In 2009 I took my then-6-year-old backpacking for the first time. This is what I wrote up when we got back:
1. That ‘sleeping pad’ called a Z-rest that was perfectly comfortable to sleep on for 5 months in 1997 just doesn’t cut it any more. Once you sleep on a 10-pound Paco pad, there’s really no going back.
2. A bookbag with shoulder straps is NOT a backpack.
3. Putting 5 pounds on a 6 year old used to carrying nothing is apparently equivalent to the punishment of Sisyphus. Asking said 6 year old if she’d instead like to trade for my 40lb pack is totally ineffective in terms of gaining sympathy or a better attitude.
4. The journey is in fact NOT the destination. Just ask Maisy.
5. The olfactory memories emanating from that 13-year-old pack might just be a sign that it’s time to move on to a new pack.
6. It doesn’t matter how cold, tired and hungry you are when the 6 year old you just dragged 5 miles and 2000’ straight up is colder, more tired, and way hungrier.
7. Ramen noodles make everything better. Still. After all these years.
8. A water filter is WAY lighter than a gallon of water. I really need to find that stupid thing.
9. The fairy world is an extensive and complicated society complete with its own language, rules and realities. After 8 hours of instruction on the fairy world, I feel like I’ve only scratched the surface of all there is to know.
10. 1 mph, while maddening, is infinitely better than 0 mph.
11. A 5-year-old’s horribly bloody nose in the middle of the night at 11,200’ is just one of those little things you chalk up to ‘character building’.
12. Sitting at the edge of a high-alpine lake with a warm drink and a kid who, after being quiet for a minute says ‘momma, it’s really pretty up here’ ranks up there in life’s happiest moments.
13. In the end, the benefits outweigh the challenges. Now I just need to figure out how to fit that Paco Pad into my backpack.
Let me know when you get that Paco Pad part figured out. That’s the one barrier to bliss in the back country. Of course it’s a slippery slope, might need the down comforter too?
mmm…and a dutch oven for hot apple cobbler, a big fluffy pillow…you’re right, now it sounds like we’re rafting. 🙂
Wonderful! (I was going to say which “thing” was my favorite, but I couldn’t – they’re all great.)
thank you! since that first trip we’ve had several others and hope to keep them going now that we have a whole new neighborhood to explore at length and the 4 year old is hiking 6-7 miles. thanks for stopping by!