2018 bag nights: 21
My wife's brother asked at the beginning of the summer if I was interested in meeting up in the Dolly Sods this summer with our kids (his oldest is 6). I had already been planning on taking my three (5, 7, 9) on a trip or two, so I said sure.
We met at the trailhead next to the campground and headed down the trail. Note the pack on my daughter's back, I had visions of this being a great pack if the weight was kept low. It ended up being terrible. Also note my camera near my hip, I barely touched it and would have been happier if I had left it and the tripod at home.
Beautiful views as we head down the Blackbird Knob trail towards the intersection with the Red Creek Trail.
We got to the "forks" area on Red Creek and there was only one other person in the area. I felt kind of bad for bringing 4 noisy kids into his solitude, but I was happy that there weren't a lot of other people.
The next day we headed towards the Lions Head, but the Rocky Point Trail was very slow going for the little legs, so we ended up saving it for next time. It was still a great hiking day.
We set up camp off the Big Stonecoal Trail
There were a bunch of deer in the area that were not afraid at all. The kids had fun chasing them though the woods for a little bit.
Just to remember that it is not all positive memories :) At about 10pm, the kids were all in bed and Doug and I were enjoying a little bourbon when I heard noises from my tent. It sounded like someone was having a nightmare, so I wandered over just in time to unzip the tent and have my five year old empty her guts just outside the tent. Only a little bit got on her and her sleeping bag. So, I got her cleaned up and gave her my sleep shirt and quilt and she went back to sleep while I tried to get puke off the outside of her sleeping bag. No issues the rest of the night and she woke up happy in the morning.
Another beautiful day for hiking, but a little bit warmer.
We set up camp for our third and last night off the Blackbird Knob Trail
The forecast was for rain in the morning and the sky doesn't look promising.
In the end, we covered about 15 miles and other than the failure with the kids pack and the barfing, everything went great. The kids had a great time and were mostly good hikers/campers and I enjoyed having another adult to help herd my kids. I suspect we will do a similar trip next summer.
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