Pincushion Mountain and Devil Track River. Superior Hiking Trail. August 6-7, 2015

Part 1

The regular crew is 3 adults (me, Lee, DvA) and 3 kids (Boo - 7yo, R- 8yo, and J - almost 12). It's my first trip with R, since the 2 or 3 overnights she's been on were all after I wrecked my back and wasn't hiking.

We started after lunch, from 53, just off the Gunflint Trail, which leaves 61 at the north end of Grand Marais. The parking lot has a nice overlook of Grand Marais, where we were carcamping for the week. There were enough of us we took both cars, and left one overnight. Many tails we hiked that week had boot brushes at the beginnings to reduce the spread if invasive plants. The kids were really good about brushing their boots. The trail starts along a cross-country ski trail. So it's really wide. There were a lot of raspberries along the edges!




Between the kids getting bigger and my back, I was by far the slowest in the group.It was lovely and solitary, but a little lonely. And I didn't get very many pictures of peoples' faces!



It wasn't very far along, just in time for the kids to get hungry, that we came to Pincushion Mountain. We left our packs at the bottom, and scrambled up the bare rock face. The kids were almost on all fours. At the top was lots of bare rock and some nice views of Superior and the inland. The Devil Track valley was pretty obvious. The breeze was nice after being in fairly dense woods. There was a big pile of deer scat up there, but I have no idea why a deer would have gone up.





Going back down the bare rock, I scooted down on my bottom. I threw my hiking sticks down ahead of me, which Lee accused me of throwing pointy sticks at her. Pfft, whatever.

We saw several berry-ful bear scats on the trail. I was glad to see that the bears are well-fed this time of year, since Boo still uses her shirt as a napkin more often than not.



Eventually the Superior Hiking Trail turned off the ski trail and narrowed to a more standard hiking trial width. As normal for the SHT, it was in lovely, well groomed condition. Well blazed. And full of steps. Oh god the steps. Down down down to the Devil Track River. Up and Down along the river. So much up. So much down. (I was fine with the up, but the down was kind of awful, even with my sticks.)



Along with the horrible steps, we started to catch occasional glimpses of the river, and more views of the cliffs making the opposite bank. Just like the SHT book said, not much for the camera, but very good for the eyes. There were nice little overlooks and pull-offs to look at the river.




We reached the West Devil Track campsite by mid afternoon and found it already occupied. Since we have plenty of time in the day and oomph in the legs, we decided to check out the East Devil Track campsite across the river and up a bit. DvA signed us in the trail register. The bridge across Devil Track is awesome. I did not get any great pics of it, but I love that bridge.




East Devil Track campsite was unoccupied, so we moved in. The book says it has 2 tent pads, but maybe 4 could squeeze in if some were small or everyone was friendly. We pitched our Big Agnes Copper Spur 3 for it's first backpacking use. We placed it at the corner of the tent pad, as it looked like if it rained, the rain would run down the trail and through the tent pad area. The tent pad was hard and rocky, but there was a convenient large rock to use as a hammer, so we got our stakes in.



The "completely exhausted, couldn't take another step" kids clambered down to the river and spent some time throwing rocks, building dams, and in general proving that kids are sprinters. I gave my feet a nice cold soak and an airing.


 

Part 2: In Camp, Dinner, Night, Next Day

Ultimate Camper

I got Andrew Skurka’s  TheUltimate Hiker’s Gear Guide: Tools & Techniques to Hit the Trail for Christmas. He defines an ultimate hiker as someone who wants to maximize their walking time and minimize their in-camp time. It’s an awesome book. 

 I have not yet hiked with a kid that is an ultimate hiker. 

Bedtime routine is important for most kids, and the less experienced and/or younger they are, the more important that routine is. Changing locations for bed, potty, teeth… Exchanging city and house noises for outdoor sounds… While those are comforting to adults, they are unfamiliar to kids. They may be scary or exciting, but they won’t help your kid get to sleep, or eat enough dinner (distracted!). Younger kids may be clingy and get in the way. 

A kid who needs an hour plus of strict routine at home will likely take a lot more time to settle in camp than a kid who does fine with jumping into bed and going straight to sleep. The younger the kid, the more they’ll need to get used to the campsite to be comfortable. 

Baby Boo staying up Very Late to become comfortable in the tent.

As a toddler, Boo stayed up well past 10, singing to a full car-camping campsite. We hadn't given her enough time to acclimate. At almost 3, she needed well over an hour of running around camp exploring to be able to do anything else. At 4 ½, she “helped” set up and then took half an hour to acclimate before being ready for an exploring hike. 

Running Laps at 3

If you want to shorten the settling in period, make your kids as familiar as possible with the whole thing ahead of time. Set up the tent in the backyard, sleep in it if you can. Hike in the same or a similar area. Carry their favorite book and the blanket they have always slept with (no matter how heavy). Talk about what’s going to happen. Look up trip reports or pictures from your destination with your kid. Going over the map and having the kid discuss what to pack is also good practice. 

As with everything else, know your kid.  Your first outing you should probably give yourself a lot of leeway and time to settle in camp, until you know how much and what kind of things are important for your kid to settle in at camp.

How do your kids get settled in at camp? Have you ever seriously failed?

Siloam Springs

April 7-8, 2012

We’d been planning a shake-out hike with our Duluth backpacking crew for a while. It came down to Easter weekend at Siloam Springs. Lee and I had gone there last fall for my birthday. As a destination, it had several important features: we could drive there before the kids went critical in the car; the entire backpacking loop was 4 miles, which both kids could do; it had enough small interesting things to keep the kids occupied while being interesting enough for the adults. On the flip side, there was no water at the site. The weather was supposed to be high 60s during the day, 40 at night. A bit chilly for a little one perhaps. It wasn’t a huge destination hike, but it was perfect for our needs. 

Saturday we meet at 7:30. Three adult Ospreys, one “big” kid Osprey, and Boo’s little REI Sprig went into the Explorer’s trunk. I squeezed between the booster seats and officiated “I spy” and “are we there yet?” for 2.5 hours. 

Boo’s zip-offs, which were over 3” too long when we got them in December, just needed a roll at the waist to keep them off the ground. Her pack contained 17 oz of water in a bladder with tube, whistle, Z-bar, bike gloves, field guide pamphlets, 

We arrived, paid for a site (from the car campground hosts), and picked up trail “maps” from the office. J kept looking for the scale on the map so he knew how far things were, but there wasn’t one. It may not have even been to scale. Luckily, it’s pretty easy to not get lost. We parked by the west trailhead, took a pit stop, ate a snack (very important to feed the kids before hitting the trail), and we were off. 

We walked along the road to the eastern trailhead, and the kids eagerly perused the trailhead map. The east trailhead starts with a long hill. It’s not that steep, but it is long. Boo and J alternated running and stopping to look at sticks. We lost D only a few yards in to a flower he didn’t recognize. Nor was it in our “flowers of Illinois” pamphlet. Take a (few dozen) picture(s), look it up later. Boo found and discarded several hiking sticks. D stopped to take pictures of every dogwood we passed. The kids hike very erratically, stopping often, sprinting often, stopping to poke at things. Lee and I just stayed with the group, and we traveled like a well-oiled herd of cats. 

Near the end of the hill, Boo and J found something. “Hey, come look at this!” “What is it?” “I don’t know! It looks gross!” They had found a dried out morel mushroom. It looked like it had escaped from a mushroomer earlier. I was lamenting the loss when D came up. “That’s salvageable. It won’t be perfect, but it’ll perk up enough to eat if we soak it.” It was tucked into a mesh pocket on Boo’s bag.

The spring beauties and mayapples were blooming at the same time. It’s been a weird spring that way. D really wanted a picture of both. So we walked past a patch of mayapples he found ideal for his picture-taking purposes. “I’m going to have to drop my pack and be a real wildflower photographer here.” We all knew he was going to lay down in the dirt. As a good friend, I immediately got my camera ready. He set up his shot, I crouched down and tried to get a nicely composed shot of my own. I shifted… and fell over, turtled up by my pack. At this point, one can either curse and get mad, or laugh. I was already in a good mood. I laughed. He turned, saw me, and took a picture. 

We met a few mushroom hunters. Boo especially wanted to talk to all of them, and show off our poor shriveled mushroom. 

The kids were tired after the hill. J wasn’t used to his pack and was asking to stop for lunch every log or flat spot. I was walking with him at the back and finally told him that he could mention a spot once, and no more. We were looking for a lunch spot and he would have to be patient. As we fell farther and farther behind, and he complained more about how heavy his pack was, I took his 2 almost-full water bottles from his pack. With that weight reduction, we caught up and kept up to the rest of the group, and a few minutes later found a good stopping place. 

Coming around a curve along the top of a ridge, the view opened up over a steep hillside, with a stream and fields at the bottom. Just off the trail was a large log, perfect for a Lee and Boo to sit on to eat their lunch.

Boo ate a hard-boiled egg while I made tuna pitas for the two adults. J and D had packed themselves sandwiches. Turns out a packet of tuna is about 2 pitas worth, not 1, so we had some leftovers. Tuna pita, hard-boiled egg, some root veggie strings (what are they called?), and we were off. We might have lingered, but it was just exposed enough for a chilly breeze, and when the clouds started blocking some sun, it was time to keep moving or start digging for more layers. We moved.

After lunch, the kids had a lot more energy. We clambered down a rocky track to the soggy lowlands. Up in the hill we could see small cliffs and overhangs. We hiked through some mucky areas, and hopped a few rivulets. After a bit we came to the ruins of a stone building. A doorframe was still standing, but most of the other walls had fallen down. The whole park used to be a mineral springs resort thing.

After that, there was a shorter hill, but still tough for the kids. After lunch is not their best time. The trail flattened briefly, turned, and opened up to the fire lane. 

When Lee and I had been there last fall, the fire lane was very freshly bulldozed. Now, winter weather and spring vegetation had softened it into a boulevard of a trail, but more trail than construction zone. The kids were reaching the end of their lunch perk up, and the trail was still gently climbing. Boo held our hands and got a tow up. 

And then, “I see it! That white sign up ahead, that’s the campground!” The kids ran. After a pit stop, we carefully perused all four campsites and picked site 4. We shed our packs at the picnic table and started lazily clearing sticks from our chosen tent sites. “Did you feel that?” “A rain drop?” “…. Maybe….” The tent pitching took on some intensity. Not much, as it was barely raining, but we stopped dawdling.

Tents pitched, we tried to get Boo to rest. She was having nothing to do with it. Lee and I laid down, Boo escaped. The Krauses were being quiet in their tent. Boo sat quietly at the picnic table in the drizzle while we all rested. 

After the drizzle let up, we all emerged, had a snack, and took a hike. Because, well, why not? We explored down another trail, and got down to the river that borders the park. We discussed various ways to cross the river. Do we make a zip line? Do we take a boat across to build a bridge? Do we shoot a line across with a bow and arrow? Do we bring the goat or the fox or the chicken? After that rather interesting discussion, Boo declared she was too tired to continue and wanted to go back to camp. I said I’d take her, and before we’d gone ten steps, J was coming with us. DvA and Lee kept walking, and the kids and I walked back to camp.

The kids both whined a little going back up the hill, but I got them looking for navigation information points (blazes, signs, things that look familiar) and interesting things. J had been reading his survival guide during our nap time, and I had him tell me about what he’d read. Apparently the first chapter is “How to get un-lost”. “OK, what do you do if you get lost?” “…. Um, there’s a lot… it’s kinda complicated.” While that can be true, you are 8 and you need to remember the basic steps first. “Boo, what do you do if you are lost?” “Sit down or hug a tree, blow on your whistle three times.” J admitted that his book had said that, but a lot more stuff too. I was surprised that she remembered the “three whistles”, as I’d mentioned it once to J that morning. We do teach her and have her practice staying put and blowing her whistle, but we don’t expect her to remember it if she actually feels lost yet. 

And they both sprinted back to camp. J was excited to use his pocket knife to whittle. He’d had a whittling workshop with Cub Scouts where they carved on soap, but he hadn’t done any or much actual whittling on sticks. He had gotten permission to whittle with supervision, and I said OK. We reviewed the safety rules, and he remembered them all with just a little prompting. Boo was constantly wheedling for a snack until I hung the food. There are no bears, but it keeps the food out of reach of raccoons, other critters, and my kid.

Then he and Boo collected pinecones. They decided to pile them in the fire ring. Then they decided to gather sticks “for the fire”. I told them I didn’t think we were going to have a fire. They said they’d gather sticks anyway, just in case. And if we didn’t have a fire, it would be ready for the next people. Then Lee and DvA arrived. “Huh, looks like we’re having a fire tonight.” There were a couple very excited kids. They brought pine needles for tinder, and went increasingly farther afield in search of sticks. Luckily for them, the backpacking sites don’t seem to have very high usage so there are lots of good fire sticks around. 

Once the fire was going well, the adults started dinner. We use a Trangia Mini. This trip was our first with a GSI Dualist pot. We eat out of Squishy Bowls. DvA has a new canister alcohol stove of some sort. It has a reflector base. Lee wants one. I cleared a spot on the ground for our stove, and realized that we had to resize the windscreen for the new pot. So I folded the tinfoil down to fit under the pot handle. Lee cooked. The new pot has a strainer lid, so as the water boiled steam came out only on one side. It was pretty neat.



Dinner was tasty. The soup was a lot soupier than Lee usually makes, but it hit the spot on a rapidly cooling evening. Boo didn’t eat as much as we were expecting, but she doesn’t eat as big a dinner as other meals, so we didn’t worry about it. D fried up the morel for dessert, though both kids declined. More for the adults! 

We didn’t even try to get Boo to sleep before dusk. We had decided last fall that, since Boo always ends up in Lee’s sleeping bag anyway, and since we got new bags that zip together, we’d just stick her with us. She’ll be warm, it’s where she ends up anyway, and it’s less weight and expense than bringing her a bag. So I snuggled her up. She was wiggly and chatty. Typical over-tired. I may have fallen asleep before she did. 

“Birch. Birch, wake up.” “Unh.” “Will you take her potty?” “Unh? Oh, OK.”  I take her out of the tent, and she’s crying. “Shh, baby, shhhh.” She doesn’t calm down or wake up or stop whatever is making her cry as much as I was expecting. She must be tired and not happy to be out of routine. Or else cold, I’m pretty chilly. Mission accomplished, I snuggle back in, already more asleep than awake.

 “Birch. Birch, is the ibuprofen hung in the tree or can you get it?” I am suddenly a lot more awake. “She has a fever.” Luckily, the ibuprofen was in the tent, not in a tree. Lee works on calming her back to sleep while my mind crafts ever-more-improbable scenarios. When I’ve gotten to the worst-case I can think of, I finally sleep.

Dawn broke beautiful and chilly. The sun streaming through the pines took my breath away. I took the opportunity to play Easter Bunny, and hid 4 token eggs around the camp. Even having had ibuprofen a few hours earlier, Boo still had a fever (though she was doing better than in the night). So I started getting breakfast ready, while Boo and J found eggs. (And J only had 3 eggs to Boo’s 4…. Oops)



As usual we made Boo’s breakfast first. A packet of oatmeal, a cup of cocoa, a squeeze-pack of applesauce and the contents of her Easter Eggs.  And she barely ate any.

Lee and I had oatmeal with nuts, dried fruit, and chia seeds. Tea for Lee, coffee for me.

As we ate, Lee and I discussed our options. We felt that she probably could walk out. But we don’t want her first backpacking overnight to be a miserable death march. And she would get whiny. So we packed up my bag early and quickly (wet tent and all), and I hit the trail while the rest of them broke camp at a more reasonable pace. I could only do this because the trails are pretty straightforward, and I’d done this trail before. (I have not had to develop great navigational skills.) I went down to the truck fast. Once there, I grabbed a last big swig of water, took my fanny pack and the belt from my pack, and headed right back up the trail as fast as I could go. 

I got up most of the hill and about half the distance to camp before I spotted DvA coming around a bend. Boo’s trudging along holding Lee’s hand, looking miserable. Lee reports that Boo has been OK holding Lee’s or DvA’s hand, but had started to get whiny. She’s used to riding piggy-back (it’s the only way I can carry her anymore), so I knelt down and got her on my back. Then I carefully strapped my pack belt under her bottom and over my shortribs. Her legs were inside the belt over my hips. This would probably have been sufficient, except I was not convinced she wasn’t going to fall asleep. So the belt of the fanny pack went under both our armpits. That way she could relax, enjoy the ride as best she could, even sleep if she wanted. Once she was settled, I didn’t worry about leaving anyone behind. At 37 pounds, she’s significantly heavier than my pack, and the belt around my ribs got uncomfortable quickly. It was better than carrying her in my arms or on my shoulders, but it wasn’t anything I could do for hours on end. 

When we got to the car, I fed her some nibbles from the trail mix out of my pack. The rest of the crew arrived shortly, and we headed home. Boo missed three days of school. But she wanted to go backpacking again. Win. 

What was your first overnight like?

Learning Camp Skills

Disclaimer: any specific kid on a specific day may be capable of a wide range of things. Or not capable of things they could do last week. Your knowledge and observations about your kid are a better guide than any number of bloggers or experts.

Kids are sponges for new information. Especially little kids don’t know what’s normal outside what your family does. If you hike and camp, they will think it’s normal. Teach them outdoor skills as you teach them indoor table manners, how to answer the phone, etc. Kids want to be with you, they want to act like adults, they want to help.

Something even the smallest toddlers can do is clear a spot for the tent. Encourage them to help you pick up sticks, pinecones etc. and make a pile. Depending on the kid’s mood, you may get the whole campground cleared. Even if they pick up one stick and play with it while you set up, they’re not making more work for you. If your kid hasn’t slept in a tent in their memory (which for a baby can be last week), have them “unpack” in the tent and get used to it. Boo’s first night in a tent she was awake far too late exploring.



Walkers love to take trips. Trips to the bathrooms, trips to refill water, trips to pay the campground host. I once had 3 kids vying to hold the cap to the water cooler.

As kids get older (and I’m still talking pretty small here) they can help unroll the tent, carry the sleeping pads, bags, and other small things that go into the tent. At some point they’ll be able to put tent poles together, Velcro and clip the rainfly, thread or clip the poles… Boo loves taking the tent down; we chant “Roll it tight! Roll it tight!”



Kitchen help has to start with kitchen safety. I keep the sharp knife in my hand or pocket. We use an alcohol stove, so I started with “Is it lit?” Of course she thought not. I showed her how to feel for heat with the back of her hand*, slowly. We felt by the stove. We felt by the fire ring. We felt by the neighboring fire ring (that I had seen smoking when we were setting up camp). She understood enough that she couldn’t trust her eyes. At three, she stayed as far away as I liked from the stove, and needed to be convinced to get close enough to the fire to cook marshmallows.

*I learned that trick from a blacksmith. The back of your hand, being less calloused, is somewhat more sensitive to heat than the front. And if you do touch something hot, you clench your fist away from the hot thing instead of around it. And the working surface of your hand isn’t damaged.

Boo’s still not much help in the camp kitchen. If there’s a table, she can set it. She loves the color-coded mess sets we have. She puts garbage in the garbage bag. She sometimes hands the cook the next ingredient. She’s awesome at handing around dessert.



We use a Steripen for water, and she can push the button and hold the pen in the water until it makes a smiley face. She takes this duty very seriously.



All the kids love tying knots. Boo and J spent a good hour putting up clotheslines once. Then fishing lines, then a bow and arrow. J practices knots from his survival guide. Boo works on “Cross, then through the loop.”

What outdoor skills have you taught your kids? What do you want to teach them? What do you wish you had taught them?