damien's blog

Despite the fact that Nova Scotia isn't exactly a hiking/backpacking mecca, this summer has still brought us two significant outdoor milestones: The longest multi-day trip our family has done to date, and the longest daily mileage our family has ever done backpacking. I will be the first to admit that living in a land with rather flat terrain probably contributed significantly to both of those achievements. That being said, we have been very impressed with our family's ability to thrive on these treks.

Cape Chignecto

The first milestone was realized this past June when we did the Cape Chignecto trail, a 50 km loop along the coast of the Bay of Fundy. We did this trek over four days, and it pushed a number of boundaries for us:

• We got much better at camp management. Learning how to efficiently setup camp and take down camp on a daily basis with three kids is a challenge. We were able to dial-in the process much better than we have done in the past giving us more confidence for longer trips in the future. Along with this, the children are now able to (mostly) pack their own packs in an efficient manner which makes things MUCH easier. On past trips we had to help them which made packing-up camp a much more lengthy/complicated process. Now all I have to say is, "Ok, we're packing-up now" and they know what to do.
• We are becoming more comfortable with hiking for long periods of time. In the past, we used to be concerned with the campsite being in a beautiful spot. Now that doesn't matter quite as much to us (although it is still desirable). Instead we enjoy the beautiful places as we hike and setup camp for eating and sleeping. On this past trip on one particular day, we hiked until supper time, found a beautiful beach to cook supper at, then once supper was done we continued to hike some more (until 9:00 pm) where we setup camp and went to bed.
• We are learning to better deal with adverse conditions. This trip had some of the worst bugs we have ever encountered. Black flies, mosquitoes, and noseeums were out in full force for the entire duration of the trip. Except for when it rained. And it rained for two of the four days. I won't say that we handled both of those situations very easily, but we did handle them, and we survived, and we all came out the other side satisfied with the trip. We learned a lot, and have since made some adjustments to our systems to better handle those things in the future. The key word here is "future". It is important to take these opportunities and learn from them instead of be put-off by them.
• We were able to sustain an average mileage of 7.5 miles a day. This is a new record for us. It was interesting to see the progression of physical adaptation to the process: On day one people were really tired by the end of the day. On day two, people were sore from the previous day. On day three bodies were recovering and by day four people didn't really notice their packs anymore. Our experience with short term backpacking is that the worst day physically is the second day. After that things get better.

Bluff Wilderness Trail

The second milestone was realized this past August when we did a long overnight trip on the Bluff Trail in Nova Scotia. It wasn't our intention to break any records, as we had several different options for loops to choose from on the trail. Once we were on the trail we decided - after seeing our progress - that we would do the outer loop so we could hit a bunch of lakes along the way.

It ended up being a lot of fun for the kids as we were able to hit a lake for swimming about once every couple of hours. The day was hot, the terrain was so-so, but the lakes made up for it and gave the kids the motivation they needed to keep moving. In the end we discovered we had done 18 miles over the course of two days, putting us at an average pace of 9 miles a day.

On the second trip we also experienced an adverse situation, but it was not one we could have anticipated. When we returned to our car at the trailhead, we discovered that our car had been broken-into. The passenger side window was smashed. My wallet, our smartphone, and Renee's handbag were gone. The front dash was damaged from an attempt at stealing the stereo. The money we had planned to use to take the kids out for supper was nowhere to be found. It was 6pm, and everyone was tired and hungry.

Needless to say, we recovered and all is well. Looking back I am realizing that the big thing we were robbed of was our time of reflection. Whenever we return from a multi-day trip we go out for a meal, relax, and talk about the weekend. It is a wonderful time to process the highs and the lows and talk about how we would like to do things different/better next time. This time, that process failed to happen. Everything was overshadowed by the negative circumstances and an overwhelming desire to cancel credit cards.

When I go backpacking, I prepare as best as I can for the challenges that I know may come our way. Then, when challenges do happen I do the best I can to deal with them using the gear and knowledge we bring. This is actually part of the fun for me, if there were no challenges, then a backpacking trip would be dull. I appreciate the experiences we gain, as I know they will translate into better trips for us in the future... and hopefully help us better handle challenging situations that life throws our way.

Things are finally starting to settle down a little since we returned from our trip this past week.

The final three nights of our stay were with a wonderful family we met right here on ADVENTUREinPRGRESS. Thanks Jeremy and Amy for your wonderful hospitality, and the great hike on Sunday evening to Scout Falls in the Uinta National Forest!

To read more about the other places we visited and the people who hosted us, be sure to check-out Renee's posts on FIMBY here and here and my recent post on the first five days.

Elsewhere on the Web

When we were at OR we got to visit the Nemo booth (Nemo is a outdoors gear manufacturer based out of New Hampshire). They make really cool gear, some of which we have been testing as part of a (soon-to-be-published) series of family backpacking tent reviews for Backpacking Light. We got to meet Connie, share with her our tent experiences, and - because they are so receptive to user feedback - they will actually be making a small design change based on our feedback! Connie also wrote a post on the Nemo blog about meeting us. Thanks Connie.

Getting into OR wouldn't have been possible for us without the help from the wonderful folks at Backpacking Light. Thank you! Be sure to check-out the OR articles that will be publishing this week, one of which was written by us. Not a BPL member yet? Check-out how you can get a discount on a one-year subscription.

For the past week, Toe Salad has been featuring video interviews with all kinds minimalist footwear companies. I had a lot of fun doing those, it was really cool to finally meet a lot of people whom I had only ever communicated with via email. More videos will be release this week too!

While we were on our trip Brian Green published an interview with me on his blog. The topic? Minimalist footwear (of course!). Brian is a family man, a lightweight backpacker, and one of the contributors to the Ultralight Backpacking Bootcamp which is underway as we speak. Brian's blog is a great resource for backpackers.

While we were gone Heather at Unplugged Sunday wrote a post talking a bit about our trip. Stay tuned this week for Renee's next post over there, it is going to be a good one (or so she tells me).

Giveaways

Last week we launched a giveaway for a family-sized set of Light My Fire sporks. I am pleased to announce that the winner of the giveaway was Tom Hart. Thanks everyone who participated!

Just because you didn't win doesn't mean that you've lost your chance for a prize just yet. We have another giveaway for you! Little Life has donated a toddler-sized backpack for us to give to one lucky reader. This thing is small, and cute. 

The picture looks pinker than the pack actually is.
The color is more like a light purple than a pink.

To be eligible to win, all you have to do is leave a comment. In your comment, state what you plan on putting in the backpack if you are the winner. You have until the end of next Saturday (August 20th) to leave your comments. We look forward to hearing from you!

Coming to you live from the OR Press Room. Hoping to stay focused long enough to publish this before Happy Hour starts. Free beer. Lots of free beer. You'll understand if I cut this short (smile).

Yesterday was an incredibly busy day, and today has been much of the same. Busy in a good way though, as we are really enjoying ourselves here. Here are a few nuggets we thought might be of interest to some of you...

If you are interested in getting out and hiking or backpacking with little kids, Little Life
is a brand that may be worth looking into. They make backpacks for carrying kids
(one of the lightest weight models on the market) as well as tiny little backpacks for the kids
themselves to carry. The kids backpacks are incredibly cute, and incredibly tiny - get
them started young!

Just a heads up - we're going to be giving away one of these sweet packs in the coming days. So stay tuned. 

There is like a bazillion energy bar companies here. All the usual big names and lots of little companies.
This is one of the brands we found yesterday whose mission and product we really like.
Olympia Granola is a Minnesota based, family run company.
We make most of the food for our treks but this might be a good option for families
who don't have the time or desire to do so. They have free shipping right now for a limited time. 

Our family has used Light My Fire brand Sporks for years.
They are cheap and lightweight. When we bought ours originally there weren't many colors available.
I'm sure you can guess what color Brienne would choose now if given the chance (yes they come in pink).
We've had a couple break (they aren't indestructible) and at that point we upgraded to titanium
(Stronger, not cheaper). But we still own three plastic sporks and use them nearly every week.

Now it's your lucky day because we scored a set of five sporks to give to one lucky reader. 

We want to share some of our good finds with you all and have you benefit somewhat from our trip to OR. 

If you would like to win these sporks please leave a comment saying what your favorite family outdoor activity is. We'll randomly draw one winner next week on Friday, August 12th. Will mail to Canada or the United States.

We have another giveaway coming your way and also some product reviews/giveaways at FIMBY next week. Renee's cool "natural living" finds from OR.