Camping with Christian

During the summer, Christian and I have had a few opportunities to hike together.  On our road trip, we hiked the side of one of Mt Adams' foothills, a ski slope in Park City, Utah, and Multnomah Falls.  He's done well every time.  Christian is not a great athlete (yet), but this is no surprise given his parentage.  But he is pretty tough for a 6 year-old.  

So when I called my best friend Sean and proposed a camping trip with the boys, I had a hike in mind.  I didn't know which one, but I wanted to hike an

d camp in the middle of nowhere.  Sean proposed the Molalla River Recreation Corridor, and that's where we went on Friday.  I took off from work at 3, and at 4 we were in the car heading to Sean's house.  We packed the gear into Sean's van, and took off.  3 boys 8, 6, and 5, and 2 dads who had never camped with just their kids before.  

We wandered around a bit first trying to find the right spot to park the car and hike a mile into camp.  

That 

effort failed.  

So we

 settled on a spot on the side of the road that was an actual camp site and started to settle in.  

The boys went to the river and threw so

me rocks.  I started boiling water for mac and cheese.  Sean got the water for boiling hot dogs ready.  Dinner was yummy.  We had a great camp fire, roasted marshmallows, and talked until late at night.

And you know that most fun part of the trip?  Getting to know Sean's kids.  They're great kids - fun, smart, nice, energetic, happy.  Eric helped me put up my tent, Djeryd and I had discussions about Star Wars and books he was reading, and he had questions, questions, questions.  I love to answer questions.  When Eric called me Unc

le Tom I felt pretty special.

Christian and I had lots of fun, but he spent lots of time exploring on his own - he'd rather figure something out than ask a question.  Making some new friends in the woods was wonderful.  Sean and I got some time to talk, too.  We hadn't had a slow opportunity like that in years - more than 10 years.  Far too long.

In the morning, we packed up camp, and started up the trail to Table Rock.  It's 4.5 miles one way.  We got 3 miles in and with 1 knee acting up and a kid getting tired, prudence was the greater part of valor.  We decided to turn around.  2 of the kids walked the whole way.  The littlest guy was carried off and on for about 2 miles coming home.  

The views were great, the trail was nice, and the forest out there is so quiet and calm.  So much more of the world was that way until we got engines and power lines and roads.  I love the woods, and will return often, I think.

We're going somewhere again in 2 weeks - hopefully it will be just as fun.  And you'll see a post.