Our mini backpacking trip turned out well. Long story, short: we had a very entertaining adventure full of excitement and MANY almost-peed-my-pants-moments. Big Sis arrived at my house early with overflowing enthusiasm and wearing a hat that had a striking similarity to Amelia Bedelia.
Thankfully, Big Sis didn’t share Amelia’s tendency for taking everything literally. No tents were “pitched” into the bushes, and the marshmallows were not thrown into the fire to be “roasted.” The hat didn’t make it through the first mile, just long enough for all to enjoy the first of many hearty laughs.
Much to my frustration, my insistence to keep the food on the light side was not taken to heart as much as I had hoped. This made loading my small bear canister feel like stuffing a Thanksgiving Turkey. Although we somehow managed to get all the excess food safely stowed, the scent from the two jumbo sized bars of Special Dark Chocolate left a smell so enticing that Mr. Skunk could not refrain from searching through Big Sis’ stuff in the wee hours of the night. He came back to our site three times just to be sure that everything edible had been stowed.
Of course, i had my own short comings as well. We sort of bypassed camp on the first time past, thanks to poor signage, my less-than-stellar map reading skills, and my overzealous enthusiasm for taking a picture of the kids crossing the stream on a fallen tree. But in the end, and a few miles later, we did arrive. See, everything worked out just fine. Day hike just came before setting up camp instead of after. *sheepish grin*
I did successfully pitch the tent, filter the water, and light the camp stove to heat water for the meals. Somehow we even kept everyone relatively safe — which is huge given the fact that my clumsiness is most likely in our blood (blood that everyone on the trip shares.)
There were definitely some lessons-learned but, all in all, it was a darn good trip.
Sounds like a fun trip with fun people! Doesn’t get any better than that!
If it had been a male oriented trip, and it would have been a beer canister :-)
Sounds fun. Love that hat Linda, ha ha.
Ok, so I brought a bit more food than what a “real light-weight backpacker” would bring….but part of the fun is “eating!!!” and eating good food! Though a lesson learned is that to keep the “pets” away, you have to be able to eat all of the excess food before night fall that won’t fit in an unknown canister size (I hadn’t seen Julie’s box). If I had left my “refrigerator” at home we wouldn’t have had the “learning moment” to work with for the future. Good thing the Pet wasn’t one that would eat us for dinner…….P.S. I don’t know how to upload a picture here…but I found the missing detail from the map…which explains my need to know why I felt like we did a horseshoe vs. an out and back path….(I will email it to you Julie…)
Ha Ha! I love you, Big Sis. Yes, please email the picture. I’m going to zip my lip on the excess food discussion…for now. XOxoXOxo
Ha ha – you had me at “MANY almost-peed-my-pants-moments”!! Now that sounds familiar! Love your blog and pictures Julie. Linda!! Where have you been all my life?? I’ve been missing you for years! PS. Your daughter is BEAUTIFUL!
Pickle!!!!!!!! My long lost buddy!!! I mention your name quite frequently especially this summer since my Girl Scout name is “Moo Cow”!!!!! It was suppose to be “Cow” but the main leader snuck “Moo” in front of it. My daughters know all about Pickle…well most all about!!!!!!!!!!!! (I have avoided Face book for I am so stick’n busy I can barely figure out what I am suppose to do each day…The Facebook thing would suck me in and then I would be distracted and get no work done or stay up too late trying to catch up on it (I get up at 4:30 am so I can “play” 3 days a week and then 5:30 the other days…into work by 6:30 am so I can get off to be with the girls in the afternoon, run them around to the 20 things they are doing..go back in for a few more hours…so no time for distractions). Give me your email so I can send a Picasa album of my older daughter Jasmine. I want to see you and your family too. I need your address too! Love, Linda
Any time out on the trail is a “big” success. Love it. Smiling. The hat reminds me of what an “urban sombrero” might have looked like from an old Seinfeld episode.