Mirror Lake

In July, I took my first backpacking trip since college. Unlike that trip, I also had the pleasure of taking my girls out on their first backpacking trip. Every year, the Rice's do a small hike (about 2 miles in with about 500 feet of elevation gain), and then camp at this picturesque view of a small lake that was about 1 mile in circumference. I took as much on my back as I could manage (about 50 pounds of equipment), and then disbursed the remaining equipment among the other 3 (Eliza had about 15 pounds, Clara about 10, and Leona about 5). We had a great time - at one point, Clara and I got a bit behind, so we worked on catching up to the rest of the group. By the time we caught up to them, we ran in this gaggle of children: Leona (6), Gabe Rice (6), Sophie Koenig (5), Daniel Call (8), and Oliver Koenig (8). They were just blissfully walking around the lake, with no idea where to go and where to stop and no grown ups with them - they had been alone for about 20 minutes by  the time we caught them. Gabe, yes the 6 year old, was trying to tell us where our campsite would be. Fortunately, the Koenigs caught up with me and we were able to follow our way around the lake to find an awesome camping spot. A rock landing ~25 above the crystal clear water. We went with the Rices, Koenigs, the Call men and Hannah, and the Murdochs (sans Inger) - all the kids had a buddy to match up with, although Clara was the girl her age, but she had a great time. On the way up, there was very little complaining - they were all having the time of their lives hiking through the woods with their friends - this was an unforgettable tripe for them. 

To qualify and be able to go on this trip, the Roueche family rules required each kid to do a "nature pee" in our backyard 3 times during the week. Unfortunately, nature pees in our townhouse "backyard" consisted of them squatting between the trashcans against the house so neighbors couldn't see them peeing. Each girl successfully qualified with a day to spare, and when we got to the campsite, they had no problems finding a great rock to lean against and they stuck together as a group as they peed - proud moment for a dad.  

 

Leona tried her hand at fishing on the trip, she wasn't quite patient enough to catch anything, but she did a great job learning to cast the rod, thanks to Melinda's coaching. Most of the time, she ran around with her buddies Hannah and Addie, and then playing tag with all the other kids. She had a great attitude and was enthusiastic, as she always is. I give her 5 stars and would recommend taking her on another backpacking trip. 

This was us when we were packed up and about to hike back to the car. Because of the late night and early morning, there was a bit more griping on the way back to the car, but I couldn't have asked for a better attitude (I took a turn carrying each of their backpacks during the hike back). We all survived and this was the highlight of our summer. We missed Mom, but she enjoyed her alone time with Tim.