This is Alpha, the first-born, when he was 2YO.
This is Beta, the second-born, when he was about 2YO.
This is Gamma, the third-born, when he was about 18MO.
Backpacking Trip, Part 2
Nov
1
2016
I do not like camping. Details can be found in my previous post. Now on to the recap of my backpacking trip.
We started off in the parking lot. Not much there other than a dirt area for parking and some permanent porta-potties. Perma-potties?
I paid the post in order to leave my car overnight, and off we went. It was mid afternoon, overcast, and warm.
Since the area is used for a variety of activities, there were a variety of trails available. Those closest to the parking lot looked like this:
And that’s what we started on.
The road degraded into more of a two-track:
And still we pressed on.
We came to a small river or large stream. We were still on a maintained trail, so there was a nice bridge. We paused to admire the scenery and replenish our energy stores with some chocolate-covered raisins.
Soon after that, we came to a picnic table.
We decided not to use it. The road was now more of a trail than a road.
It had been decent weather for hiking – overcast with a slight breeze. But then the rain came. It was a light rain, and it didn’t last long. It sure did get my socks soaking wet though. All that vegetation held the water and trickled it onto my boots. Good thing I packed extra socks.
After that, the trail almost disappeared. It was barely a single rut. We lost it once. We think we found it again, but it could have been a deer trail. Whatever it was, we followed that for a while until I thought it was about dinner time.
Time to setup camp. First step, find a campsite. In this case, that meant walk 200 feet off the trail and then find a flat piece of ground.
No problem with the flat part – the only difficulty was finding a place without a tree, sapling, or dead branches.
We setup the tent, unpacked a bit, then scouted out a kitchen. “Kitchen” being a stump or rock a hundred feet away from the tent. Just in case a hungry bear were to wander by, we wanted food smells not to be near the tent.
We heated some simple food over the camping stove I borrowed from my brother, ate, and packed up the food. Hung it in a tree near the kitchen, up and away from bears again.
Then a little bit of relaxing time at the tent…
… before getting ready for bed. Should have brought a deck of cards or something.
Took a while to fall asleep. The air was too still and humid. Humidity wouldn’t have been so bad if there had been a slight breeze. But at least it didn’t rain (I kept my boots outside the tent in the hopes that some fresh air would help them dry a little. So they were outside the tent but still under the rain fly) and there were no disruptions from animals or other campers.
The next morning brought sunlight.
Heated up some oatmeal for breakfast, cleaned up, packed up, and left. It was easy to see if I got everything, since I didn’t pack pine needles or ferns.
Then we started down the trail back to the car. It wasn’t a terribly long hike, just a couple miles, but enough so that Alpha got to experience a bit of what camping really is.
Here he is, starting down the trail. And if you can’t see the trail, that’s pretty much how it was at that point.
As we started back, the toe of my sock didn’t feel quite right on my left foot. I figured the sock was slightly crooked or something, so I took off my boot to fix it. That’s when I noticed the lump of green slime on my sock. Apparently, a slug had thought my boot made a good home, and he had settled at the toe end inside my boot. I scraped what was left of him off my sock, as much as I could, and put my boot back on. It felt normal after that, so I assumed there were no other slugs in there.
We hiked back to the parking lot. The car was still there. Drove to a restaurant for lunch and enjoyed a couple glasses of lemonade, plus a burger.
The end.
Then they set out from Succoth and camped in Etham on the edge of the wilderness.
Exodus 13:20
This little article thingy was written by Some Guy sometime around 6:55 am and has been carefully placed in the Travel category.
November 1st, 2016 at 9:30 am
Would you (or Alpha) do this again? I’ve thought about a backpack trip with G.
November 1st, 2016 at 11:44 am
I’m planning on taking each of the boys backpacking, so yes I’d do it again. Maybe even the same spot as it wasn’t too far to drive. I think Alpha liked it better than he thought he would, but I haven’t checked if he would go again.