Family Wilds

Top 5 Family Wilds Adventures of 2011

We started FamilyWilds.com in May of 2011.  After seven months of chronicling our outdoor adventures with our daughter, now 22-months-old, we can't help but feel like we've already had a lifetime worth of fun and learning, especially when it comes to keeping our toddler actively engaged outside.  We even became ambassadors for Nature Rocks and Deuter.  We're very fortunate to have each other and to each have the itch for being outside and having fun.  There are many mornings our daughter will wake up from a good night's sleep or from a nap and request to go for a hike.  What more could we say about family wilding in 2011 than that? 

Well, we'll try to say a little more.  Here are our top 5 family adventures of 2011.  It was a really fun year so we had to leave a lot of the fun off of the list.  We spent a great deal of our outside time in and around Nashville at parks and trails (Percy Warner, Edwin Warner, Shelby Bottoms, Beaman, Bells Bend, Bledsoe Creek, etc.), at the Nashville Zoo and festivals (Pride, Bluegrass Jamboree, Tomato Art, etc).  Nashville is a constant adventure, so we felt justified in leaving it off the list and mostly concentrating on non-Nashville outdoor events. 

5. Climb Nashville

We are not what anyone would mistake as expert climbers.  We've only come into climbing recently as a means of finding another activity to do together.  We like hiking, camping, etc., but this would be something fun, different and interesting for our daughter to see us doing together.  When she was 18-months-old a staff member at our climbing gym, Climb Nashville, handed us a kid harness and pointed us to the kid walls.  She loved it, and we've been taking her back fairly frequently since then.  We quickly figured out how to keep the climbing gym fun for a toddler, found a great pair of kid climbing shoes in the Evolv Venga, and decided to add a helmet and harness to her gear closet.  The next year should be full of a lot of climbing...well, as long as she continues to enjoy it anyway!

4. Florida

We took a summer trip down to Florida to visit Nea's side of the family.  Our daughter had a full week of fun in the Florida sun with her cousin, just three months older than her.  We played outside, went swimming in the pool, played at the beach, and hiked an awesome riverside trail at Hillsborough State Park.  We can't wait for our next trip down there!

3. Texas

This year we took our daughter down to Texas for the first time.  Pablo's family is from Austin, so we flew down for about a week to be with our family there.  Not only did we play in and around Austin, but we even headed down to Gruene, TX for a few days on the Guadalupe River with family.  This was the trip our daughter swam in a river, rode in a kayak, ate tacos and rode a train all for the first time.  It's been too long since our trip down, so we're heading back down there in January!

2. Camping

We waited far too long to take our first family camping trip, but at 14-months-old we packed her and some gear up for a few nights under the stars with great friends.  The Taylors, have a son who is just a few weeks younger than our daughter.  We camped at Foster Falls in Savage Gulf Natural Area in Southeast TN.  We went on some amazing hikes, saw some amazing sites and had a lot of fun outside playtime.  We had so much fun that we went to Fall Creek Falls just a few weeks later for more camping!  As soon as it warms up just enough, we're heading back out for some more.

1. North Carolina

Our number one Family Wilds adventure of 2011 was our recent trip to NC.  It was a very short trip, but we packed it full of spontaneous fun.  We left with absolutely no plans.  The trip up to the Boone area was filled with stops at a giant tree house, a sushi restaurant and a national forest.  Our time in the Boone area included a hike at Price Lake, outside play on Blowing Rock and a lot of delicious local food.  Our trip back home to Nashville included an amazing impromptu snack break atop Roan Mountain, which may have been the highlight of the trip. 

This little vacation really seemed to be a great representation of what kind of family we are evolving to become.  It was spontaneous, adventurous, and rich with laughter and fun.  We don't always laugh and we don't always have fun, but we are always a family.  As we wild we grow, and as we grow we get closer.  This was a great year for our family, and because of that we're ready to welcome 2012 with open arms.

Happy New Year!

Pablo and Nea

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The Great Mother’s Day Campsite Rush of 2011

                 
I had been to Pikeville, TN once before for work and remember thinking that it was a beautiful piece of Tennessee.  I was happy to be able to go back recently with my wife and daughter, and the same great friends we went o Foster Falls with a few weeks before.  In short, Fall Creek Falls was beautiful, from the drive to the park to the last 4.5-mile lakeside hike of our trip.  The trails range from short, easy, and crowded to long, difficult, and desolate.  It’s quite possible to find a trail or five that make everyone happy.  We loved the terrain, family friendliness, and company, but what I really want to write about it the walk-in camping we were able to try out.

 Walk-in Camping, aka, The Great Mother’s Day Campsite Rush of 2011

The campgrounds are pretty large with over 200 drive-in car and RV campsites.  We were there on a  Mother’s Day weekend that was accompanied by great weather, so there were few open drive-in sites.  That’s where the awesomeness of walk-in campsites comes into play.  Fall Creek Falls has 9 walk-in sites, the furthest being 0.2 mile from the parking area.  With the winding paths, this is actually a pretty long distance if you try to walk-in as much gear as you might use for a traditional family car camping trip.  The cost is very reasonable; each walk-in campsite is $8 a night.  The drive-in campsites are twice that.

We were fortunate and smart on this trip.  The walk-in sites do not allow for reservations, so it’s really luck of timing with regards to which site you are able to get.  It works a lot like the Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889, except in this land-claiming footslog you don’t line up, wait for a cannon to sound, or fight to the death for your ideal spot (ideally).  However, if you and someone else show up at the same time and neither are willing to relinquish the spot, it all becomes dependent upon who can erect their tent first.  If you don’t, then you have to leave, loser. 

If you can pack light, then spot 9 is actually perfect.  It is secluded and quiet.  However, with two families, each with a one+ year old, we were not prepared to hike into site 9 with all of our gear.   We were fortunate that the couple in spot 1 was packing to leave as we showed up, so we hovered a bit and then rushed in like Tom Cruise riding his horse into the mad frenzy at the end of Far and Away.  By the way, he died, and then somehow came back to life.  I never understood why or how.  Did anyone?

We were smart(er) with our packing.  The last trip included a packed car of…well, crap.  We had a lot of stuff, and realized we had a lot we didn’t need.  This trip, we packed all three of our clothes, towels, and toiletries, and a lot of our water into our Osprey Atmos 50 backpack, brought a cooler for the baby food, milk, and beer (shhhhhh!!!).   We also had a large container with our tent, a queen sized camping air mattress, a tarp, and some dried foods and lights (head lamp, mini-lantern).  In all, I made 3 short trips from the car to walk-in site 1 while my wife kept our daughter from eating rocks.  Easy…my part, anyway.

 Five things we learned

1.  We were excited about the walk-in camping, because we had been wanting to work toward backpacking into primitive campsites.  We learned it is possible, although, we definitely need more appropriate gear (i.e., smaller, lighter).  We need new, smaller and lighter sleeping bags, sleeping pads, and a tent.  The Big Agnes Copper Spur UL4 is our dream tent.  It is an ultralight, durable tent, big enough for 4 people shoulder to shoulder, meaning big enough for my wife, me, and our little saint of perpetual motion.  Oh, and I say dream, because it is really really expensive.  Dreams come true, right?

2.  Our current baby carrier, Kelty Town, is great for hikes of up to 5-miles.  Beyond that, I think it would be difficult, especially since there is not a lot of extra space for storage (clean and soiled cloth diapers take up a lot of space).  I’ve heard and read great things about the Deuter Kid Comfort 3.  It looks pretty comfortable for the person being carried and doing the carrying, durable, and spacious.  Again, dream.

3.  Our friends are really wonderful people (we didn’t really learn this, it’s more that the feeling of wonderfulness was highly reinforced).

4.  We need trekking poles if we’re going to be doing any hikes of moderate difficulty or higher, and they would be great to have for all hikes regardless of difficulty.  Ultralight, high quality trekking poles tend to be pretty pricey, but this is our first priority.

5.  That county song, “I want to check you for ticks” or something along those lines is fairly grotesque.  There is not one thing remotely romantic about checking someone else for ticks.  Ticks are really annoying and worrisome.  My wife and I each ended up coming home with one.  Just like our previous trip, our daughter was spared the tick, but not the search.  We used All Terrain Herbal Armor for us, and Tropical Traditions Insect Repellent for our daughter.  The Herbal Armor seemed to be working fine, until we found the ticks.  We may try lemon eucalyptus based repellent for ourselves next time (it is not recommended for children under the age of 3).  We’re avoiding DEET, and fortunately lyme disease in TN is not common.  That keeps us from worrying too much, but it's hard not to.  Does anyone have a DEET-free insect repellent they swear by?  Please share if you do.

First Family Camping Trip

  South Cumberland State Park

We were invited to go camping with some very good friends of ours.  Their son is about a month younger than our daughter and both attend the same daycare.  We had been on hiking trips around middle Tennessee before, but never overnight camping.  This trip to southeast Tennessee presented the perfect opportunity to try that with another family.

Foster Falls, Sequatchie, TN 

We set up our tents at the Foster Falls recreational area ($16/night per tent).  It was Easter  weekend, so there were not a lot of other people around.  It was great, because it was quiet, close to a bathhouse, and close to a trail head.  The hike to and from the base of the main waterfall was of moderate difficulty.  One of us carried our daughter in a baby carrier, and the other carried water.  We liked this hike so much that we did it once a day for three days.

The Stone Door, Savage Gulf State Natural Area

It was a 30-minute drive to the trail head, but completely worth it.  The hike was an easy to moderate mile there and back.  The overlook was remarkable.   This was a top-5 most beautiful place my daughter and I have ever seen, which is great for her, since she now has a 32-year head start on seeing the beautiful  corners of the planet.

Camping With A Baby

Planning with a baby in mind takes a lot longer than camping without.  This sounds obvious, but it’s really hard to underestimate the time and forethought required. We spent a lot of time planning, packing, etc., but still managed to forget some essential items.  There were some things we really needed that others probably won't need.  For example, we use cloth diapers for our daughter, which take extra space for the diapers, wet/dry bags, etc.  We also found that we needed to change her much more frequently to fend of diaper rash.  Keeping her milk, and food properly stored took same extra planning and care as well.  We didn’t anticipate the challenges we ended up having with keeping those things cold and dry at the same time. 

We had both been camping separately and as a couple before, and never really worried about anything with regards to safety.  With our daughter though, it was a pretty constant rush of paranoia and concern.  We quickly spotted poison ivy, often pulled rocks and sticks from her mouth, trembled in fear at the site and/or thought of ticks.  We both came away from the trip with one, but luckily our daughter was spared.  She was not, however, spared the indignity of a thorough tick check.  Despite the challenges we found the experience to be positive, uplifting, and much easier than we thought it would be.  Take away message: camping is not only possible with a baby, but the potential upside is unbelievable high.