Backyard January camping

Last night we decided we needed a little adventure, Rexton and Kolton and myself decided to camp out while Cam slept inside to keep Pres and Mom safe.  We cooked up some hotdogs over the fire pit, to start our night off.  After dinner Rexton and Kolton got all squared away in the 2 person tent while I set up my tarp to sleep under.  Thought this would be the perfect situation to push the limits of my new 30 degree down bag, and test out the tarp and bivy before the real thing.  From the weather forecast I was expecting just some rain maybe just a skif of snow.  But at around 3 am I woke up to my tarp sagging and almost touching my face, the snow was dumping and it was wet and heavy.  I got up and adjusted the guy lines and knocked off the snow and tried to go back to sleep but had to keep waking up every 20 min or so to knock the snow off.  Finally called it quits at 5 am and broke down my tarp and took it in the house.  After that I checked on Rexton and Kolton who both said they wanted to stay as they had no idea that it even snowed.  The four season tent and zero degree down bags they were in was doing the trick for them.  So I headed in the house to catch a little sleep.  At 7 am I went out to get the boys up who were sleeping all nice and cozy.  All in all we had a great time and I got to put some new equipment to the test.

Picture of camp from the deck

My shelter

backside view of the tarp

Rexton and Kolton's nice and cozy tent.  

Middle Fork Backpacking

Well we had a fun overnighter with 2 of my boys and some cousins. We just did a quick trip up Middle Fork by Pineview Reservoir. We had Rexton, Kolton, Brex and Jase. It was Brex's and Jase's first backpacking trip and they did great. We went just a short distance in (2 1/2 miles). The weather was great so I did not pack a tent for me or my 2 boys we slept out under the stars. It was a picture perfect night with the big dipper just sitting right on top of a ridge that we were looking at. The fishing was tough, but the boys found out that is was just as fun to play in the cold creek that was running right by camp. Over all it was a successful trip, and Middle Fork looks like a good place to go do some snowshoe camping when the white stuff falls. Till next time happy trails.

Backpacking with Rexton and Kolton (Bucks Pasture)

     This is the fist post on this blog.  Thought it would be a fun way to track Jill's and my adventures with our 3 boys and their little sister.
      What an awsome trip I had with my 2 older boys.  We hiked in 6 miles, so total we ended up around 15 miles of hiking with a short day hike on Sat.  Very proud of Kolton it was his first pack trip and he was a trooper.  Can't wait till we can do it again.