Overnight

It’s a good thing we’re well into May and the sun is setting after 8pm, because we certainly got a late start to the day. After leaving our bikes on the trail and carrying our panniers into camp the last 1/4 mile, the kids and I set up tents and food while Chris went back to the parking lot to fill up a 6 liter dromedary bag with water. One of our tests: will a 6L bag of water and our 8-10 cycling water bottles be enough for a night and morning?

When we were deciding what types of tents to bring and how many, we originally thought we’d split the five of us between a 3-person and a 2-person, tents we already own. L, however, loves his independence and specifically requested a 1-person-tent he could carry himself. Chris found one at a great price and this was L’s first night with it.

I wasn’t sure how the reality of being in a tent by himself would compare with his idea, but L knew what he wanted. He loved it. He loved being able to carry his own gear by himself; he loved setting it up and breaking it down (“No one even had to ask me,” he pointed out several times); he loved the ownership he had, setting up and organizing his things in his own space.

For dinner, we made chili using the backpacking stove I bought over a decade ago, an MSR Whisperlite International, and discovered that it needs to be cleaned out or replaced because it wouldn’t hold a steady flame. T was using the 2-person backpacking tent I bought around the same time as the stove and it also looked a little worse for the wear. We decided we want to replace the old tent and get a 1-person for T, too.

So far, repairs and/or replacements needed: stove (repair) and T’s tent (replace).

Upgrades we’re glad we made: the 6L dromedary bag and this pot, in the biggest size available.

The kids were disappointed that camping didn’t automatically mean a campfire (not allowed in hike-in spots) and ate cold, hard ‘smores.  While they were outside laughing about chipping their teeth on the hard chocolate, I was already in my sleeping bag for the night: not because I was tired, but because it was so cold that only way I was comfortable was being in my down bag, rated for 20-degrees, wearing wool socks, running tights, and a down jacket.

It was around this time I had a short-lived pity-party, when I felt myself sink into a gloomy place, wondering, Why are we doing this? Why aren’t we going to spend a week in a condo on the beach this summer, like normal people?

We slept…just OK… for the night. Chris says he read recently that a person never really fully falls asleep their first night in a new place and I’m wondering if the tent will stop feeling like a new place even if it’s always in a new location.

But at one point, in the middle of the night, Chris stuck his head out the zippered door, got my attention, and we realized how big the moon was hanging in the canyon on an invisible string and the stars burned bright and clear around it, with just a fine strip of fog settled in the valley below us. When is the last time I saw the night sky like that?

Morning

I woke up on Mother’s Day and remembered how much I love mornings camping. The sun slowly burns off the night’s chill, drying the condensation that’s collected. You have to stumble a little further out to find a spot to pee than you did during the night. And even instant coffee tastes like heaven because nothing is easy camping–like making instant coffee with a broken stove–and the effort makes you appreciate the littlest details.

We had coffee and the kids had hot cocoa and we made eggs and turkey sausage on the broken stove. It probably took 30 minutes to heat water for the drinks and another 30 to cook the eggs. But man, that food was good. And the chili and fritos from the night before. SO. GOOD. Culinary masterpieces. That’s food when you’re camping.

We took a little–tiny–hike up a slope by our campsite and the kids were in pure childhood-freedom-mode, paving new paths in the grass, climbing trees, picking wildflowers. It wasn’t like any Mother’s Day morning we’d had before and I loved it.

Departure

We did it. We survived our first shakedown with a few mishaps and lessons learned, but overall, consider it a success. We know what we need to get and fix for next time. Packing up and getting out was fast and easy.

Notes for next adventure:

• fix stove
• bring trash bag!
• more tent stakes
• pillow for Chris
• slip-on shoes (like birkenstocks) for Maria, T, and S to have near tent
• toothbrush covers

Finally, the nearest restaurant serving lunch and mimosas was a quick 45-minutes away. We walked in, straight from camping, to white tablecloths and cloth napkins, toasted our shakedown, and enjoyed a leisurely meal.

It was Mother’s Day, after all, and I do have certain standards…