• hard work and determination needed
• provides a sense of accomplishment and togetherness

A successful family backpacking trip requires careful preparation and hard work, but the benefits of traveling in the wilderness are tremendous.

Before you pack check and doublecheck that you have all the necessary gear and that it all works. It helps to get a list of needed equipment and look over it at home and again just before you leave the trailhead. The weight taken needs to be balanced against having enough equipment to be safe and well supplied. (It is very easy to go overboard in the weight department). Be careful here, because two miles up the trail when your strength starts giving out it is very difficult to lighten the pack weight.

There is not doubt backpacking is hard work. Like a lot of things in life though, hard work and determination are required to accomplish something worthwhile.

The strength, character, and drive of all participants tends to be revealed in a tough hike up a steep trail. (I won't say how many times I asked my 17 year old daughter to hold up so I can rest on our backpack trip last week).

It is very important to stop once in a while for fifteen minutes to a half hour to rest and drink and eat. This will allow you to enjoy the trip more and actually provides you with stamina that probably will keep you going longer and almost as fast than if you hiked straight through. You will arrive at your destination feeling much stronger after frequent breaks that if you stretched yourself to the limit getting there without resting.

Wilderness flora and fauna are interesting by themselves, but when combined with the beauty of the landscape and the drama added by storms and potential nighttime visitors the result is that wilderness travel is anything but boring. (my last trip had an exciting element when we discovered four piles of bear scat on the trail only a few hundred yards from the lake where we planned to camp. A loud bang! in the night woke me out of sound sleep and I prepared to confront a bear in our food cache, until I realized it was a beaver slapping its tail on the lake).

We are all human and need the room to make a mistake now and again. On our last trip this category was clearly mine (see if you agree). My daughter Amy had a second fishing pole and reel out of the car and ready to put in her pack and I told her no, we already had one, and that our backpacks were already too heavy. The next morning after catching a couple of fish, the nut holding the spinning loop came loose on our only reel and flew into the lake. After that I could cast but had to retrieve the line by hand, which does not have as much sport to it.

My penance for this stupidity is taking Amy on a fishing only trip next week to one of the hottest fishing spots in Colorado. (a punishment I can handle. I will have two or three extra reels along this time).

There is no hiding the sense of accomplishment younger family members feel after having the physical and mental strength of character to carry all they need up to a wilderness and stay for a while. The simpling down of life that wilderness travel entails builds character.

Years go by awful quick - kids grow to adults and people change. A few days of companionship in the wilderness are priceless - one of those events that freezes time for a while and allows us to enjoy who we are as a family, together, at this moment.

Don't put it off. Plan an outdoor camping or hiking or backpacking trip now. Time is too short and precious not to.