Little House on the Big River: Celebrating

For my fortieth birthday I wanted to go backpacking. Fortunately, the weather lined up and we were able to turn one of my favorite day hikes into an overnight trip with the kids.

Backpacking is something that Jesse and I enjoyed doing before we had kids, so fortunately we have the gear necessary to make an excursion like this. I did buy Jonah a youth size backpacking backpack from Osprey as an early birthday present.

The weather was stunning. 80 degrees, windless.

It would have been a lovely day for drive if that's all we had planned.

Getting to the trail head was a little tricky this early in the season. Since we were heading up after Memorial Day (and a long stretch of good weather) I figured we would not be the first hikers this way. But about 2 miles short of the trail head we came to this tree across the road.

Oh, and there was some snow too.

Jesse tied a tow strap to the tree, hooked it up to the truck, and pulled the tree out of the way!

So we were the first ones to drive right up to the trail head.

There were trilliums blooming everywhere.

It was wonderful to see these endangered plants thriving in this part of the forest.

This was our first attempt at family backpacking.

I carried Ezra in a backpack carrier....as you can see, it's clearly not made for 6 year olds! But it worked.

Children aren't supposed to carry more than 20% of their body weight, so Jonah's pack contained 13 pounds of down sleeping bags and a camping pad.

My pack weighed about 45 pounds with Ezra (he's 36 pounds!).

Jesse got to carry everything else

(tent, water, food, stove, clothes, bedding).

His load was 65 pounds.

There was more snow than I was expecting. It was hard to find the path at times, but hunting for the trail added to the adventure.

Jonah was a real trooper. He carried his pack the whole way. The hike has 1400 ft of elevation gain.

Almost to the summit!

I unloaded Ezra for the last part so he could expend a little energy.

It was just as beautiful as I remember.

From the top we could see 6 volcanoes!

(From Left: St. Helens, Rainier, Adams, Hood, Bachelor, and Jefferson)

I was real happy.

It also helped that Jonah declared "Worth it" when we arrived.

It took us 2.5 hours to hike the 2.8 miles.

It was time for dinner when we arrived and Jesse started heating up water for our dinner of freeze dried Chicken and Dumplings and Teriyaki Chicken with Rice and Veggies.

Jonah has been experimenting a lot with taking his own photos. He recently discovered making time-lapse videos. I'm including a 3 minute one he did of us setting up camp.

Before leaving home we set up my 2.5 person tent in the yard to see if we would all fit. It was going to be cozy, but we would manage for one night. Without bringing the rain fly, it was our lightest option at 4.3 lbs. I've had that Sierra Designs tent since high school and it's still in excellent condition.

There are three spots at the top where the ground is level enough for a small tent. We perched ours just below the summit with views of St. Helens to the north and Mt Hood to the south.

Photo credit: Jonah

It was really nice to spend time with my boys.

As the sun lowered we ate freeze dried ice cream sandwiches and watched shadows climb the foothills.

I love the golden hour.

Such an amazing place and we had it all to ourselves.

It was almost 9pm by the time the sun went down and we started getting ready for bed.

That's Mt Rainier in the distance beyond the tent.

We had a good night. We never used the down layers we packed. Jonah and I got up once in the night and saw distant lightning flickering across central Oregon. The moon set early leaving the stars to illuminate without rivalry. I even saw one shooting star and it felt like it was just for me.

The sun woke us up at 7.

Another beautiful day!

We first discovered this hike in 2013 over Father's Day weekend with Dave, Steph, and my Dad.

Jonah had done this trip just before he turned two...even Daisy had been here before. This was only truly inaugural for Ezra.

Daisy, 2013. Age 7.

Young Jonah. Young Jesse.

Steph had taken this wonderful photo of Jesse and Jonah on that trip, so we tried to recreate a contemporary version.

2020: Jonah (8), Ezra (6)

After basking in 360 degrees of beauty all morning, it was time to pack up and head down where lunch was waiting in the cooler at the truck.

Until next time.....

The snow kept the surrounding air cool and it was very pleasant on an otherwise toasty day. Not to mention it's presence meant we were ahead of the bugs. In a few weeks, these damp patches will be mosquito habitat.