Into The Woods

Boy and Girl are new to the world of hiking. Well, new by my definition--my sister learned to walk hiking (and she never wore those yellow socks again, let me tell you), so perhaps my perspective is somewhat skewed.

In any case, they've taken to it surprisingly well for soft, lily-footed city folk, so Guy and I decided to take them backpacking this weekend.

It was an amazing success--barely any complaints, few rest requests, and--get this--they each carried their packs the entire way. For FIVE relatively difficult miles--Guy and I have trouble finding decent hikes in the NJ area, and easy hikes there are none.

Not that Girl and Boy seemed to mind! Boy was off like a rocket--definitely making him carry more next time--and while Girl seemed unclear on the concept of watching where she was going, she got through her spills like a marine recruit and marched up steep hills and never stopped talking for a single second.

And it was quite lovely. There we are, looking over Round Valley Reservoir, eating Nerds Ropes. (Backpacking requires many bursts of sugar. We did bring their toothbrushes).

But I think Boy and Girl's favorite part was probably the setting-up of the camp. I personally love organizing the tent, nesting everything away and creating a little home made entirely out of stuff with brought with us, plus rocks and logs. Boy and Girl were more into their father's millieu--caveman-like demolishing.

They pulled down dead trees and smashed them for the fire, and lit the fire and fed the fire and damn near danced around the fire.

I sat and knit a sock for my sister. Much more seemly.

There was a sad lack of a bear wire in this campsite, however (or, I should say, an Iorek Byrnison wire, which is what referred to it as in order to avoid alarming the small folk. Ticks were Mrs. Coulters (Fuckers. Although there were none! Hooray!)) and Guy decided we should string our food up on a tree branch. A tree branch that was high.

This necessitated shimmying up said tree. Freak.

Success! Well done Guy! And damn, those are some dandy little trousers there, sir.

We didn't remember everything--we forgot a sponge, slippers for the kids, our hiking chairs--but we did remember the most important thing (especially when you consider that we needed to take two tired kids and hustle them back five miles--uphill this time--in time to get back to their mother's by noon):

Coffee. Espresso, to be exact. I gave Boy a sip. Perhaps that accounted for his speediness. Shrug.