The girls and I went camping for a few days this week. It was sort of spontaneous, sort of planned. I talked about it for several days but we had to line up some details with pet care and work…and it happened! So we took off.
Andy was working out of town, north of Missoula, at a lakeside cabin. That’s all I knew and we didn’t have a way to contact him. On Tuesday morning he drove to the closest town to find a few bars to make a work call and phoned to say hello to us too. I was packing up gear like a jenga wizard, having just decided we’d drive up 83 toward him. He gave me insanely confusing directions to the cabin, in case we could swing by, and we were on the road.
I had high hopes for this camp trip to be awesomely fun. With sleep. We didn’t camp once last summer (!!) because the previous summer camping attempts were miserable with Ruby unable to sleep and rolling all over our family to ensure we kept awake with her. She wasn’t unhappy, just awake — the tent like a giant bounce house. We needed a summer to recover. Plus we’d just bought our house and were eager to nest. A summer without camping was just fine with our whole bunch.
We talked a lot about camping all winter, getting excited. Ruby was the most on board regularly declaring that she couldn’t wait to “camp in the forest with dada, mama, Margot and me!”
We keep all our camping gear in a tub that is ready to go. This takes SO much work out of car camping.
contents (clockwise):
paper towels
bear spray
large bowl (for washing dishes)
skillet
pot
candles
cutting board
1/2 cup measuring cup
sharp knives
dish scrubbie
small containers for cooking oil, salt, pepper etc
aeropress
2 dishtowels
tablecloth
washcloth
drink coozies
4 plates
4 bowls
first aid kit (tape, bandages, band aids, ibuprofen, baby tylenol, salve, moleskin, essential oils (thieves, lemon, lavender, purification, pan away, calendula))
cutlery
wine opener
wood utensils (ours made by our friend, earlywood!)
2 jelly jars with lids (for coffee, wine etc)
egg carton
water filter
camp stove fuel
bag of tricks*
toilet paper
blow torch (excessive? yes. but super handy when lighting a fire with damp wood)
not pictured: rope or long leash for dog tie out
*bag of tricks: a collection of things that always come in handy
contents (clockwise):
dice (endless games to be played with 2 die)
scissors
assorted plastic bags
patch kit
soap
dish soap
candles
string
ear plugs
scrap paper
twist ties
rubber bands
carabeaner
safety pins
lip balm
tape
clothes pins
pens
matches
not pictured: needle and thread, hand sanitizer
For the things we don’t keep in the tub but need, I reference the list taped to the lid.
head lamps, skillet, pot, coffee maker, knives, cutting board, cooking oil, wood scrapers
We keep all our gear together for swift packing (sleeping bags, therm-a-rests
We landed at Holland Lake, a place that is easy to love.
Oh, you guys, looking at that photo of Alice fetching a stick up there. It makes me tear right up. She’s slowing down, our girl. She’s not running with me anymore. These are her golden years and I am dedicated to making them her best.
After setting up camp, we attempted to find Andy. We sniffed our way there and turned out he was only 20 minutes away so he joined us for dinner that night.
venison lentil chile (made and frozen previously), sharp cheddar quesadillas, salad
happy nearly father’s day to the partner and dad I am so privileged and lucky to have in my life
I found it such an awesome relief to be without cell service. As much as I try to regularly put my iphone down or turn it off to engage without distraction, not having the option to text or instagram made me realize how often I do check in with that mini computer. Or at least think about (how I should be) checking in. Hmm. Changing that.
The lake was so quiet; there were only a few campers around us. Margot and Ruby threw rocks, made capes out of sundresses, collected sticks.
We stared at the fire, read books, played games.
I made that fire. You might remember my fire inadequacy. No more.
AND WE SLEPT. All three of us (and Alice of course)! We slept so well. Ruby drifted off aside the beam of my headlamp as I read Because of Winn Dixie
Wilderness Survival Tip: Forgot coffee maker? Stop at a truck stop and buy 3 large coffee filters for 10 cents. Use your jelly jar with a ring. Pour over hot water.
We hiked into Holland Falls, a 3.5 mile adventure. I carried Ruby much of the way, Margot rocked it all by herself. She was pretty dang proud about that.
My funny attempts at a group shot:
Details for those who might like to go: It was a mellow hike with some hills, a few steep ones. It took us 2.5 hours, including many stops and lunch at the falls. This area is grizzly bear country. Bring bear spray, make noise. I wished we had remembered Alice’s collar bell. Most of the trail is along the lake so it’s perfect for thirsty dogs. The trail is both shady and exposed; bring layers. We were chilly at times and hot at times. The falls are spectacular. A+
As we packed up camp, the girls and I came to the unanimous decision to stay another night. This time at the cabin with Andy and his coworker.
We woke and left early. Home now, feeling refueled in the way that only nature can bring.
40 Comments
Seriously? These photos are AMAZING! I now have a trip to your gorgeous home state on my bucket list.
And that photo of the girls back to you and Alice facing you? That is a happy and very loved pooch, right there.
Gurrrl. You are getting me so syked for next month. I’m borederline terrified about the potential sleep deprivation, but these shots put it all to rest– just beautiful! Thanks for the email! Thanks for the post! xo
My girls and I just went camping on our first trip of the season and without my hubby cuz he had family in town. It was awesome…just me and my little ladies and nature. We were in the Paradise Valley which is beautiful but where you were looks amazing! It was also our first tent camping since having kids. I threw everything together haphazardly, your checklists will be very helpful for next time! Gotta love MT.
Best post ever. I love these photos and camping tips and all of it!! We want to be able to camp at the drop of a hat, so having these camping essentials ideas will help us. The kids are sleeping well at night, but maybe tooooo well since they wake up with wet sleeping bags. ugggh. Hoping to solve this problem. I’m pretty impressed by the cookery and fire-making. ๐
I love that you will pick up your littles and go for it! Way to bring on the fun. Such a great mama!
Fantastic. I can just picture what amazing people your girls are growing up to be.
Gosh, you live well Nici.
What an awesome adventure. We camped in the country when Ella was almost 3 – it was the first night in her life that she slept soundly all night. Something about Nature and sleeping in it that just promotes rest and calm!
The whole BEAR thing is freaking me out! Maybe coz here in Australia we don’t have bears so the concept is so foreign to me…..but seeing you casually hike up a mountain in bear territory terrifies me!!! What is bear spray?
xx
We live with bears so I am used to knowing they are all around. We see black bears where we live, fairly regularly (although I haven’t seen one in over a year!). I have a healthy awareness of them. I am definitely cautious and smart when hiking and there were moments — on this hike — in thick brush that I felt a surge of adrenaline and awareness! The reality is that close grizzly-human encounters are rare. Making noise is important because, obviously, bears, moose etc don’t want anything to do with us and if they know we are coming, they won’t be startled. Bear spray is a pepper spray that affects the eyes, nose and lungs of the bear to stop them. You only use it if the animal is charging. I don’t personally know anyone who has ever had to use it. x ๐
Love your checklists, our camping stuff all together but I always forget something – and you are brave – bears arghh – wimpy Kiwi here – no snakes, no bears, no mountain lions – North American camping makes me nervous, think it is totally cool you took your gang for an overnight by yourself. Yes need to get unplugged off my devices more often too.
Nici, your posts always make me happy. What an amazing way to spend time with your daughters and in a breathtaking location, too! This makes me want to go camping, but it’s already toasty in FL! Thanks for sharing, always! xo
We love Holland Lake. We camped there last summer (your campsite looks familiar ๐ ) and rented a small FS cabin there this Memorial Day. LOVE that hike, though the rocky heights at the end make me feel panicky for everyone’s (dogs included) safety at the end. Super-impressed with your “go-tubs!” We feel proud of ourselves when we manage to put everything away instead of collapsing when we get home and leaving gear around for a week. ๐ Great photos, Nici!
ok- I’m totally using these lists as a template for our family camp kit. I’m ashamed to say, we have yet to camp with our kids!! :/
what an inspiring adventure!! your timing was so ON, the colors and vistas of Montana are grand. and I feel you on the disconnecting from the iPhone bit! intention means so much ๐
such a lovely post <3
Nici, you live in such a beautiful state. Those pictures are amazing! You really are giving your girls such an amazing childhood. And sweet Alice~what a full, beautiful life she leads.
Yes, spectacular, just as all the other commenters have said. I’m so inspired to get back out there now! Our camping boxes are packed, but haven’t been loaded up and opened for 2 summers. Our youngest is 7 months old now, though, so I think it’s time to give it a whirl again.
Your story of Ruby 2 years ago sounds familiar! At 2, my oldest demonstrated that she could count to 20 for the first time from the inside of our tent… at about 3am… while bouncing on and off my hip. It almost did me in!
Yep, I’m itching to get going again. Thank you for sharing your beautiful photos and spirit. Your girls are so very lucky.
You just made this current Austin, TX resident very homesick for a camping trip up the Seeley/Swan. Beautiful pics, thanks for sharing and reminding me what I love about Montana in the summer.
Nici, those packing tips are the best! We camp A LOT and it always seems that I spend as many days packing as we do on the trip itself. My kids are 1 and 3 and I know one day I will feel organized again. Right now, I’m just trying to keep my head above water.
Also, hiking in grizzly country makes you feel more alive, doesn’t it?
Nici, I can’t tell you how much this post warmed my heart. We visited Holland Lake (but not the falls) last year during our trip to Montana, and I can only begin to imagine how wonderful it would be to camp there. Yay for the sleepers! I don’t think either of my kids has ever slept past 8 am, even in their cozy beds.
For unplugging: we now have a solid family tradition of Internet Sabbaths: we turn off the wireless Saturday and Sunday, and with no data plans on our phones, that means total disconnect. Even in the heart of Silicon Valley, and with a husband who works for one of the Internet behemoths, that is a possible and a very welcome respite from connectedness. Highly recommend it!
I LOVE your tradition! Fabulous.
I just posted on 6510 and growing that I thought getting into nature always seems to reset you clock…your inner clock I guess. I haven’t yet taken my two by myself but this is the summer. And MY clock will be reset this summer since I won, I never win anything, a seven day backpacking trip into the Bob and I haven’t been camping without my kids since they joined us. I am really looking forward to an extended trip where I can just focus on my surroundings in my own chosen way rather then maybe connecting with nature next to my girls who tend to connect in loud song while running at top speed and then immediately stopping to whisper to a flower. Don’t get me wrong, it doesn’t get better then being in nature with my girls and I love singing and running and smelling but it will be a nice alternative.
Here’s to sleeping snuggled in a group under the stars…
Jaim
Oh the Bob! That is awesome. Any has been in twice — most recently, last summer. Our friend has mules and offered to pack us in this summer but I’m not quite ready for us both to be away from the kids for 10 days. Maybe next summer…can’t wait to hear about your adventures! xo
You are giving them the best childhood!
This post is SO timely for me! Packing 2 years of our life out of a little house & trying to think about things like packing ahead for camping. This is why I always check your blog first. Maybe it’s a Missoula thing, or just a timing thing! You are my hero. The end (not really, I hope to meet you in MT soon!)
What a beautiful place to go for camping…
Woman ,I wish you could bottle your gumption and send me some. What a fantastic adventure!! PS-found your blog through Mamalode and Kelle Hampton…your creativity is inspiring!
Ahh, wonderful – nature without cell service is my favorite. We are planning to go camping next weekend and I cannot wait! First time out with our four year old … we’ve been together, my sweetheart and me, but only on days the lad was with his momma, as we weren’t sure he’d sleep. Tent as bouncy house seemed VERY likely. We also have an adventure kit using a tub for the stuff that can stay packed. So much easier that way!
Love your photos, as usual – sweet Alice fetching a stick, Andy with two girls in his arms, hiker chicks at the falls – lovely, lovely! Happy weekend.
PS – you wrote something a while back on Mamalode about the philosophy of “kindness, always”. I’m writing something right now in a similar vein and remembered your piece … hoping you don’t mind if I reference you/link that article! ๐
Oh I am … what’s the word for gently jealous? I grew up camping and it is one of the things I most want for my own kiddos. Your post is giving me the encouragement to just go purchase our own little kit and then just make it happen.
Oh wow, I love Holland Lake, and the whole seeley-swan. I worked there for a few years, and don’t know WHY I ever left!?!? I looked at your lists and totes, and it is a great idea. We have things in totes, but not all the same handy one. I also think of all my neat little backpacking camping equipment that is nowhere near adequate now that I have kids…just another fact of life with kids I guess, where you can’t do everything as minimally as BC! (before children). Somehow that’s ok though, because it is great watching kids watch a campfire, and waking up in a tent together ๐
Yes! Our backpacking stove that folds into the pots is in a different bin that hasn’t been used for many years. It’ll circle back around though. And that little stove will serve us well once again! ๐
What fun! I love that you are camping in the very same places my mother, your Gammy, took all four of us while my dad traveled. TRADITION!
Love you Burb!
xo, Mom
AWESOME! We couldn’t stay and camp this time but yesterday we went for a nice picnic and hike at Byers Lake in the Denali State Park (only about an hour from our home), it was beautiful out and just windy enough to keep the bugs off. What a great way to spend my 38th b-day, just me and my boys… We also live in bear country (Alaska) and it can be nerve wracking to hike with kids. We just remind them to stay close and for my 2 boys making noise is never a problem, it’s what they do. I’m pretty sure we scared off any bears within a couple miles of that lake :0)
HAPPY CAMPING!
Beautiful pics ~ happy girls!
This list is super timely–we’re just about to take our 2 and 4 year olds (and 2 dogs) car camping for the first time this weekend! We used to go backpacking before they were born, and have meaning to take them out for years, but it always seemed so daunting with little ones. The idea of a car camping bin is fabulous, since packing feels like the hardest part! It makes me optimistic that once we complete packing for this trip, future trips can be more spontaneous. The kids are so excited for their first trip out this weekend, and so are we!
I posted a comment yesterday that seems never to have gone live. Just wanted to say that your post is inspiring and that it IS possible to unplug and to do it frequently. Your girls will likely
remember these days of camping as some of the best part of their childhood.
Camping-sleeping is my FAVORITE kind of sleeping. These photos are gorgeous, it makes me crave a little getaway…I desperately need to turn off my cell phone for a few days. I could almost smell the fresh air and the lake water while I read this post. Wonderful.
Love your ready to go camping gear. Great idea! The bear thing? Terrifies me.
I had to comment on your note about Alice. It hit me right in the heart. She is such a beautiful dog and I always love seeing pictures of her with the girls. Our Westie is 11 and moving toward her golden years as well. She’s my son’s best friend. Making these years her best is high on our list too.
<3 Alice <3
Our camping tote has pretty much the exact same essentials in it, except the dice. (Brilliant idea, by the way.) Because of it, we are able to head out car camping at the drop of a hat with our two daughters, Lucy and Alice, and did that exact thing last weekend. On Friday, at 3pm, we took off to Stanley, Idaho, and the Grandjean hot springs. Also: just co-read Because of Winn-Dixie last summer on our hammock with my 8-yr-old and it changed her literary life. I wrote a story about it for our local family mag, here, on page 42. http://www.treasurevalleyfamily.com/digital/2012/09.htm
These pictures are amazing! I especially love the first one and the last bunch. So so beautiful!
Oh, beautiful camp story…and amazing pictures. (for sure worth instagraming.ha) We just took our 13 month old camping… twice. Some sleep problems …for sure a “bounce house” in the back of our truck and I am pregnant. But we did it. I feel such a sense of accomplishment. Your girls look like they had a blast, what fun memories you’re creating. your posts always help me to feel refreshed, and love being a mom….thanks for that.
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