I Had Great Plans

I had big plans for camping over the Labor Day weekend. They started with a road trip north to a remote lake. Then we talked about not driving so far and doing a kayak trip to one of our favorite beaches. But half of our group would have had to hike and the tides weren’t going to work out. So then we talked about a 3 night back pack somewhere. Then two nights. Then as the weekend was vanishing before me, I started pulling out gear and told my kids to pack up. We were going to get out, one way or another, even if just for one night. I called a girlfriend last minute to see if she and her 3 kids could join us.

Years ago when the two of us had one baby each, it was easy to get out. I would call on a Friday afternoon and we could be packed and on the road in an hour. Five kids later between the two of us, packing up has become more complicated. Kids have homework. We have work to do, laundry to wash, Costco runs to be made. And big kids eat substantially more food than babies. Even for a one night trip, we brought out seven pound of food just for my family. And we ate just about all of it.

So, as is typical of last minute backpack requests, we had to work out which obligations could be skirted and dealt with another day. We had figured out just about every obstacle but one. The dog. The really old dog. The really old dog having seizures and almost died the night before. This was something we hadn’t encountered yet.

But I was absolutely desperate to get out. I needed to get out. I had had one of those weeks where everything was going wrong and nothing was resolving. I needed to rejuvenate. Revitalize. Reset my attitude in a way that only being outside away from the city can do. So we did what we do best and got creative.

The challenge was to carry a large dog down the trail over some pretty rough terrain. The other dogs could walk and carry their own gear but this dog needed some special treatment. She is too heavy to carry and too big to push in a jog stroller. A wagon wouldn’t make it down the trail. What to do?  A trip to the shed provided everything we needed. First I dug out our old bike trailer. Of course both tires were flat, but they could be fixed easily. In years past, I had rigged this same trailer to work as a ski pulk sled so I had poles bent and ready to use on a sled. I folded down the seat back and padded the bottom with heavy blankets. In younger years, this same old dog had ripped through the screen of not one but two North Face VE 25 tents, so I had some concerns about the mesh on the trailer, but there wasn’t much I could do about that. Tires fixed, padding set, I stuck the poles in the trailer and voila! I had a chariot for a dog.

At last, we were set and ready to hit the trail. The kids took turns pulling the dog. The hip harness system is easy to switch from person to person, so everyone who wanted to, had a chance to pull the old dog. We were quite the spectacle going down the trail! Everyone we passed had lots of questions about our cherished load.

As is always the case, I found the peace I was looking for in the woods. The old dog got in one last backpacking trip. And the kids—all nine of them—had a fabulous time. The forest never fails.