It turns out that we can successfully bike 40 km with 80 kg on each bike, hike a bit, stay the night at the campsite and bike back home.
That’s us heading out. If you look closely, Markus is poking out behind Chris’ elbow.
We enjoyed a little hike along the Carp river.
The camp fire is always fun.
Everyone looks so cute on a camp morning!
We were never big campers to begin with and we haven’t been camping in almost a decade so this weekend excursion was very minimalistic. We’ve done it more for the sake of seeing if we can do it than any other reason. As such it was a success. Bike ride was tough but doable, the kids were in a good mood and had fun, the weather was perfect and mosquito count minimal.
So when’s the next bike camping trip? Looking at our calendar we have only a few weekends free this season and those are probably best kept open for maintenance and down time. Next year the kids will be heavier yet nowhere near being able to propel themselves for long enough distances. I do see us going on adventures similar to this one, but the logistics will necessarily have to be modified. Here are some thoughts about this weekend’s trip:
– mid August seems to be the good time to go camping weather and mosquito wise.
– 40km bike ride fully loaded is not too bad. Repeated 40km bike ride the next day is not so great. We need a day in between to get a full camping experience (hikes, beach or exploring, vistas, quiet etc…) and recover for the return.
– I appreciated the campground proximity to home, running water, bathroom facilities and neighbouring kids our kids went to play with when they got bored of each other. I did not appreciate the volume of traffic and how close together the campsites were. Bulletproof vest clad Park Rangers driving by every 20 minutes in oversized pickup trucks were downright disconcerting. I am looking forward to going back to Fitzroy for the Scout Camporee, but this particular Provincial Park did not quite manage to sell family camping to me.
– We brought the most basic camping food we could think of and it was so bland we came home with most of it. Next time, we could try and be a little more varied and adventurous. I try not to keep too many treats around the house, but I should have been more liberal when shopping for the camping trip. I found myself wishing I had brought hot chocolate, marshmallows and Nutella. For more nutritious food, a pot that can handle camp fire would give us more options as an addition to the bunsen burner.
