3/4 of Century and Still Backpacking

Senior Moments
75th birthday gifts from Joyce.

Senior Moments

My 75th birthday rolled around on the 15th of this month. There was no big celebration. No party. This was, as it has always been in the past, my preference.

Joyce bought me a new backpacking tent, some tent stakes, an 8L Exped dry bag, a couple polycro ground sheets for my floorless backpacking tents,  and a small REI Flash 18 backpack for our day hikes on camping trips.

I may be old by some measurements, but I can still do most things I did decades ago. I must temper this with the fact I have been lucky to inherit good genes, been fortunate not to develop any disease, and never been involved in any sort of serious accident. Good luck is nothing to discount! However, at 75, I am beginning to notice I am not as fast nor as strong as I once was. It is a reminder that we don’t live forever.

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Campground Etiquette for Families: Teaching Kids Respect for Nature and Fellow Campers

Backpacking, Camping, , , , ,
Teaching kids the joys of camping includes teaching respect—for nature, wildlife, and fellow campers.

Yesterday I shared a post, Campground Etiquette: We need to talk about trash. One of the main points I wanted to make is so many of today’s campers just haven’t been educated on the rules and regulations, nor taught proper campground etiquette. 

In this post I’ll cover campground etiquette with a focus on teaching kids to respect nature and their fellow campers.

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Campground Etiquette: We need to talk about trash

Camping, Technology, ,

Over the past 25-30 years trash has loomed large as a problem at our at our public campgrounds. At least it is something I have noticed with increasing regularity.

Who are these horrible people who do this? Or maybe the people don’t know the rules?

Perhaps a better question might be, “Why is it happening?”

Finally, I’ll share some “best practices” for those who don’t know.

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DODGE Cuts, Government Shutdown, and Camping

Camping

I’m back from another camping trip at an area administered by the National Park Service. Even though the Government Shutdown has been in effect for over a month, everything went well, even the fabulous weather, which the government has no control over.

In addition to this last trip, we have spent an addition 2+ months camping  in various units after Trump implemented the DODGE cuts earlier this year. These camping trips were in areas administered by the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service, and the US Forest Service. On all these trips things were “business as usual” with neither unexpected surprises nor problems.

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