren for loaning us this monster of a backpacking child carrier. Not only did it haul my 30 pound daughter, we managed to stuff two sleeping bags into it, all of Shira's clothes, and all of my water. Yes, if you add that up, I was carrying somewhere in the vicinity of 45 lbs.
I wanted to get a pic of Shira and Samuel before we started out. Samuel thought it would be hilarious to stand in front of his sister.
Shira stuck her feet on the ground and said "I can push the stroller."
What is Samuel sticking in his mouth?
The group picture, minus the two families who caught up to us later.
Our second stop - the "W" tree. We made great time, covered the first mile in about a half hour, had lunch, and made it to this rest stop in another half hour or so. It was a kind of bummer half hour, though, with Samuel whining, "When are we going to get there?" Not for a long while buddy.
But Samuel and Steve rested up.
Shira took a play break. That girl can entertain herself anywhere. And boy does she like sticks and dirt.
And we got on the trail again. You can't tell from the pictures, but this was incredibly steep. And yet, after we left the "W", Samuel didn't complain a single time. He did an amazing job. This was a really tough hike. I would never have considered doing the trip if I had realized how difficult it would be. I was already concerned about the fact that it was 3.5-4 miles. I didn't know it was a brutal 3.5-4 miles, almost entirely uphill, completely sun exposed, and at least a half a mile at the end that was so steep that I had to hold Samuel up from behind so that he didn't slide backward while he was trying to get up the hill. It was a nice trick while I carried nearly half my weight on my back.
Samuel did the entire hike. He must have gotten into the zone, because he just took it in stride and kept trucking. There was a moment toward the end that I wasn't sure I was going to make it, I couldn't believe what a trooper he was. Shira enjoyed being perched on my back, saying things like, "This sure is tough. This is really hard work." Thanks, Shira.
When we got to camp, Samuel and Max found each other right away.
There was plenty of the usual camping mischief with some more of the usual suspects. I am pleased to say that none of the kids needed anything other than nature and themselves to keep themselves occupied. Can't say the same of some of the other adults on the trip. I was surprised to see some people had brought their phones with them, though most didn't use them for more than timers and watches. There was a Googler who was checking his texts. Ah, living in Silicon Valley.
Amazing how they had this much energy after the long climb up here.
Dinner. I made quite the gourmet couscous meal with dried mushrooms, spices, freeze dried pees and dehydrated kale. Steve is one lucky guy. Samuel of course opted for the extra PB&J sandwich, Shira announced she wasn't eating dinner. All as predicted.
Filtering our water was a big hit, not surprisingly.
Breakfast
Shira and Samuel were both taken with Steve's hiking poles. Shira hiked a good half mile on the way back to the car the next day, as long as she was allowed to use the hiking pole.
Samuel reached his breaking point about a mile and a half before we got back to the parking lot. It was a tough last bit, but we made it, and everyone wants to do it again.
As a side note, you might be wondering what the title regarding ticks was about. We saw a few signs on our way up to camp regarding watching out for ticks. When we told Andrew that we weren't going to bring a tent for ourselves (to lighten the load - and because I like it - Steve and I brought a 2 man tent for Samuel and Shira and we slept outside) he kind of freaked out and told us that we would have ticks crawling over us all night long. When we got to camp, Andrew found a tick, showed it to us, promptly dropped it in our gear (he did find it); Debbie started doing tick checks on her kids, and everyone started obsessing about it. You can imagine that everyone started feeling things crawling on them constantly and there was a lot of, "Can you look on my back and see if a tick is there?" Fun times. Good memories. I'll let you know if any of us get lyme disease.
1 comment:
I am so paranoid about Lyme Disease - those deer ticks are tiny and tick check time always seems to come during melt-down time. We've known several kids who have had it, too, including our neighbor. For some reason I'd convinced myself that when we moved back to CA we'd be Lyme-free.
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