Journey

We hiked Mount Washington last weekend. The highest mountain in the eastern United States. It's nothing compared to the western mountains but we did hike an elevation gain of 4,000+ feet and spent nine hours on the trail, including a lunch stop at the top.

Top of Washington with our friend John Sifferman

The kids and I were tired the next day so we slept in and took the rest of the day slowly. This routine, a day to allow mommy and kids to start the week slow after a busy weekend, is just our latest schedule change in a continual finding our way on this path to an adventurous family life.

It's one of our goals to be adventuring outdoors all year round. Damien works a regular weekday job. Come the weekend we head to the mountains for one-day-a-week hike and spend another day at home taking care of house and yard maintenance and sometimes getting together with friends in the evening.

Life is full. The summer especially so. We started this new Monday routine as an answer to my request for more downtime in my schedule and to ensure our children get adequate rest and unstructured play time after long hikes. Damien is energized from hiking long distances. I'm energized physically but emotionally I need a certain amount of "relax time" at home to feel recharged.

This is why we homeschool, and more fundamentally why I'm a full time homemaker. So that Monday morning we are not rushing out of the house but taking it easy, even after the normal summer school break is over. We homeschool year round so summer doesn't bring vast changes to our schedule.

We homeschool to give our family the maximum amount of freedom to follow our interests, collectively and individually.

When we started our homeschooling journey, many years ago (we decided to homeschool before our children were even born), we were attracted to this lifestyle because of the families we knew who were homeschooling their children. Interesting families, with interesting children doing interesting things together.

At the time we didn't imagine hiking and being outdoors as much as we are, well maybe Damien did but didn't let me in on his secret. But we did imagine being able to choose our own schedule and meet our children's unique educational needs. Right now the children and I need a down day during the usual work week in order to keep the pace we do with Daddy on the weekend. Homeschooling allows us that freedom.

It let's us tell our eleven year old daughter, who likes sleeping in and reading, that come Monday morning (or whatever day we choose) she can do that - to her heart's content. But come Saturday morning we're going to be up and at 'em quite early to hit the trail - spending the day hiking together as a family.

Freedom to choose adventure. Freedom to choose curriculum. Freedom to choose the way we want to live. This is why we homeschool.

(If you are interested in more homeschooling related posts you can check out our homeschooling resource page at FIMBY.)

We just finished another great book as part of our regular reading together routine: A Long Trek Home - 4000 Miles by Boot, Raft, and Ski by Erin McKittrick.

"From Puget Sound to the Bering Sea ---
Four thousand miles along the edge of the Pacific ---
A world reduced to just two small packs and the next one hundred yards..."

In 2007 Erin and Hig embarked on an incredible journey which started from their home in Seattle, Washington and ended in the Alaskan Alutian Islands - 4000 miles of rugged coast adventure using ultra-light backpacking techniques, packrafts, and skis. This book is the story of their year-long journey to "better understand the interplay between human communities, ecosystems, and natural resources" along the northern Pacific coast.

This book is not a how-to book, biography, or a travel guide. It is a collection of observations, stories, and reflections of their journey as it progressed through each of the seasons. Part adventure story, part environmental assessment, part nature guide, and part love story, there is something there for everyone. We were treated to beautiful descriptions of interactions with nature and wildlife. We saw how human activity impacts that wildlife. We visited remote peoples and villages. We learned how this young couple's relationship progressed from being young urban city dwellers to a family living in a yurt (inaccessible by roads) in a small Alaskan town.

One other thing we really like about this book was the "immersive" experience that we were able to have by viewing other media from the journey. In 2007, when Hig and Erin were originally on this journey, I followed their progress in a series of articles, photos, and videos on BackpackingLight. To read this book together and then go back and show the family those photos and videos really helped round-out the experience. One example is the story of a bear encounter they experienced in the spring. To read the account and experience what was going through Erin's head at the time, then to actually see the event recorded on video was really cool:

To immerse yourself a little more in their Alaskan world, there are lots of resources available on Hig and Erin's website Ground Truth Trekking.

Book Giveaway

Now that we have finished reading this book, we want to pass it on to one lucky commenter. All you have to do to qualify to win is leave a comment. The only thing we ask is that when you are finished reading it, please give it away to someone else.

The cut-off date for being eligible to win is Sunday April 11, 2010. Good luck!

Update 2010-04-15: Congratulations to Chris O'Connor (a.k.a. @GrumpyWookie) for winning the giveaway! Please come back here and comment once you have finished reading it to let us know what you think!

What a week we've had here in Maine. An incredible (and disappointing - where is the snow??) amount of rain. A work-visit from my parents and celebrating Laurent's 9th birthday. But before this week hit we started it all off with our winter backpacking trip to Camden Hills State Park.

Damien wrote a brief trip report earlier this week but now it's my turn to share photos of our beautiful weekend and a few thoughts.

Trip Specs

Our destination for this trip was the log cabin ski shelter at the aforementioned Camden Hills State Park here in Maine. The shelter is not advertised you just have to know about it and reserve in advance for overnight stays. We stumbled on this cabin almost three years ago and since finding this treasure we are always on the look out for other great places to stay like this. Reserving the shelter is incredibly affordable at $3.10 per person per night.

The shelter is situated 2 miles from the main parking lot on a multi-use trail which is fairly flat and easy to hike. From the cabin you can access several of the park's trails, most of which lead to or connect with trails that reach the beautiful views atop Mt. Megunticook. The cabin serves as a great home base for a weekend of easy, beautiful and not too remote wilderness exploring.

I could continue to give a synopsis of Camden Hills State Park and its trails but I'd rather talk about our overall experience (the photos will tell the hiking stories); the things we changed from last year and what we took home from the weekend.

Getting Better at Doing This

Last year's trip was our first time ever backpacking. We backpacked again late last summer and the combination of those experiences together with further research gave us a few things to try for this trip.

• Less clothes. It's so easy to overpack in this regard. We were very fortunate to have avoided the rain that started to pour a couple days after we returned home. Hiking in that cold, wet weather would have been miserable (talk about cabin fever!) and required us to pack rain gear. As it was we didn't take any. Nor did we take our really cold weather gear since the temperatures were very mild, hovering around freezing.
• Better packs. Last year I was so sore from the pack I had. It was simply an ill fitting (though well made) pack for my petite stature. Damien, bless his heart - that man does everything possible to make me comfortable, sold that pack and bought me new one. It's a bit smaller (yeah! I don't have to carry as much weight) but fits me so comfortably. This year I felt I could have walked much farther with that pack on my back and I didn't experience any soreness like last year's hip and shoulder bruising.
• Shared meals. This year we not only hiked again with my folks but also our friends Renee and John Sifferman (& their awesome dog Ronin). We shared breakfasts and suppers and each family was on their own for lunches. We divvied up the shared meals which especially saved us time in packing (making double of one meal is easier than making 2 separate meals) and also gave everyone a break from cooking during the trip.

• The more the merrier. This wasn't something we necessarily learned from previous trips but was an opportunity we have wanted for sometime; to enjoy the outdoors with other people, in addition to our cozy five-some. The outdoors is something we love. Things you love you want to share with others. What a treat to share this awesome family experience with both my parents and the Sifferman's. So many wonderful conversations, dreams, ideas, physical work, great food and lots of rest - all experienced together. Getting outdoors with like minded folks - highly recommended!

Looking Back: Moving Forward

On a more personal note (look away guys if discussing menstruation makes you uneasy) this was the first backpacking/camping trip in a whole year that I haven't had to deal with my period. What a nice break! A revelation less intimate but just as important is that I am "getting into" this so much more. I am not just along for the ride anymore because my husband loves this. I love this!

Sure, I don't particularly love the work of getting ready (which Damien does most of) but you know what, life is work. We're just choosing to spend those work hours in support of our values.

Living according to our values. That was the huge take home message of the weekend. We value family. The weekend had lots of that; three generations. We value hospitality & community building, did lots of that too. We value the outdoors. Well of course that was the major purpose of the trip, actually getting into nature. We value creativity. Oh boy, you don't even want to know the crazy ideas we talked about (actually you do but you'll just have to wait and see). The possibilities to create partnerships, livelihoods and living spaces. We value our faith. It's our faith that draws us outdoors and together with other people in the first place. We value real-life, physical work. Carrying your share of the weight, feeling your tired muscles at the end of the day but also feeling fulfilled and fit, what a fantastic way to go to sleep (at 8:30pm). We value good food (real food, prepared at home food). We ate so well, what a blessing. We do have other values but the weekend was rich in experiences that highlighted the most important ones.

Living an inspired and inspiring life. That was the other predominant theme of the weekend for me. Which is intertwined with living according to your values because 1) people who live authentically are inspiring and 2) you need to be inspired (and a little stubborn and idealistic) to live authentically.

Much of the weekend was spent talking and listening; dreaming and scheming. I came home from last weekend inspired to do something about it. To make changes on the small level that affect change on the big level. In short, I came home inspired. And to think I didn't have to pay big bucks, leave my family and travel to some overpriced hotel (conveniently located in a concrete jungle next to the airport) to attend a retreat, workshop or girly blog conference to feel this way. I just needed to be outdoors, physically exerting myself, with my family and friends, sharing conversation and meals. I think there's a lesson in here. (You'll find that John talked about these same ideas in his reflections from the weekend. Great minds think alike!)

Right now the lesson for me is about putting our values and all the things we hope to accomplish with our lives into action. Putting our daily planner and our pocketbooks into where we say our heart is.

Hard work? Yes. But living the life you want is good work, life changing work, family building work. Kind of like backpacking.