The Great Backpacking Trip

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I present to you the Great Backpacking Trip of 2019! In recent years, Dad, Mom and Anna have remained faithful in their quest to be mountain (wo)men but for some of us, this was our first trip in ten years and for others (HI KARYN!), it was their maiden voyage. We hiked along the Foothills Trail starting at Oconee State Park. 

Kent and Dad working on a can of beans with a crummy can opener and rock. 
Dad's (probable) head lamp motto: IT'S NEVER TOO EARLY TO HAVE IT IN PLACE. Nightfall comes swiftly and without warning. 
On Sunday night we used a 6 man tent that had seen camping action in South Sudan and confirmed the fact that a 6 man tent with 6 actual (wo)men + sleeping bags is a tight squeeze (Dad chose to sleep 50 feet away under a tarp) Although I had my earplugs in, I was still able to target people that snored or breathed heavily (4/6 of the tent) and I made my plans to vote them off the island. Before our slumber party, we laughed, told stories, answered mom's question "If you were going to have 4 people over for a dinner party, who would you invite?" and ate s'mores. I personally threw caution to the wind and ate 3. 

Intense bonding
Monday morning we headed out! About 100 yards into our hike, we thought we were on the wrong trail, but have no fear, we were on the right track. Each pack weighed about 30 pounds (Ben and Dad's were a bit heavier) 
My dear heart husband tying my mother's hiking boot
Sadly, we parted ways with Kent after a short while so that he could go back to his parents and eat and nap parent our small children. Big thanks to my mother in law for watching them on Sunday night. 
Ben enjoying our lunch + lollipop break
We hiked about 8 miles on Monday to our site. We fetched water from the creek, hung up tarps and found trees that were good to hide behind if we, hypothetically, had to go potty wink wink 

Karyn is treating our water with clorox and hydrogen peroxide 
Dad whipped up dinner on his pocket rocket. It boasts a boil time of three minutes
Dinner was canned chicken, alfredo noodles, powdered milk and bacon bits. HOW did we ever camp without bacon bits?? Delish!
After we hung the bear bag, crawled under our tarps and into our sleeping bags on Monday night, all was silent, until we heard a single screech from an owl. I had the immense joy of laying next to Anna who calmly f r e a k e d o u t. "Kait ohmygosh what was that. Was that a cougar? No cougars don't make that noise. Omygosh my stomach hurts so bad right now" *Possible highlight of my trip*

Tuesday morning and the last full hiking day
Ranger Rick telling the time with his compass (he was impressively close to my cell phone time)
When he wasn't telling time, looking at the map, encouraging us to drink water, he was available for photo ops.
A flashback to our early hiking years circa 1987. 
This hike was much easier
The entire hike was harder than we thought it'd be (Do we blame anyone for false advertisement? Maybe maybe not) But Tuesday was a fab hike as we walked along the Chattooga River with gorgeous views. We also learned that Shelly is the only one that can be completely out of breath, shake out her painful leg cramps and break into Elvis' "I'm all shook up" song
Tuesday night tarp set up
Peeling off your hiking boots to put on camp shoes after a long day of hiking is the best. Dad told us that hiking is like giving birth- it's hard and then you forget how hard it is. Every time he used this analogy my mom yelled "THEN I'M IN TRANSITION" This should give all you natural crunchy folks a chuckle. 
I learned that 10 years of retirement + 3 babies makes sleeping on the ground a little more painful but I'm happy to have had the opportunity to push ma'self to the max, sweat it out and check out of mom life for a few days. 

And now for some awards....

Rookie of the Year: Karyn
MVP: Shelly
Coach of the Year: Chuck
Honorable Mentions: Ben, Anna and myself 

Dreaming of wearing my camp shoes and eating a burger
My reward on Wednesday 
We decided to smuggle mom out of the woods early (with very little protest winkyface) and Charlie went on to do 3 more nights! We glad he's home safe and sound and can now say that he has backpacked alone! 

Until next time! (Right, Karyn?!)

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