- William Shedd
John and I have both spent many months of our lives in the backcountry. When we decided to spend the rest of our life together and bring a kid or two into the equation, we both agreed that, if we could, we'd continue incorporate the backcountry into our family life.
For the past few weeks, we've been trying to figure out how to bring Cally into the woods on a backpacking trip. We'd done the car camping thing, we'd mastered the day hike, but we hadn't put both together. So, when we saw the first break in the weather, we decided to go for it. We had a plan, but carrying it out was a whole different ball of wax....... As the day got away from us on Sunday, it started to seem more and more daunting. Did we REALLY want to find all our gear, schlep Cally into the woods, expose her to more bugs, and possibly have a sleepless night? Grilling some food in our fridge, putting Cally to bed in her crib, and sleeping to the sound of my fan was seeming a lot more appealing.
In the end, we decided to "go for it". We only live once and because Cally is such an easy going kid right now, we figured we'd kick ourselves for not trying it while we could. Plus, there will be a time when she can actually tell us she hates backpacking and refuses to go on this type of "Forced Family Outing" (a.k.a. FFO-- a Meyerism). So, we packed up the car and made our way down to the trailhead:
Mind you, this wasn't a real "aggressive" kind of hike. It entailed hiking about 1/2 mile on a flat double track road and a mile up to the Long Trail. It is possibly the shortest access point to a place where you can camp on the Long Trail in Vermont. We figured it would be an easy escape route if things didn't go as planned.
As we hiked up the trail, Cally laughed at Zephy and seemed to have a ball. Once we got to camp, she carefully watched us pitch the tent and then hung out while John cooked up his famous Chili Mac & Cheese.
There was a group of 11 and 12 year old girls from Songaweedin (a sister camp of Keewaydin on Lake Dunmore) on day three of a seven day trip on the Long Trail camping at the Hump Brook Cabin. They took this picture of the happy family:
Cally went down in the "nest" that we made for her in the tent without a problem. John and I played a couple games of cribbage (we each won a game, the rubber match will take place soon-- the stakes were high-- a massage!) and even read the Sunday Times by headlamp before falling asleep to the sound of a mountain stream. And we all slept until almost 8am!
All in all, it was a great first backpacking trip. I'm so glad we didn't take the easy route and sleep in the safe comfort of our bed.
