A Mom's Guide to Hiking and Camping

Last Saturday we packed up the car and headed southwest toward the Shenandoah National Park.  It was a beautiful Fall day.  The sun was shining, the wind was rustling through the changing leaves.  It was a perfect weekend for Fionn's first camping trip. What could go wrong?

Silly Mama.  As the parent to a 2-year-old, I should always remember that EVERYTHING can go wrong. 

Well, luckily for us, a lot of things went right.  But we also had some mishaps along the way.  Humor me.  Read on.

We arrived to the campsite around 1 pm.  Our friends, Corrie and Eric Mack, arrived the previous day and claimed the spot.  Now why these wonderful people who do not yet have children of their own wanted to hang out with a couple of boring old parents and a toddler is beyond me.  But we're glad they did!

Once we arrived at the site, Fionn immediately began to check out his digs as you can see in the above picture.  After Conor set up the tent, we headed out on a short hike.  Ah, it was wonderful to be hiking again.  So peaceful.  Well, except for our little tag-a-long who kept whining, "Mama, me need more 'nola bar."  (That's "granola bar" in Fionn speak.) 

But, all in all, Fionn loved the hike.  He especially loved searching for all the trail markers on the trees as we hiked through the woods.  Once he saw one, he would yell, "Blue!" and then he had to be lifted up to smack it with his palm. 

We made our way back to the campsite where Eric already had a fire going.  Thank you, Mr. Mack!  Fionn, however, was more interested in water than fire at this point.  He decided to check out the faucet over by the bathrooms.  We decided to let him.  And capture it on film for some reason.  Parents are weird.

Actually, it's quite interesting to see the above picture because I am now detecting the beginnings of a mischievous grin on my son's face.  Sure enough, no more than one minute after the above picture was taken, Fionn jumped up in the air and came splashing down in the muddy puddle that was underneath the captivating water faucet.  

Normally, this would be par for the course.  After all, a little boy splashing through a puddle is not exactly a novel image.   But let's remember for a second that we are camping.  I don't have access to a washer or dryer.  Or, as it turned out, any other shoes for my kiddo.  Well, we did have some other shoes.  I'll get to that in a second.

The other thing you need to know is that the temperature was taking a steady dive toward...well, very cold.  At the time of Puddlegate, temps were hovering around 40 degrees.  Hat and coat weather for sure.  Definitely not wet sock weather. 

By the way, that is not a marshmallow on the skewer in the above picture.  That would be Fionn's very wet sock.  I will have you know that I DID pack some additional dry socks for Fionny.  Nevertheless, Conor still felt that the sock roast was necessary.  And, really, who am I to argue?  By the way, if you look closely at the above picture, you might spot something else that is noteworthy.  Fionn's footwear.  Yeah, so those are his "Coco Mama" (that's Cookie Monster in Fionn speak) slippers.  I brought them on a whim thinking his feet might get a little chilly at night in the tent.  Little did I know that those dang slippers would provide our son's only footwear for the next 12 hours until his shoes had a chance to dry.  Let's just say they are well broken in at this point.

Roasted socks were followed closely by roasted corn and roasted hot dogs.  Fionn had his very first campfire weiner!  I think it's safe to say that he was a big, big fan.  Cleaned his plate. 

The adults, however, got to enjoy a special treat.  Yummy steaks wrapped in bacon and prepared by Chef Eric Mack on the camping stove.  They were divine!  Why does food always taste so much better when you are camping?

This next picture doesn't really fit in anywhere in the narrative, but I just had to post it.  Check out this freaky hat, would you please?  And is our boy rocking it or what?

The hat was a gift from our neighbors who just spent the summer backpacking through Europe with their two kids (kinda makes a one night camping trip seem pretty lame, huh?).  I think it was purchased in Switzerland, but don't quote me on that.  Anyway, if you can get past the fact that it looks like a wolf died on our son's head, it's a pretty cool accessory!  And warm.  Very warm. 

After dinner we had the obligatory s'mores which were also a huge hit with The Kid.  Let's try to forget that he became covered in sticky marshmallow goo in about 2 seconds after I presented him with his first s'mores treat.  It was still worth it to watch him enjoy it.

It's about here that our night began to derail a little bit.  First of all, it continued to get colder and colder.  Mid-30s by the time we went to bed.  And it got pretty dark too.  Turns out it is reallllly dark outside with no street lamps or other means of electricity.  And reallllly dark is prreeeeeetty challenging when you are trying to get your 2-year-old ready for bed.  So let's review.  Lessons learned so far on this camping trip.

#1: Bring extra shoes for rambunctious child in the case that he steps in large, freezing cold puddle.

#2: Prepare child for bed before it becomes pitch black at your campsite. 
 
There.  I can already see that our second camping trip is going to go better.

Well, here's another one for you.

#3: Make sure that your tent is not set up on an incline.

Yeah.  About that.  Picture it.  You are snuggled in your tent, listening to the wind whipping around outside.  You feel a little cold so you shift ever so slightly on your Therma Rest camping pad.  And the sliding begins.  Down to the bottom of the tent.  Turns out Therma Rests are pretty slippery little suckers.  And being on the downward slope of a hill...well, it didn't exactly help matters.  Conor, even with his sensitive back, abandoned ship and ditched the Therma Rest halfway through the night.  Let's just say that it was not the most restful sleep we ever had.  Oh, except for Fionn.  Aside from a 2 am wake up where he needed his "Jojo and wah-wah," he slept like a champ in his little sleeping bag.  Go figure.

#4: Bring slip-on shoes for those late night bathroom trips.

Okay, so here's the thing.  I get up a LOT in the middle of the night to pee.  It's just how I'm built.  Small bladder, whatever.  Fortunately for me, the bathrooms were located right across the road from our campsite.  Money, right?  Sure, but not when you have to lace up your stinking HIKING BOOTS every time you have to go, stumbling bleary-eyed (because God knows I couldn't find my glasses) in the dark to the godforsaken bathrooms!  That got old after the third time (I told you -- small bladder!).  So I decided to improvise.  It was dark around our tent, right?  No one would be the wiser, right?  So out I stepped in my sock feet into the grass.  I padded around the tent to the corner that faced the woods.  (I'm a lady after all).  Squatted and did the deed right there.  Got up, padded back inside the tent.  Zipped it up behind me.  That's when I noticed that my feet were wet. 

Yep.  Peed on my socks.  Not a banner night for the Crimmins family.

But the following morning?  Well, that was a different story.  We woke up and ate a hearty breakfast which included Biscuits on a Stick, a favorite camp food of mine as a kid.  Basically, you just put a biscuit on a stick and roast it over the fire.  Add some honey, and it is DELISH! 

Following breakfast, we went for a good 5-mile hike.  It was the perfect fall day.  It warmed up into the high 60s.  The foliage was gorgeous -- bright reds dominated the forest.  Fionn, for the most part, was a total trooper.  He walked half the time, smacking more "blues" with his palm as you can see in the below picture.

And then, when he started to get cranky, he hopped into the pack on Conor's back.  Like so.

It was so much fun watching Fionn explore nature.  He especially loved the bridge that you can see in the below picture and could not WAIT to run across it.  We had a feeling it would be photo worthy so Conor ran to the other side so he could capture Fionn's trek across the bridge.  It was super cute.  Even better, I think, are the expressions of us adults watching from behind.  I just love the amusement on our faces as we watch Fionn run joyfully down the wooden planks.

About halfway across the bridge, our boy came to a dead stop.  I mean, SUDDEN.  He cocked his head and proclaimed, "Wah-wah!"  And then promptly fell to his stomach to inspect the stream that was running under the bridge.  Gotta love kids. 

One of the things I enjoyed most about our camping trip was getting to know Corrie's newish husband, Eric, even better.  I knew he was a great match for Corrie, but watching them together made it even more clear.  They are a fabulous team. 

And they were GREAT with our boy.  Neither seemed annoyed by his antics at all and really seemed to enjoy spending the weekend with him (and us).  Amazing!  As for Fionn, he loved his time with "Co-Co and Eric." 

And I definitely think camping is in his blood. 

Next time we'll both just have to come with twice as many socks.