My 8 year old son wanted to go on a mom and son hike this weekend to celebrate Mother's Day but my Grandma landed in hospital so I'm going to throw him into the Jeep and head out on a visit/mock bug-out.

We'll likely go to a Provincial Park and are going to live off the stuff that normally lives in the Jeep (i.e. the family BOB) and an extra duffel with a change of clothes (we may visit the in-laws on the way home, otherwise we'd just live off the clothes in the BOB) and toiletries. I'm also bringing our fishing gear and a camp camp chair for him.

[img]http://m1105.photobucket.com/albumview/albums/backpackjac/HPIM0305.jpg.html[/img]
EDIT: I need to organize that better!

He's meal planning right now. It sounds like I'd better get some good bait because apparently we're having fresh trout for dinner. :-)

Way to make lemonade out of your lemons!

We had a family hike planned for Sunday but the hospital is about a 10 hour round trip so..... when he asked if we could camp I thought why not? It's actually the perfect opportunity.

He's decided that he'd like to use just our day hiking survival kits, supplemented by a stop at the grocery store. Again, I thought why not? The family BOB can be our backup but we're going to use our sleeping bags and thermarests because it's still getting cold at night and the boy doesn't have an ounce of fat on him.

He told me this morning that he wants to make his own shelter this time - but we'll sleep together in mine. I suggested that if we make the shelter together it will go up twice as fast or be twice as good, but whatever. As long as he's having fun, learning a little and being safe. I'm sure my Grandma will love hearing the stories he regales her with.

Hey Jac,how was the trip? Snake free I hope. As for your little one making his own shelter I think it's a good idea. Lets him learn some independence and from his mistakes. It's how I learned. And if it's stable why not let him sleep in it? If he gets scared of the night your shelter is close and he can drag his bag and mattress over to it. Just the thoughts of an old geezer, take 'em with a grain of salt.

You are a truly outstanding Mom! Happy Mother's Day!!! I hope yall have had a great weekend!

We made it! We had a great time. Two parks in two nights and the most minimalist I've gone since before he was born. Pics once I've had time to sift through them.



I totally agree, Snake. The sleeping in the same shelter request was his, not mine. My rough and tumble son is still kind of scared of the dark. He conked out both nights quite happily with his Teddy and mom beside him.

What a great idea, glad you both enjoyed it. Undoubtedly some great learning for your lad - fun too by the sound of things.
ATB
Moab

Thanks Wildman. :-) like most parents, I do my best, learn something every day and hold my breath with one he closed as he does his thing.

It was fun, Moab. We did a few family things during the trip and logged some serious miles on the jeep so we didn't have as much time for bushcrafting as we wanted. We brought our $20 2-man tent and tarp and used like like a three-sided shelter. It was cool and wet so fire was key and he's a keen learner. By night two we didn't need our blankets until the wind and rain kicked up from behind us. We saw some wildlife, star-gazed and had a few heart to hearts. All and all, a great weekend.

Sounds like a great experiance (except for the hospital bit, I hope Grandma is OK)

Will you be updating your bob because of it ?
Once updated, you'll have to test it again !

That's great Jac. Glad he was happy and you both had fun. Welcome back. I'll watch for the pics.

Here's a bit of a recap:

Step One - gather wood for a fire
My son was in charge. This is the pile he had when we lit the fire. By dark he had enough to get us through the wet and cool night, as long as we burned it so what sparingly.


Step Two - get a tinder bundle of birch bark ready
We were in provincial Parks to limited to using existing fire pits


Step Three - ignition
-on night one we use a vaseline soaked cotton ball, fat wood and ferro rod, along with a bag full of pine for the park woodlot (used my ax to process it into kindling)
-on night two, we used a couple of Coghlan's fire starters. Fire Sticks worked well once we had a flame and the Fire Lighters were awesome! As easy as a match to use and they burn hot and bright for a few minutes:
http://www.coghlanscampinggear.com/cofilifist.html

Step Four - boil water for dinner and hot chocolate


Step Five - pitch the tent
We brought our cheapie $20 2_man tent from Walmart and used it with the door wide open so sort of like a three sided shelter. We both had a sleeping bag, wool blanket and thermarest. Even during the cold windy rain, we were toasty warm.


Step Six - hang a tarp to protect the fire from the rain and use line to dry clothes.
FAIL!! Brought too small a tarp to cover both the entire tent and the fire. Of course, we had a windy rain, and the back of the tent got wet.


Step Seven - dinner!



There are more pics and details here:
http://zombiehunters.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=2103346#p2103346

That looks fantastic.

Thanks for sharing.

Interestingly that looks like a very similar camp area to the ones set up in many Australian Nat Parks, ie wooden table and benches, iron fire pits with some form of grate and/or billy hanger.

Bac Pac..great photos!

Thanks guys. It was a great trip. On the way home, my son asked if we could do it again this weekend. I'll take that as two thumbs up.

We did learn a few thing along the way:

- we had to use designated fire pits so were limited in where and how we could erect our shelter, while using the fire for warmth

-there are no trees close to fire pits in Provincial Parks. This is good forest fire prevention but makes it hard to tie a tarp close to the fire (this is where the tent and paracord are worth their weight)

-you are not allowed to bring your own firewood to Provincial Parks in the this area because of invasive bugs. That means you have to rely on your destination for this vital resource.

-park 1 had no downed wood but an open woodlot to buy firewood, which we processed with an ax to make kindling

-park 2's woodlot was closed so we had to rely on what we could forage. There was lots but it was all damp or wet

-neither park had trees suitable for hanging a bear bag. (This is where the Jeep was worth it's weight. Well, that and saving our feet.)

-a 6 foot long tent makes a good 1-man tent but isn't big enough for someone 5'7" to sleep in comfortably if they use blankets and/or are sleeping with someone else

-if you need one, bring a tarp at least twice as big as your shelter

Did your tent come with a rain fly? Usually that does a pretty good job of keeping the rain off, so you don't have to rig up a tarp over it. I also like to spray the outside of the rain fly and bottom edge of the tent with Scotchgard Outdoor water shield for added water repellant.

Also, I noticed you don't seem to have anything under your tent. That is where I normally put a tarp. The ground is where you loose most of your heat, so the more insulation you have between you and the ground, the better. It also serves double duty of keeping the bottom of the tent clean and protected from rips/holes/tears which can allow water (or critters) to get inside.

Paul, this tent is a super cheapie from Walmart. It's an Ozark Trail 6'5' Scout Junior Dome Tent . It packs small and it's light but the fly is a napkin. Scotchgarding it is a great idea. Our idea was to use it like we would a tarp shelter but this tent, as it comes it not waterproof on the sides. The tarp worked really well to keep us dry until the wind changed direction and the back of the tent, which I sacrificed to give the fire more cover, got wet.

The other advantage of the tarp, and one of the main reasons I carry one, is that it keeps the area between the shelter and fire dry, along with keeping the pile of firewood from getting wet. We moved the tent right up beside the fire to keep us warm and I stayed up all night to feed the it and jump on any embers that popped into the tent. Thanks to that tarp, I didn't get wet at all as I moved in a out to do that.



We normally use a footprint but left it out on this trip because we're trying to go lightweight. We did have other space blankets that we could have used under the tent but decided that we would use the tent floor instead of a groundsheet. It did really well. It's bathtub style and kept the rain out well. We were set up on a bit of a rise, which definitely helped when the rain kicked up, and we also cleared the area for the tent really well so try to remove anything pokey.

duplicate post. sorry! I'll make it for it with more pics.

Part Two

The Plan
My son and I did another leg on our Bug-Out route this weekend - the first part. We intended to do an overnighter at our family rally point a few miles from home. (This is where we'd all meet up if we were seperated when the SHTF and we couldn't meet at home.) We planned to take off on our bikes on Sunday morning, carrying just our dayhike packs, head to the trail, hike and camp on the beach.

Trip Report:
As many an 8 year old's bike has done, my son's bike turned out the be broken (Apparently a big jump went wrong) so we drove the Jeep instead. We parked in a secluded spot a little way away from the trailhead. We grabbed our gear and hiked to the trail:
http://i1105.photobucket.com/albums/h351/backpackjac/IMG_0162.jpg
http://i1105.photobucket.com/albums/h351/backpackjac/IMG_0160.jpg

...then we made some last minute gear adjustments before we started the hike:
http://i1105.photobucket.com/albums/h351/backpackjac/IMG_0163.jpg

Our Gear: (Plus an extra water bottle each, bug juice, sun screen and food)
http://i1105.photobucket.com/albums/h351/backpackjac/IMG_20120407_195309.jpg
http://i1105.photobucket.com/albums/h351/backpackjac/IMG_0165.jpg
http://www.zombiehunters.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=92838
http://forums.equipped.org/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=241098&page=1

It was hot, sunny and windy:
http://i1105.photobucket.com/albums/h351/backpackjac/IMG_0169.jpg
http://i1105.photobucket.com/albums/h351/backpackjac/IMG_0211.jpg

.... so we took LOTS of hydration breaks. We had between 2L and 3Ls each!
http://i1105.photobucket.com/albums/h351/backpackjac/IMG_0171.jpg

It was a gorgeous hike - only a few kms but beautiful. The carp and salmon were just begging to be caught so we decided we'd do that after we set up camp and had lunch on the beach:
http://i1105.photobucket.com/albums/h351/backpackjac/IMG_0173.jpg
http://i1105.photobucket.com/albums/h351/backpackjac/IMG_0167.jpg
http://i1105.photobucket.com/albums/h351/backpackjac/IMG_0204.jpg
http://i1105.photobucket.com/albums/h351/backpackjac/IMG_0210.jpg

We gathered tinder as we went along, from whatever standing deadwood we could find. There's usually lots of dry wood washed up on the beach but you just never know:
http://i1105.photobucket.com/albums/h351/backpackjac/IMG_0213.jpg
http://i1105.photobucket.com/albums/h351/backpackjac/IMG_0165-1.jpg

When we got to the beach, we weren't disappointed. There was LOTS of drift wood;
http://i1105.photobucket.com/albums/h351/backpackjac/IMG_0178.jpg
http://i1105.photobucket.com/albums/h351/backpackjac/IMG_0176.jpg

...so we gathered wood and built a windbreak, that we intended to turn into a shelter after lunch, using more logs and a tarp:
http://i1105.photobucket.com/albums/h351/backpackjac/IMG_0179.jpg
http://i1105.photobucket.com/albums/h351/backpackjac/IMG_0180.jpg

...and got ready for a lunch of MH Chili Mac for me, Coleman Mac n Cheese for him, and bannock for both of us:
http://i1105.photobucket.com/albums/h351/backpackjac/IMG_0188.jpg

Then my son gave his ferro rod a go, with a cotton ball and some fatwood we found along the way:
http://i1105.photobucket.com/albums/h351/backpackjac/IMG_0181.jpg
http://i1105.photobucket.com/albums/h351/backpackjac/IMG_0183.jpg
http://i1105.photobucket.com/albums/h351/backpackjac/IMG_0182.jpg

Fire!
http://i1105.photobucket.com/albums/h351/backpackjac/IMG_0184.jpg

The fire was too close to our windbreak so I showed him how to move it once it was sustainable and could handle the wind:
http://i1105.photobucket.com/albums/h351/backpackjac/IMG_0185.jpg

Then we added more fuel to the fire and got our hig-tech water boiling system going (water in spaghetti sauce can and covered with tin foil):
http://i1105.photobucket.com/albums/h351/backpackjac/IMG_0189.jpg

Then we were ready to make Bannock so we put the pan and oil on to get hot:
http://i1105.photobucket.com/albums/h351/backpackjac/IMG_0192.jpg

Then we got out our bag of Bannock mix:
http://i1105.photobucket.com/albums/h351/backpackjac/IMG_0190.jpg

...added some water and mixed:
http://i1105.photobucket.com/albums/h351/backpackjac/IMG_0191.jpg

...took the pan off the fire:
http://i1105.photobucket.com/albums/h351/backpackjac/IMG_0193.jpg

...loaded it up...
http://i1105.photobucket.com/albums/h351/backpackjac/IMG_0194-1.jpg

... and put it on the fire like this:
http://i1105.photobucket.com/albums/h351/backpackjac/IMG_0198.jpg

NOT like this:
http://i1105.photobucket.com/albums/h351/backpackjac/IMG_0197.jpg

It was soon time to take the water off the fire:
http://i1105.photobucket.com/albums/h351/backpackjac/IMG_0199.jpg

We opend his mac n cheese, put half my chili mac in a SS mug, added water to both and let them steam away:
http://i1105.photobucket.com/albums/h351/backpackjac/IMG_0200.jpg

The Bannock was ready just about the same time the rest of the meal was.
http://i1105.photobucket.com/albums/h351/backpackjac/IMG_0202.jpg

The Best Laid Plans
My son started having flu-like symptoms just before we were ready to eat. He was in rough shape so I decided to pack up after I quickly ate and head home so he could puke in private. The hour hike in took almost 2 on the way out because we had to stop to let him puke and drink more water.

That's when it happened - GEAR Failure! One of the shoulder straps on my backpack blew out. No biggie until I took the last step off the trail, lost my balance and wrenched my shoulder. Ouch!
http://i1105.photobucket.com/albums/h351/backpackjac/IMG_0201.jpg

Lessons Learned:
-check your gear thoroughly before you hit the trail
-bring OTC meds even on short trips - for your kids too if they're coming along!
-don't be afraid to change your plan if it doesn't work out
-maintain your vehicles well
-if you're going to depend on a child's vehicle as part of your transportation plan, give yourself a day or two for any needed repairs

Fantastic trip - except for the end bit.

Sounds like DS may have been suffering dehydration, ratherthan flu ?

In hot weather you need to carefully check how much people, esp kids drink. They get excited and forget to drink enough. We had a bad experiance with DD not drinking enough. If you think back, was he drinking and weeing enough ?

I was thinking that too, Aussie but he drank at least 2L of Tang, was peeing every 45 mins or so and we took a break every 20 mins or so to drink in the shade. He seemed fine until, pow, it hit. He had stomach cramping and, shall we say, severe digestive upset.

He did have to be reminded several times to out his hat back on though...

Awesome pics jac! It's good to see a mom that takes her kids out camping. I agree about tent size. I scofff at sleeps five. No it sleeps one. Me. At 6'4 i need room to sprawl out.

Thanks Snake. My Mother-in-Law called me "brave". I told her that I got over being a scared woman in the woods a very long time ago. I was a little nervous going solo the first time but after I faught my way back into my car to get my keys out, I was so tired that I slept like a baby. The mom in me took it one step at a time, based more on Jr's competence level, and an encounter with a black bear a few years ago on a family trip gave me a much thicker skin.

My three rules are: be smart. be safe. have fun.

Very admirable Jac. I did my first solo very young and while I almost needed new underwear by 10 PM it taught me a lot. You're his mom, you know best. More boys should have moms like you. Keep up the good work. He'll be an accomplished woodsman in no time.like you.