Spring is finally here and it is almost time to fulfill a promise that I made to my five year old last fall. It’s time to take him backpacking. My dad and I have taken his older brother twice now. Each time my youngest has watched us leave with a disappointed look on his face. It is now time to induct him into the family tradition.
I have been backpacking from time to time since I was a kid. I’m not one of those super intense guys with pricy gear. You may know the type. The ones who say these type of things. “Hey man, I found another way to lighten my pack. I don’t carry deodorant any more, and,,,,,,, no toilet paper bro. Oak leaves work just as well.” Well, no, no they don’t. I prefer to be clean and to smell reasonably good. I’m just a guy who likes to get out in the woods once in a while. There’s something about carrying everything you need for a couple of days on your back. It’s fun to exercise a certain level of self reliance.
One of my bucket list items is to finish the Pennsylvania section of the Appalachian trail. I’ve been doing it piece by piece for a while now. Last November, my dad, my nine year old, and I decided to do a short five mile section. Yes, November in PA can get a little chilly. We got onto the trail late on Saturday afternoon. The plan was to hike in a short distance and find a place to set up a camp for the night. Instead of following the plan, we engaged in another family tradition,,, pushing things farther than we should. We hiked, and we hiked, and we hiked. We passed several campsites along the way, before the trail led us onto an exposed ridge line where the wind really picked up. Darkness fell, and we spent an hour looking for someplace to set up out of the wind. Eventually we set up our tent in a field. Because of the wind, we couldn’t build a fire. We ate granola bars and apples for dinner, and hunkered down for the night while the thirty to forty mile an hour winds buffeted the tent. I was hoping that the morning would bring calmer weather, but, no luck. After a breakfast of more granola bars and apples, we packed up and set out to get off of the ridge as fast as possible. Since I was not expecting the gale, I had only worn two layers for warmth. I started out the morning with those two layers, and a trash bag over both of them so that the morning wind wouldn’t cut straight through me. (At this point my wife would like me to tell everyone that she told me to bring another jacket.) Two and half m
iles and one of the steepest descents that I’ve ever done on the trail later, my wife picked us up and we enjoyed the warm car and some Burger King.
The day after this trip, my son came to me and said, “Thanks for taking me out in the woods dad”. I loved that. He’s hooked now. A new generation of the family that will carry on the tradition. It’s good for kids to get out once in a while and play somewhere wild. Somewhere the play surface isn’t lined with rubber to minimize the damage when they fall.
(Since my wife always likes to point out that she told me to take an extra jacket on that trip, I would just like to tell everyone that on her first backpacking trip, she brought hair conditioner. Her father actually tried to get her to bring a baseball bat for self defense. Rookie ; )
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