My son, Max, is 14. Every year I go on umpteen trips. We’ve done a few day hikes, been to a few national parks, but I have never gone backpacking with him. I’ve heard many stories of parents who tortured their kids with arduous trips and effectively killed any future interest they may have had in the outdoors. So, I figured I’d wait for him to ask me to take him on his First Backpacking Trip.

This last year he has been sitting next to me as I edit images and started asking to go to some of the places he sees on my monitor, so I agreed, and we waited for the right conditions of nice weather and no smoke!

We recruited three friends and headed up to the Park Butte Lookout for the night. It was fun packing all the tents and gear, food and water. His pack weighed 26 pounds, which seemed like a good start. We didn’t expect to be able to stay in the Lookout, as it would be a busy night on the Labor Day Weekend, so we weren’t disappointed when it was taken.

We set up camp right down the hill from the lookout and waited for the sky to clear.

There were more than 100 people who made the journey to the Lookout, about 20 of them carrying big packs with the hope to spend the night there. In the end I think there were at least 8 people sleeping there on Saturday night. We were better off below in the tents!

The boys spent some time roaming, some time zoning in the tent…later the sky got nice and the clouds lifted just as sunset arrived.

I have taken many people backpacking for the first time and whether they enjoy it or not is based on weather and bugs. We wound up with great weather and no bugs, the boys zoomed up the mountains with the packs (note to self: make them carry a lot more next time!) and all were happy.

Next morning came under clear skies and captured some nice light on the way down.

The trials and tribulations of the trail were soon forgotten over mounds of French Toast, hash browns, bacon, sausage and eggs.

Already planning our next adventure…