Portage Glacier, April 10, 2011. Thanks to Bruce Talbot for the photo
Archive for the ‘Kids’ Category
Crust seekers: The next generation
Monday, April 11th, 2011Packrafting: Startin ‘em early (and a bit later)
Friday, August 14th, 2009
The Lazy Days of Summer, October version
Tuesday, October 21st, 2008I am coming off what might be the longest stretch I have ever gone without exercising. As you might have seen in my training log (link in the homepage sidebar), there is a huge hole between Oct 4 and Oct 17. A week of that time was spent in Florida, visiting relatives. Summer didn’t come to us this year, so we had to go hunt it down before it was too late.
It was unbearably hot in Florida, and I’ve had a nagging knee injury, so it was all too easy to just sit by the pool, or if I got ambitious, wade into the surf. The net result was that for two straight weeks my heartrate did not climb above 80. I don’t think that has ever happened before. The most exercise I got was literally walking to and from our hotel room to the beach. All 100 yards of it. Our kiddo struggled with the travel, the time-change and the relatives, so when we weren’t in the water, we were napping. Sleep, eat, swim, repeat. That was the routine for seven days. The disturbing part is that I was okay with it. I usually go stir-crazy if I am deprived of a workout for a few days. But in Florida, it didn’t upset my mellow. The warm sun can do strange things to a man.
While I hadn’t planned for a two week layoff, I think it did help get rid of the knee problem. And now that I am feeling pudgy and lazy, it has given me a little more motivation to get back into the routine.
Backpacking In California
Friday, June 27th, 2008We (wife, baby and I) recently went to California for ten days. While we were there, we went for a two-night backpacking trip with some friends who also have a baby. After our recent botched camping attempt in Alaska (lets just say that the kid was not into sleeping outside in near-freezing temperatures and broad daylight at 10:00 PM), we were very nervous for this trip. Our friends, on the other hand, took their infant for a 4 month bike trip across Europe when she was 4 months old, so we figured that they’d know what they were doing. We were just hoping to survive and learn from them in the process.
It turned out to be a great trip. The hikes were mellow, the weather was warm and sunny, and both of our camping spots had great swimming holes. The kiddo slept pretty well in the tent at night. Our main difficulty was (again) the daylight. He did not want to nap in the tent in broad daylight. But that was overcome by getting him to sleep in the backpack while we hiked. It was a lot of fun and it gave me hope that we can do some more backpacking this summer. I’m still not sure how we’ll deal with the midnight sun and colder temperatures in Alaska, but we’ll see.
Backpacking with an infant – its definitely the kind of fun that you have to endure.
