Luke took Strawberry on her first backpacking trip this weekend and she did awesome. Now I'm jealous that I didn't get to go. Apple, Mango and I went to Burger King (Apple's choice) and watched Hello Kitty all evening. And then Strawberry comes home with a camera full of awesome pictures. Next time I get to go and Luke gets to watch Hello Kitty. :)
Strawberry has been talking about going backpacking with her daddy for months. It was one of the things she was most looking forward to when he got home from deployment. We got her a little backpack for her birthday last month. Luke says she did great with it and he never even had to lighten her load. She was carrying around 12 pounds, which is over 20% of her weight, so not bad.
The trail they found was really beautiful and had lots of big rocks to climb around. The campsite was 3 miles in and was near a creek that had a little waterfall and a swimming hole. They had to leave after work and school and ended up having to hike the last half-mile in the dark. They almost missed the campsite, but happened upon it luckily. I was a little nervous because I wanted her first backpacking experience to be awesome, and things can go horribly wrong pretty easily. But it all turned out perfectly. The site was amazing, close to water, with a little fire pit and benches, the sky was clear so they could see stars really well. They got to eat super-yummy dehydrated backpacking food. She liked the spaghetti, but not the eggs.
This morning, they hiked down to the creek. Luke managed to find the worst way down. He always does that. Seriously, never follow Luke off the trail because either you get stuck or you fall and break your arm and leg. Strawberry had a blast climbing all over the rocks; it was definitely her favorite part. She said that there was a very beautiful spot with lots of green and cool little caves to crawl into. The hike back was a little tougher because she was tired and it was a lot hotter. Luke said the last 1/4 mile took 30 minutes. But she did it, and with no complaining. She definitely wants to go again and actually wants all the rest of us to go as well. We'll have to wait until Mango is a little older though. But I'm really happy that she loved it so much. It's definitely one of Luke's loves and it's awesome that he gets to share that with his daughters.
3 comments:
What an amazing experience for them both! Strawberry surely has some stamina to be able to trek that far carrying that backpack. It may be a smaller one, but it looks almost as big as she is! The scenery is beautiful.
Grandma Leman
Yeah, I was kind of amazed that she never even asked for Luke to help lighten her pack, because she knew it was an option. She needed breaks here and there, but did really great and loved it. Yay!
Dad and Strawberry, what a great adventure that was! I'm really excited for you being able to do that. I remember the fun grandpa had backpacking with his boys in scouting. I also enjoyed it when I went with grandpa with some of the young women. It was great.
Grandma Cowley
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