Camping with Little Kids

Want to see more of our camping posts? Click here to see posts with previous adventures and our gear suggestions. Or maybe you just want to come along with us on a day hike?

One of the things Calder and I are really looking forward to are camping adventures with the boys, but somehow we’ve had a hard time making time/plans for a trip this summer. Side note : since moving to Colorado, we’ve learned that you have to plan these trips in advance if you want to secure a site at a campground. Reservations are scooped up as soon as they come online! If you aren’t able to reserve a spot, there are some campgrounds that hold a few spots open for first-come-first-serve arrivals, but we’ve been too lazy to go through the effort of packing the car and taking the risk.  We know we could just head out into the wilds, but again, we’ve been lazy.

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As luck would have it, friends (hi Neha!) of ours were going on trip with a few other families, some sites opened up, and we were able to take one. Score! Alex is just a few months past his second birthday and Luc is four months old, so this was our first trip with both a toddler and an infant, and I thought it might be useful to share our tips/tricks for a super easy and enjoyable weekend camping trip. As you’ll see, we kept everything so simple for this trip. If you’re hesitant about camping with kids, I want to encourage you to do it and show you how it can be done without a lot of stress, tears, or baby gear. Of course, if gear is your thing, then pack on :-).

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Mt. Judah Hike

We like a good hike, and every once in a while we have the chance to hike slow, take pictures, and share the adventure with you. This is our first hike in California, but you can check out some of our previous Colorado hikes here.

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Trail Location:

We found this particular hike in a book of trails that was in the house, but you can easily find information about it here and here. The trail is in the Northern Sierras, near Truckee, CA, and it’s just 4 miles from the Soda Springs exit on Route 80. It’s proximity to the highway makes it an easy and worthwhile stop if you’re on a road trip. There is ample parking in the lot next to the Sugar Bowl Academy (we visited in summer, I’m not sure if the parking situation changes when school is in session). From there, you have to take a short walk down the side road to get to the trailhead. You could also drive down that road and park at the trailhead, but I’m not sure how crowded that area gets on the weekend.

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Trail Overview :

The total distance for this hike is about 4.5 miles. You begin on the Pacific Coast Trail, hiking towards the Sugar Bowl Ski Resort, and on one of the runs is where you’ll bump into the Mount Judah Trail. You could take a left there and head up the trail, but we continued on the PCT and took the second intersection with the Mount Judah trail (there are only two points of intersection). Whichever way you connect to Mount Judah, you’ll end up hiking the one initial PCT section both in and out to the parking area.

This hike is marked as moderate in the trail guides, and I would agree. The most difficult portion is the initial (and final) ascent (decent) on the PCT. The terrain is rocky, the trail relatively narrow, and the incline steep, but after those switchbacks, the rest of the trail is much less rocky with a more gradual climb. The trail covers a total elevation gain of about 1000 ft.

Side note : someone in our group was concerned about going on this hike with a bum knee, then Calder’s sister reminded them that they would be hiking with a septuagenarian, a pregnant lady, and a lady with a baby… if our rag-tag bunch could handle this hike, then most readers probably can too!

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Welcome August!

On the first Wednesday of each month we like to pause and take a look at what’s going on in the world around us.

Just like last August, we’re fighting the melancholy feeling we get knowing that summer is more than half over. Although, we’ve planned accordingly this year and are ending summer with a bang. Sarah’s getting ready for a photo exhibit, followed immediately by the annual Schufest that she and our other siblings put on at the farm in PA. All of that comes after she flies out to Colorado for a quick visit and to help me wrangle these two boys on our trip east where we’ll spend a month at the beach (hoping to avoid Mary Lee!). It’s going to be a fun month!

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In anticipation of our beach trip, this post is filled with photos from past visits. If these photos having you craving more, you can check out the posts from last summer. There are some photos from life on the island. Many of the men on the island work in the seafood industry, either hauling in oysters or hatching softshell crabs. The island itself is surrounded by miles (and miles!) of tidal saltwater marsh, we love it so much that we put together a little profile of our favorite ecosystem. This year we’re so excited to see the island, the beaches, and the water through the eyes of two-year-old Alex!

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Chicken with Preserved Lemons

Lemon is our ingredient of the season! So far we’ve used it in a bucklein barsin a savory pasta, popsicles, and in the shower.

If there’s one thing making this chicken with preserved lemons dish confirmed, it’s that Calder and I fall hard for main dishes with a mix strong flavors. For example, this dish calls for fresh and preserved lemons, fresh ginger, garlic, onions, olives, and cilantro (wow!). I would never dream of putting that many flavors together on my own, and I wouldn’t have the confidence to assume that they would go well with chicken. BUT when flipping through cookbooks, that’s just the sort of edgy combination that jumps out and gets me excited to try a new recipe. Such was the scene last week when I pulled our Tagines & Couscous cookbook off the shelf.

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Stop. Do you know what a tagine (also spelled tajine) is? It was only in the past few years that I learned, and then we received a beautiful tagine as a wedding gift. A tagine is a piece of cookware from North Africa that’s made of clay and is sometimes glazed or painted. It’s made of two pieces, the bottom is flat with low sides, the top is cone-shaped. The top’s shape is meant to allow condensation to form and drip back down into the bottom of the dish. While tagines are traditionally used to cook over hot coals, they can also be used on traditional stovetops and in the ovens.

Funny thing – ours is so beautiful that I still haven’t gotten up the courage to actually use it. I’m scared it’ll break! Luckily, even if you don’t have a tagine, you can still make many of the recipes that call for them using a heavy-bottomed pot, like a dutch oven. That’s what I did for this dish.

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Seasoned View: Vol 17

Each month we share our Seasoned View.  Snapshots of nature and daily life taken by the Seasoned sisters. Find last month’s past months’ here.

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Happy Monday! It’s August. Holy crap. Time to get movin’ on all your summer plans.  This month will surely be my busiest and most fun yet.  I actually have to work on another task so I’ll keep it brief.  You can upload one or all of these photos to use as your desktop background or as phone and tablet wallpapers.  Simply click on the download link below each photo and save the image.  Enjoy!

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