The Hazard Chronicles

"Evelyn is a natural leader who inspired the class to think deeper and hold higher level conversations"

This was on Evelyn's final report card for the year. I do not think there could be any better compliment. Go Ev!

*****

This is Maren. She's pretty awesome. She is also good at a lot of things.

Unfortunately, backpacking is not one of them.

At least not yet.

It all started on Friday afternoon when we arrived at the trailhead. There was a light drizzle of rain, and a pretty chilly wind coming up the canyon. There was also snow on the ground. The three older kids cheerfully jumped out of the car and put on some warm clothes. A little weather was not going to stop them.

Ready to go!

Pretty cold start.

Maren was cheerful too...for a while. She insisted she would be fine with her "jellies" on her feet (see picture) and her little skirt. I decided to let her win the battle for now and I put her warm clothes/shoes in my pack thinking she would quickly change her mind. We started hiking.

My pack weighed more than twice as much as the last trip I went on, and it was only for overnight (instead of three days). I guess that's just what happens when you hike with kids.

The kids carried as much of their own stuff as we could cram into their packs. Evelyn even carried her blanket in her hand the whole time since I refused to carry it for her.

"Hiking" is actually not the right word to use when it comes to Maren. I think it would work for the older kids. Maren, however, "delicately picked her way over the rocks." The extent to which this slowed us down cannot be overstated, seeing as the trail was basically covered in rocks. It took a lot of patience. That's okay though. I was determined that this trip would be a good experience.

But then Maren got cold. No problem, right? I whipped out her long pants and boots and offered them to her. She looked at them defiantly and refused to put them on. I tried to force them on. She took them off again. Finally, I at least convinced her to put socks on under her jelly shoes. But then the socks were on wrong. "They don't look like a princess" is what she said. She took them off.

What?! My patience ran out. I left her behind, thinking she would catch on that this was not a game and finally start walking. I was wrong. She just sat there and screamed. Like, really screamed. 15 minutes. There were probably other hikers in the area calling 911. There were probably bears and mountain lions running to find cover. And there was one very frustrated dad, and three other very frustrated kids who just wanted to get to camp.

And so I went back and put her socks on and adjusted them until they looked like a princess and hated the whole time that I was letting her win, but was at a complete loss of what else to do. It was getting colder and it wouldn't be long before nightfall.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, we turned a came to a clearing in the trees and could look at the ground we had covered.

Shoot. We had gone the wrong way. My fault. As a consequence of my navigational error, we were not even half way yet. Under normal circumstances this wouldn't be an enormous problem. We were only about a half mile off track. The problem is that we were covering less ground than that every HOUR. At least Maren was. The older three could have run to camp and back in the time it took for us to navigate our way over a log in the trail, but a team is only as fast as its slowest member, and in this case that was my sweet, sweet Maren.

Maren, who at this time, decided she was just going to lay down and die on the trail. Literally. She would not stand up. She just laid in the mud and moaned like the end was near and there was nothing anyone could do to stop it. We tried coaxing her on. We tried bribing her. We tried leaving her behind. But she was determined. She was not going to move.

The older kids and I had a huddle and decided it would probably be best at this point to just call the trip off and head back to the car. Again, hating that I was letting her win but having no other option, I picked Maren up and carried her. Over a mile.

We made the best of things though, and the night actually ended up being a lot of fun. We "camped" in the back of the car, and told stories until late at night. The next day we woke up to a beautiful day and went on a little walk (probably a forced death-march from Maren's point of view) to a waterfall. It was nice. We also had fun exploring some of the rougher forest service roads and driving through mud puddles. Good times.

Our "tent." We are really roughing it here. 

The kids were pretty excited about the water purifier. It's nice when things I see as a chores are viewed as privileges to them. 

Beautiful morning

A pretty waterfall we hiked to.

When we got home the kids helped me wash all the mud off the car. All in all, I'd say it actually turned out to be a great trip. It wasn't the backpacking trip I was expecting, but we still had a blast. And next time, Maren will just stay home.

As I think back on this trip, I am glad that it ended up being a positive experience even though it wasn't what I was hoping for. I really, really want my kids to learn to enjoy being outside in the mountains- mostly because I really enjoy it and it means a lot to me and I want to pass that on. I realize that I could have forced things more, or that I could just give up and decide that it isn't their thing. I'm not ready for either of those options though. Maybe this is what it will come to eventually. For now though, I am all about creating great experiences for them that will make them want to have more in the future. I think we accomplished that here. Maren may not go backpacking again any time soon, but she definitely had a good time camping, and I'm pretty sure the day will come when she will be able to try again with a better turn out. At least that is what I hope. We'll see.

*****

Rachel and Addy went on a Silverwood date this weekend and had tons of fun. I can't say much about it because I wasn't there. When I asked Addy how it was she said "It has been a perfect day- almost like a dream." Sounds awesome.

*****

While they were gone, the rest of us went to the beach. The water was still too cold for Lindsey and me, but the other kids didn't seem to notice. Maybe I'm getting older? Smarter?

Have a good week!