Father's Day Backpacking

Brian loves backpacking and has had dreams of taking the whole family for years.  Well, now that the kids are bigger, we started collecting the needed odds and ends last Christmas (thanks Mimi and Cara for the thermarests, camp stove, pot and firestarter!)  We decided that Father's Day weekend would be the perfect time to try it out on a quick one night adventure.

We headed to the Red River Gorge (less than an hour away) and waited out an unexpected rain storm in the car before heading out.
 Everything was so green and beautiful!  We had the place to ourselves and only saw one other person the whole trip.  Perfect!



 Here we are at a pretty natural bridge.
 I love this picture!  It was so beautiful!
 We found a nice spot for camp next to the stream and cooked up some water for our backpacker meals (which were actually pretty tasty!)

 The kids and Brian went for a swim, but I decided it was a tad chilly for me. 


 Home, sweet home for the night.  PS - add a new tent that doesn't weigh 700 pounds to our future list of things to buy!  We all actually slept quite well - especially me, who woke up spread across both Grant's AND my thermarests while Grant was squished down in the bottom corner!  I'm nice like that. 
 

It was probably only a 3 mile round trip journey overall, but such a great time.  It was Grant, Haley, and my first time backpacking ever!  They did great, better than I expected, to be honest.  I learned that 1) I love my new backpack and 2) my balance isn't what I was expecting it to be - that beautiful walking stick saved me many times!  It's kinda like being really pregnant, only the baby is on your back.  Or, it's kinda like realizing how old and out of shape you are.  Either way, I'm exciting for many more backpacking adventures as long as I have some nifty hiking poles.  Yep - I'm going to be 'that' lady.  Haha.  

All, in all it was a great weekend with my favorite people around.  The next trip is scheduled in two weeks, weather permitting.

Comments

Jennifer's Kitchen said…
Oh, how fun! The pictures are beautiful, too!!
September 22, 2014 at 8:31 AM
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