Apr 06 2009
Backpacking and Blisters
I have decided that just because it is Monday, I am going to go off topic and tell you about my weekend.
Saturday morning my 16 year old daughter and I met up with 6 other teenagers and 3 other adults and went on an easy backpacking trip. We had a glorious time and it just goes to show that often you don’t even need to leave your own backyard to have an adventure.
We started the trip by taking a short drive to Bridgeport. This is one of the few remaining covered bridges in the US. Of course, no one drives over it any more, but you can walk through it.
After checking in with the ranger station we walked across the bridge and started up the trail to our campsite. The trail winds along the river, and is just a beautiful walk. The river was low, but the flowers were starting to bloom.
Here is a picture of looking back on the trail, that is the covered bridge in the background.
Hiking with teenagers is fun. We have a good group of kids and they knew where they were going, so we didn’t see much of them on the hike. The kids were in a hurry to get there. The adults were happy to stop and look at the flowers and the fish. Or maybe we were just stopping to take a break because those backpacks get heavy really quick!
Every once and awhile the kids would wait for us. They liked to do that on the steep parts of the trail.
I don’t know why. Maybe so they could scramble up quickly and then laugh at the adults while we huffed and puffed our way to the top. But then, like I said, they were good kids. They insisted on taking all the group food and equipment, so the adults only needed to carry their own personal stuff.
The hike was actually quite short as far as backpacking trips go. Just a little over a mile. But like I said in the beginning, this was all about discovering how you don’t really need to go far to get away from it all.
By noon we were at camp, and the kids were ravenous and getting lunch together. We had to remind them to save some for the next day. You never know how the teenagers are going to be. Some trips they hardly eat at all because they are all “getting fat”. And then there are trips like this one where they were all ravenous all the time. That was good because we didn’t need to carry back any leftovers. It was also good because it kept me from eating too much.
After lunch the everyone broke up into groups and went walking along the river. The kids actually went in the river. It was pretty cold so I watched from shore.
The river was the lowest I had ever seen it. The kids decided to amuse themselves by seeing how many old tires they could pull out. They stacked the tires on the shore near a deeper part of the river so park services could come by later and pick them up by boat.
Then it was time to set up tents. Briefly I thought about sleeping under the stars. But it can get cold in April (and it did!) Here is my tent and my view.
When it got dark we did the classic camping rituals. We roasted marshmallows over the campfire and ate Smores. We sang songs and played a couple of silly games. And then we lied on our backs and looked at the stars and tried to find constellations.
When it came time to sleep,my sleeping bag was cozy, but the ground was hard. I didn’t sleep well, but that was OK. I listened to the night sounds. It was pretty noisy. I heard geese and turkeys, and at one point something small rustled through our camp.
In the early morning we watched a bald eagle fish for his breakfast.
After breakfast we took another walk along the river. This time I went barefoot and spent a little time squishing in the mud. That was fun.
Then we put out the campfire, packed up our stuff, and hiked back out. Lots of people were hiking in for the day. We stopped to talk and made a few new friends.
Daughter and I were home by 3pm. Plenty of time to unpack and take a shower.
I didn’t really get any blisters. I just liked the title backpacking and blisters.
Next time I’ll post a blog review!
Cheers!
