First outing with my son and new dog. Part I

[Nuclear Redneck]

Went to Hanging Rock State Park in North Carolina this weekend for our first camping trip with the Trumanator and his DestructoPup Zelda. We were all very excited!

Supervising the loading of the trailer: Yep, looks like with a little judicious trimming, my bare necessities will fit in here. Where's your stuff gonna go?

I think that should be shifted back so the tongue weight isn't overbalanced, Dad.

Sure, sure, do what you want, but you'll regret it, I'm positive!

"Helping" pack:

What? The food goes *IN* the box? Whyever would we do that?

Zelda is unsure about this as she models her new outfit. "Does The Wild have couches?" (this is the Small size pack and she mostly just carried her water and poopy bags)

Still dubious on the ride up.

"This is it? This is The Wild? We're supposed to sleep in the tent? Uh, yeah; no. The Boy and I are going home now. Couches, anyone?"

Truman gets situated in his plush ride:

The Trumanator and his trusty steed set out to conquer The Wild.

Most of the pictures and the writeup were done by my lovely wife. All in all we had a great time.

Cheers,

 

[Nuclear Redneck]

Part II

Stopping to feel up trees as they go:

Foliage:

Views: (Tate and I took turns climbing the rock on the right to check out the big view while the other stayed down with the boy and pup. Saw some falcons, but no good picture of them)

DestructoPup was more impressed with the sticks:

We saw waterfalls:

Touched the pool:

Played with the camera:

 

[Nuclear Redneck]

Part III

Climbed down more stairs:

To see more rocks! And more waterfalls!

Let's just say the way back to camp was a bit painful to consider from this angle.

Visited the lake:

Saw a boathouse:

Yeah, yeah, nature and all is great, but nap time is Very Important.

The day was fun, and the tent was cool:

 

[Nuclear Redneck]

Part IV

But we missed the crib and couch. Sleep did not find us. Let's just say that night time found us all very UnHappy Campers when we tried lights out. Where is the civilization? Where are our comfy beds?

There was not much sleep out in The Wild, even with the thunderstorm pitterpattering raindrops on our snug tent. However, the morning came with good tempers anyway!

And there's always time to nap on Mom while she's packing up camp.

At home, the DestructoPup tells the couch how much she missed it:

All in all, a good first trip. We'll work on the sleep issue!

 

[93BLAZER]

awesome photos. Sounds like a good trip with the boy (and the dog).

 

[FurthurOnTheFly]

Hehehe great story and pics!! And damn you for having one of those Campmate thingys!!

 

[efuentes]

I like the family outings, bring back alot of nice memories. .

Your kid will thank you forever.

 

[jgolden]

What's your opinion of RTT and young kids? Are the kids easy to contain on the "closed side" so there's no chance they'll fall out? (I don't own a RTT, but I'm thinking of getting one)

thanks

 

[jgolden]

Great write and pics by the way....

 

[jeepmedic46]

Great pics. Looks like everyone had a good time. How old is Truman?

 

[Rockcrawler]

Nice pics... looks like a fun trip. Is that the Kelty 3.0 child carrier? How do you like it?

 

[hikingff77]

Nice pics... looks like a fun trip. Is that the Kelty 3.0 child carrier? How do you like it?

We bought, or registered anyway, for that carrier and can't wait to try it out on some trails after our little one is here and can get in there.

Great pictures and trip report. Looks like you enjoyed yourselves. My dogs have no problem sleeping the night away in the tent. My daughter sleeps even sounder when we camp.

 

[cajun65]

Wow, that story brought back some memories of our first camping and hiking trips with my son. Awesome write up and pictures. Thank you for sharing.

 

[Nuclear Redneck]

Truman is 9 months old.

That is a Kelty, but I don't know what model. Katherine found it on Craigslist for 60 dollars. I like it alot, and Truman likes it too. He always giggles when I swing him up in it.

Thanks for the positive comments on the writeup and pictures. I swiped the entire writeup from a forum my wife is on. I had to break it up into 4 parts; her forum allows unlimited images in the post whereas this one only allows 10. Most of those photos were taken with my wife's Cannon 40D DSLR. I was particularly happy with how she captured the waterfalls.

Cheers,

 

[off-kilter]

What's your opinion of RTT and young kids? Are the kids easy to contain on the "closed side" so there's no chance they'll fall out? (I don't own a RTT, but I'm thinking of getting one)

thanks

I am the wife-person, and this worried me as well. We had to put the inner mesh down and velcro it to the bottom, and when pushed it took a lot of weight; for a small child, as long as it was secured evenly, I think it would hold okay, but I'm not sure about a bigger kid. I would have felt more comfortable if the tent flap were attached from the bottom and zipped up, but, alas, it seems that is not an option for RTT. The non-ladder side was exactly the same as the ladder side, so we had to watch that he not lean on either to test the boundaries.

I haven't decided what kind of fixes we can use for added security in the future. I might add a mesh layer on that side.