Looking Back on Backpacking Trips CJ and I have Done: Shower Lake
CJ and I are going backpacking this summer.
"Big deal," you say. "You do that every summer."
This year's trip is a bigger deal. Here's why:
Family photos..
Our first real backpacking trip happened in August of 2012, an awesome 10 mile round trip hike from Carson Pass to Shower Lake with CJ's Boy Scout troop. It was a trip I had done a few times in life before CJ was born. It has my favorite campsite in the whole world.... because this is the view.
That's Lake Tahoe behind CJ on the left side of the photo. My brother and I sat on that ledge in 1997 and watched a lighting storm roll across the lake. It was the best fireworks show you could imagine.
CJ handled the trip so easily I realized I had made a mistake waiting so long to get started backpacking. He could have done that same trip a couple years sooner. The only complaint from him was the used garage sale pack I bought him didn't fit well where the shoulder straps went over the top of his shoulders and behind his neck. His complaint was legitimate and I knew he would need a better pack before we could really get going.
"Big deal," you say. "You do that every summer."
This year's trip is a bigger deal. Here's why:
- We're going to try to do 300+ miles and stay out for 21 days... Stink Factor: Extreme.
- Unlike past years, where I had hiked some or all of the route before CJ was born, I've never hiked nor even seen any of this year's trail.
- This may be our last hurrah. CJ will be a senior in the fall. In fact, he proudly announced when I got home tonight, that as of 3 P.M. this afternoon, he IS A SENIOR! Haha... He'll be graduating high school before next summer. I figure all bets are off for him going backpacking with me after this one. Anything I get together after this is a bonus.
Family photos..
Our first real backpacking trip happened in August of 2012, an awesome 10 mile round trip hike from Carson Pass to Shower Lake with CJ's Boy Scout troop. It was a trip I had done a few times in life before CJ was born. It has my favorite campsite in the whole world.... because this is the view.
That's Lake Tahoe behind CJ on the left side of the photo. My brother and I sat on that ledge in 1997 and watched a lighting storm roll across the lake. It was the best fireworks show you could imagine.
CJ handled the trip so easily I realized I had made a mistake waiting so long to get started backpacking. He could have done that same trip a couple years sooner. The only complaint from him was the used garage sale pack I bought him didn't fit well where the shoulder straps went over the top of his shoulders and behind his neck. His complaint was legitimate and I knew he would need a better pack before we could really get going.
The Dana Designs backpack I bought myself new in 1995 and was still wearing was bomb proof. Haha... too bad it weighed like 8 pounds with nothing in it. But CJ was getting new stuff first.
Later in 2012, CJ got an MSR Whisperlite International multi fuel stove for his birthday, and a new pack for Christmas that should last him many years.
Link to the stove.
Link to the pack.
The trip to Shower Lake had another great element. We were camped at nearly 10,000' elevation on Carson Pass during the August meteor shower. We cowboy'd it, which means we slept on the ground without a tent, to watch the stars zing by, and got to see the International Space Station go overhead as well. This was super cool. I had done the same thing from nearly the same spot when I was a scout 30+ years earlier.
That trip wasn't all roses though. There were early indicators Boy Scouts wouldn't be the primary mechanism for our future backpacking trips. The scoutmaster and I didn't have complimentary philosophies on how to create competent, confident woodsmen. His philosophy didn't bother me until he told me mine was bothering him; I was interacting too much with the boys. Our parental role, he said, was to be like tourists in a car at a wild animal park, watching the animals interact. I have a broad view of leadership but I couldn't agree with his description as appropriate leadership for a group of boys 11 to 13 years old. I could only see myself employing that level of leadership with a group of older teens who had spent many years together in the woods. The fractured skull I sustained at boy scout camp when I was 13, and the subsequent week I spent in Reno ICU cause me to strongly believe his style of leadership has safety ramifications I can't accept. On top of it all, I just enjoy being a "coach" style leader who is actively involved in the activity. I didn't argue with him in front of the boys but I had to just walk away without responding to avoid doing so.
By the spring of 2013, it seemed clear the scoutmaster still didn't dig me. My suggestions seemed to make him angry. When I inquired about being an assistant scoutmaster, he seemed to be trying to think of ways to say no. I knew a backpacking trip with me as a primary leader couldn't be a scout troop event that summer. It would have to be just CJ and I. Which was great, really. I started hatching a plan to hike a big chunk of the 160 mile Tahoe Rim Trail... the topic of my next blog post.
Later in 2012, CJ got an MSR Whisperlite International multi fuel stove for his birthday, and a new pack for Christmas that should last him many years.
Link to the stove.
Link to the pack.
The trip to Shower Lake had another great element. We were camped at nearly 10,000' elevation on Carson Pass during the August meteor shower. We cowboy'd it, which means we slept on the ground without a tent, to watch the stars zing by, and got to see the International Space Station go overhead as well. This was super cool. I had done the same thing from nearly the same spot when I was a scout 30+ years earlier.
That trip wasn't all roses though. There were early indicators Boy Scouts wouldn't be the primary mechanism for our future backpacking trips. The scoutmaster and I didn't have complimentary philosophies on how to create competent, confident woodsmen. His philosophy didn't bother me until he told me mine was bothering him; I was interacting too much with the boys. Our parental role, he said, was to be like tourists in a car at a wild animal park, watching the animals interact. I have a broad view of leadership but I couldn't agree with his description as appropriate leadership for a group of boys 11 to 13 years old. I could only see myself employing that level of leadership with a group of older teens who had spent many years together in the woods. The fractured skull I sustained at boy scout camp when I was 13, and the subsequent week I spent in Reno ICU cause me to strongly believe his style of leadership has safety ramifications I can't accept. On top of it all, I just enjoy being a "coach" style leader who is actively involved in the activity. I didn't argue with him in front of the boys but I had to just walk away without responding to avoid doing so.
By the spring of 2013, it seemed clear the scoutmaster still didn't dig me. My suggestions seemed to make him angry. When I inquired about being an assistant scoutmaster, he seemed to be trying to think of ways to say no. I knew a backpacking trip with me as a primary leader couldn't be a scout troop event that summer. It would have to be just CJ and I. Which was great, really. I started hatching a plan to hike a big chunk of the 160 mile Tahoe Rim Trail... the topic of my next blog post.
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