My daughter and I enjoyed an overnight adventure in Oregon's Mountain Lakes Wilderness this past weekend. We arrived at the trail head and were ready to start before noon, my daughter was excited to use her custom XSmall MLD Burn (it is still a little big on her, the pack will fit perfect next year).









Much time was spent practicing wilderness gymnastics.











Our shelter for this trip was a custom HMG Echo II. My daughter and I both used MLD SL Bivys with full net hoods and Nunatak arc Ghost quilts. The HMG tarp and other gear performed perfectly.







The temperature really dropped as the sun went down. My daughter staying warm by the fire in her Patagonia Down Sweater and Kat P beanie.



Moxie using her UL DogBowl.





A fun trip for sure.

Edited by thomdarrah on 09/29/2011 17:55:15 MDT.

Nice to see this father/daughter trip. My 4 yr. old Brooke & I enjoyed looking at the photos, and reminisce about our trip.



Tom

What a lucky daughter! What a lucky dad! What a lucky pup! Looks like another fun trip for the Darrah's. Thanks for sharing Thom.

Thom -- what a nice set of photos. It looks like she had a great time. And a tarp too!

It almost makes me wish my teenage daughters were that age again.

Thanks for the sweet trip report.
Nice pictures and what a cool little girl you have there!

Very nice!

thanks for sharing

Thanks for posting this...I have twin girls who just turned five. We're planning our next backpacking trip (I took them for a 1.3 mile overnighter this past May) and they're already telling me that this time they want a tent. It was a beautiful night and we slept under the stars when we went in May.

Your daughter have any concerns about not having walls around her? Of all things my girls are concerned about a fox coming into camp while they sleep. They can't tell me where that fear originated, but it's real to them. I have a Lunar Duo that they could use, but it certainly weighs a lot more than my large groundsheet and cuben tarp.

I tried to extoll the virtues of sleeping under the stars with them but without success. We're going to go in the Spring regardless - I'll suck it up and carry a tent for them if it means we get our trip out of it. I was just wondering if you, or anyone else, had any words of wisdom that can help kids make the transition to tarping (we do a fair amount of car camping in tents). I know it's hard enough to get adults to move away from the protection of a sil-nylon tent wall, much less getting kids to do it.

My daughter only knows a tarp shelter and she loves the open but yet protected feel. She likely finds comfort in having our dog Moxie sleeping at the head of the tarp. Moxie would come over and check on my daughter about every hour throughout the night and then return to her sleep spot near by (I will add a picture later today).



I struggled with keeping her head covered during the night and will likely carry a light balaclava as part of her sleep system on future trips. I may also switch to a duel bivy to better control her squirming off of her sleep pad during the night.

Although she is my princess she is no girly girl. She has no issue with taking care of business in the outdoors and the greater the adventure the happier her she is.

She keeps asking me to take her tenkara fishing and so our next trip this fall will be an over night tenkara adventure.

Any BPL fathers wanting insights to father/daughter trip and gear planning feel free to PM.

Thom

Edited by thomdarrah on 09/30/2011 22:07:58 MDT.

Thanks Thom - I'm sure having the dog along helps a lot.

It got down into the 30's when I took my girls in May. They have TNF Tigger bags and at one point I couldn't see either head. I lifted the top of the bag, heard snoring deep down within, and put it back down. They were warm and happy!

We spent the night near one of the AT shelters with a privy...Neither one of my girls would use it because it was "so stinky." They both preferred to do their business in the woods.

I was hoping that, by sleeping under the stars on their first backpacking trip, that they would accept it as the backpacking alternative, but we'll have to wait and see what their attitudes are in the Spring.

Thanks again for your post.
-Kevin

"Although she is my princess she is no girly girl. She has no issue with taking care of business in the outdoors and the greater the adventure the happier her she is."

Right on ; )

Thanks for sharing - great trip report!

(the cuben dog dish says it all)

Adorable. Well done, the both of you! (Need to tackle this myself.)

Cheers,

Rick

I'll say it again: DO IT NOW!

You won't believe how fast your kids grow up, get busy, and are out on their own. Do it before it's too late!

Some of my fondest memories are of adventures like this one...

Fantastic pictures, Thom!
Thanks for sharing you little cutie with us. My daughter was always a bit of a tom-boy and I thought that was great! She has her own tom-boys now :)

Thanks for sharing this, Thom. I have a 5 year old and a 3 year old daughter that have started coming on overnight trips with me. This uninterrupted time together is about as good as it gets. I love seeing posts like this.

Ike

This is quality Thom. Your daughter looks right at home with daddy out on the trail, very cool, very cool.

Great pics and reminds me of the fun my daughter and I used to have (she's now 14) but I did take my son (9yrs old) out this past weekend to the Tionesta Scenic area in NW Pennsylvania, part of the North Country Trail. A 14 mile hike in two days.

Edited by dbogey on 09/22/2011 10:33:44 MDT.

I take my daughter out a few times each year. If you don't mind, do you have any pics showing how the MLD pack fits her? How tall is she? What size clothes is she in? Sorry for the questions, but I've been thinking about getting one for my daughter who just turned 8.

VERY cool! My daughter is a little younger, but I can't wait to get her on her first overnight out on the trail.



HJ