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blue skies and black lakes but no yellow aspen
2003-10-15 - 12:17 p.m. Man -- I have been ridiculously busy. But, we did go backpacking, and it was really fun. I will tell you about it. First there was the horrible decision to go. Maddy didn't want to -- then she would miss Monday, and she would miss reading group, and be behind on all her work -- This seemed terrible to me. I could understand about not wanting to miss reading group, but how terrible to be chained to your desk for fear of getting behind. It's not rational, not at age 11. Perhaps if you were writing your dissertation or something. But then Kevin thought, oh, we shouldn't encourage her to think it's okay to miss school -- (Frankly, I think we should. ) So there was wavering. In the meantime, I had bought two tents, and food, but there was still packing to do, and checking to make sure no one had grown out of her raingear, etc. So finally we wake up Sunday morning, and no one is moving, and oh no, what shall we do? So I pitched a fit, and we were in the car and driving in 2 hours, which actually wasn't bad at all. Go me. And it was beautiful. I didn't grow up here, so I don't know much about camping here, but I have a feeling that Echo Lake, which is where we started from, is extremely popular in the summer. It's this beautiful granite lake, very very clear, and it's only about 3 hours away. We took the water taxi across the lower lake and walked from there to another beautiful granite lake called Lake of the Woods. We got the tents up, and then it got dark while we were cooking dinner (always thrilling, and why does it always happen that way?) and then we were pretty tired, so we went to bed, after looking at the stars for a while. It was very very nice, and no children complained or grumbled and Nora carried a fair amount of weight, actually, and Maddy carried all her own stuff, plus some other bulky but not heavy items. And Nora's new boots did not hurt her feet, and Maddy tolerated her old boots, which were Nora's boots before they were hers, and are almost too small for her. It was lovely, and the tragendy was that the next day we had to get up and hike back. Plus, Nora and Kevin woke up sick. But all in all, I would say it was a success, and I want to go back. It was not a hugely strenuous hike -- only about 4.5 miles each day, I think, but everyone did so well. Two years ago I remember doing a similar distance and having to talk to Maddy about fairy houses for two hours to keep her distracted from the pain of hiking, and this time, it was really just easy. The new tents are lovely, although Kevin hates them. We got one 4 season tent that's a bit bigger, but still quite light. K. and I slept there. We got one three season tent which is a bit lighter and smaller, and the girls shared that. That seemed to work fine, although Maddy said she got a bit cold. Her sleeping bag is not tremendously warm, so we'll have to bundle her up a bit next time. My sleeping bag is not terribly warm, either, but in our tent, and in my long underwear and a polar fleece, I was warm, and I really can't sleep if I'm not warm. It was really the perfect time of year. We saw people on the trail, but it was by no means crowded. There was another tent across the lake (I saw a light at night) but otherwise we had the place to ourselves. It was warm during the day, but no boiling hot. It really was not too cold at night. It was great. And now I have to go -- Kevin had an open house at his new office on Friday night, which was quite fun and lots of people came. Maddy slept at Sammy's that night, and three of Nora's friends slept over. Pretty untroublesome kids, though, so it was actually fine. Saturday we ran around to REI, and Kevin's office to visit him, and let Nora play ping pong, and home again to access raingear, etc. So -- felt like a long weekend, but it wasn't actually all that much longer than any other. And now I must go -- Bye.
find me! - 2008-02-12 |
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