Camping

We took Logan camping for the first time this weekend. We almost went a couple times last summer. It always sounded like a good idea at the beginning of the week, and then not so much by the end. We've never really been campers just for the sake of camping-- we just did it as necessary for climbing-- and over the years its seemed less and less necessary as our tolerance for suffering has decreased.

But for some reason I've been feeling like we needed to take Logan camping. Maybe because we live in Colorado, it seemed like every other baby had been by the time they were 3 months old, and I felt like Logan was missing out on his chance later in life to say "I'd been camping X[big number] times by the time I was 1". Although he'll probably need to claim something more impressive than camping... but anyways.

We had a good opportunity this weekend-- we were headed to Penitente Canyon, a climbing area with a nice campground pretty far from any hotels, and we had no major climbing objectives that would be ruined if we did not sleep. And based on the stories from the parents of all those other babies that were veteran campers, we were prepared not to sleep. We went out and got a 4 person tent for the occasion, bought Logan his own kid-sized sleeping bag, packed our car full of s'mores fixings and set off.

Logan, it turns out, is a good camper. He found a stick that amused him for a good while, and when that wore off the buttons in the car and the pots and pans kept him entertained. The weather was not ideal-- it started raining during dinner and kept up most of the night-- but it was warm enough. He slept in his own sleeping bag most of the night, did not suffocate (for some reason my biggest worry), and woke up happy at 7am (and 1am, and 5am... but unfortunately that's normal). The first day we managed to get in some climbing despite not having a 3rd person to babysit, and the second day was a trail day where a bunch of people came to do trail work and replace hardware on the routes. They had barbeques for lunch and dinner, a little bluegrass band, and a raffle where everyone won something. So it was a successful weekend. Mind you I did not volunteer to camp for a second night. But I'm glad we went. 

At the campground



Logan & his stick



Trail day