Last night! This day, and the day before, were very leisurely. We were going back through where we'd been before, and only short portages. No getting lost, no weather adventures. Very relaxing. Philip was kind of hoping for a fishing rod or a nature book, or something of that sort, I think...but I just loved how relaxed things were. Nothing left to hope for but rain to send us home with. (Why did I want rain for Saturday?? Even I still don't know!)
We love lunch time! By the time we got to the campsite we were all very tired...even though we hadn't done much...so we all crashed on the grass for a bit once we were done munching our lunch.
Sigh. Last night. Sigh. Time for sitting down and rehashing the whole trip and dragging it out in your mind while you can! It was kinda chilly so we just huddled around and chilled while we could.
Relaxing!!
An important thing to do at every campsite before it gets too dark is to find a "food pack tree". After a few times the kids got right into it...
Here are some food pack hanging instructions:
(because EVERYONE needs and wants to know this) :p
The first step finding a tree that has a sturdy branch up high enough, but not TOO high, with very little or no growth under/around it, but a strong tree near enough to tie the other end to later. Once the ideal tree is found--improvising or settling with less does happen on occasion on "less than ideal" campsites. (The sturdiness of the branch is less important as the food pack gets lighter.) The next step is throwing the rock over the branch--with the rope attached still, of course.
By the end of the trip we could easily judge which branch we'd be able to reach with the stone and rope, and which branches were just a bit beyond. Tying the rock tightly to the rope is very important too, since it needs to stay on until you can reach it again.
Once the rope is over the tree, it must be carefully worked down to be within arms reach--only rarely does it come down clear right away. This is done by carefully sending a wave up the rope, and if it is done gently enough and no other complications occur the rock will stay on.
After that you're home free--tie the non rock end to the pack, have a loop after that, put the rock end(with rock removed) through the loop, and pull it up! (Full packs need two people to get it going!)
We don't pull it up all the way, but leave it down a bit, then find another tree a ways away and tie it there. We were mostly worried about racoons, mice and chipmunks...so we didn't always get it up 10 feet high and 5 feet from the trunk, but we always made sure there weren't any little branches nearby for them to leap off of.
Philip had a made a fancy rope basket to put the food pack in, that way the strain was evenly spread through the pack, and when it was full it didn't get the straps ripped off when we heaved it up. Worked like a charm!
1 comment:
Well, it sounds like you had a great time. I can imagine you had mixed feelings when it was over and I am sure the kids are still talking about it a lot!
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