Marlers Go Backpacking - Day 1

This is a first for the Marlers. We went backpacking together. Matthew's gone in the past five years. I went once when I was 12, but we as a family have never gone. Last summer the kids decided it was activity they were excited to try, reasoning that they enjoy camping and Matthew and I enjoy hiking, so it must be a reasonable compromise. I invited my brother and sister and their respective families, hoping my brother would use his extensive planning and backpacking skills to help make our first experience a good one. 

And then last Christmas we had the idea of buying everyone all the gear they would need but while standing in REI, Matthew and I thought that maybe it was a lot to spend on an activity we don't even know if the kids or I will enjoy. 

Thankfully we have very generous friends who leant us all the items we needed. And off we went, Jared and his two youngest boys, my brother-in-law John and his youngest son, and the four of us. We started hiking at about 6:00 on Thursday evening. Not ideal since we had about 5ish miles to our campsite and the sun would set at some point while we were still on the trail, but it was the earliest Jared could make it work for him, he was running the show, and these little beggars could not be choosers.

Here the kids are, and us as a little family while we are still at the trailhead. Everyone is super pumped to be there and eager to start our adventure.

Here we are at some point along the hike, Matthew and I still going strong, the kids showing just how much they don't enjoy hiking.

And another stop along the hike. So many mosquitos that the bug spray starts becoming a necessity. Everyone is a touch tired, but still in fairly good spirits.

We got to our campsite about 8:30 but the sun went down at about 8:00 and somewhere in the 7:00-8:00 time frame, Jared, our fearless leader, his son S, and Dude got separated somewhere out in front of us. We yelled to them, but they were far enough ahead not to hear us. We hoped we were still heading in the right direction since we were quickly losing light and didn't know how much farther we still needed to go. We also gently banned any further breaks and kept the kids moving as quickly as possible. Finally, Jared came back for us and helped us go the last few minutes to our campsite where we very quickly put up our tents and got everyone situated before they got to relax with their cousins.

Definitely an exciting first start to our adventure.