Joe's First Backpacking Trip

Joe's been wanting for a while now to try out backpacking, and this weekend we finally made time to get that boy on the trail. This being his first time, the theme of our adventure was "easy and fun." Maria (who, after backpacking the Nordhouse Dunes trail along Lake Michigan a couple of years ago, considers herself quite an expert hiker) helped me map out a short overnighter on the Potowatami, with our destination being the campsite at the edge of Blind Lake. It was just the three of us, since Jay was up north backpacking the Porcupine Mountains with some buddies.

We parked at Mark and Diane's house and picked up the trail near the bridge at the end of Crescent Drive. It was less than two miles to the campsite, but there's a significant climb right at the beginning of this hike, and a significant drop near the end. Made it feel like we were working some, so that's good. Joe had a great time, even though we outfitted him with some very makeshift equipment. Looks like it's time to log onto the REI website and start procuring that boy some gear!

The lure of roasted marshmallows definitely increased everyone's interest level in taking this trip! And it was perfect that the Blind Lake campsite has this awesome firepit where you can make a nice little campfire without too much trouble. We even scored a burning log from an empty neighboring campsite, which made it really easy to get some flames going. Someone had apparently had a fire there the night before and we noticed there were still some smoldering logs in it. (We won't mention that the children nearly witnessed their mother burn half her hand off, trying to procure the firewood from the other campsite and drag it over to ours.)

Mark and Diane boated over after dinner time to check on us and hang out for a little while. Uncle Mark entertained a wide-eyed Joe with all sorts of stories about wildebeests that live in these forests (thank you, Mark) while Maria discussed Harry Potter with Aunt Diane. They headed home a little before dark and the three of us plus Buster got settled into our tent.

This was Buster's first backpacking trip too. He did okay until about 9 p.m., when someone across the lake started setting off fireworks. Buster has this phobia about any loud noises that resemble thunder. They turn him into a drooling, trembling mess, and in this particular instance, also produced a bad case of flatulence. (It didn't help that, a couple hours earlier, Buster had sneaked off with a large bag of our yogurt raisins and consumed them all before we realized they and he were missing.) If our tent hadn't been staked down, that baby would've gone up like the Hindenburg. Jay continues to express his gratefulness that he happened to miss this particular trip.

Overall, though, this adventure was a big success. I can't wait to give the kids a more substantial backpacpking experience. It's definitely on our list for next summer!