Bennett's first backpacking trip

Lesson #1: don’t rely on a map recon when planning a trip with a 5-6 year-old

Lesson #2: electronics have no place in the backcountry; even for kids

Bennett and I headed out into the Holy Cross Wilderness for a backpacking adventure last weekend. I’m not sure B really knew what he was getting into as he kept telling me during the drive that we were staying at a cabin. I was like, uh, no. We’re not staying in a cabin, unless of course your idea of a cabin is a 20D silnylon tarp with a mesh bug netting underneath.

Anyway, the plan was to drive out to Leadville after work on Friday and car camp up on Haggerman Pass. On Saturday morning we’d head to the very west end of Turquoise Lake and hike a short distance up to Timberline Lake at around 11k feet near the Continental Divide.

Friday night was way buggier than I expected. The mosquitoes were out in force and neither of us were pleased. That and my great idea to replace my trusty Thermarest with a foam pad led to a literally sleepless night. As you can imagine that made for a painful Saturday.

Saturday morning we had breakfast, packed up, and decided to drive up a little further up Haggerman Pass. I really wanted to summit the pass, but it got a little too sketchy and I feared a mechanical issue would lead to a backpacking trip fail, so we pulled the plug. It was a pretty beautiful view from up there regardless. I’m not sure Bennett looked up from the iPhone the whole way. More on that later.

We turned the 4Runner around and made it down to the Timberline Lake TH, loaded up our packs and headed up the trail. This is when I realized I made 2 fatal mistakes that would prove challenging throughout the weekend.

First, I should have done an actual pre-hike to ensure the trail was doable for a 5 year-old. I had never been up to this lake and had only done a map recon. The trail turned out to be really steep and loose in parts. That made for a slow, almost 3-hour long slog up to Timberline Lake. Bennett was not too happy about it and understandably needed to stop every 5 minutes. I was a little frustrated, but tried to keep it to myself as it was understandable. This was my own fault.

Second, I should have locked up Bennett’s iPhone in the truck. Bennett doesn’t have his “own” phone, but Meg and I repurposed an old iPhone 6 so that it has a few games on it for him during car trips. Unfortunately I think this was huge mistake, but that’s a whole other issue. The problem/mistake this weekend was that I allowed him to bring the iPhone with him and he wanted to use it the whole time. There was a lot of yelling and prying to get him off it. I probably should have violated LNT principles and tossed it in the lake. I’ll leave it at that.

After I was able to pry the iPhone away from Bennett he actually had a blast fishing. We borrowed a kids collapsible fishing pole from our neighbor, Dave, and it worked wonderfully. Bennett loved it and was really good at casting. Unfortunately we didn’t catch anything, but that didn’t surprise me as the water was pretty warm and clear.

While fishing around 6:30p a guy approached me asking if I had a map of the area. I didn’t, but offered the Gaia GPS app on my phone. He was looking for a 10th Mountain Division hut that he claimed was on the other side of the lake. I shared that we had hiked to the other side of the lake and I didn’t see anything in real life or on the map. It looked like his wife and young kids were waiting for him on the other side of the and after searching the Gaia GPS map app I shrugged my shoulders and told him I didn’t know what to say. Then his wife yelled over to him and apparently had talked to somebody else who pointed them in the right direction.

The next day I was looking at my Nat Geo map and realized the hut he was seeking, “Uncle Bud’s Hut”, was actually around 6-7 miles away to the northeast on the Colorado Trail. I can only imagine the hell his wife gave him when they realized they were that far off track with only an hour or two of daylight left. It looked like there were 2 minor passes that they had to cross as well. Ugh. Man, I felt horrible for them. Clearly they didn’t have shelter with them if they had hut reservations. I hope they made it there without issue.

Around 2a Bennett woke me up in a frantic, almost catatonic state. He was asking for medicine, claiming his leg hurt, and was shaking. He wasn’t responding to my questions. That freaked me out. Unsure what was happening I gave him some ibuprofen, water, and calmed him down. Thinking back on it, he may have been dreaming and not exactly fully awake. I started to wonder if I should wrap him up in the sleeping bag, stuff him into my pack, abandon camp, and run down to the car so we could head to the local ER in Leadville. I figured that maybe he’d wake up in the process and we could figure out what was really happening. I could always recover the rest of the gear a day or two later. Luckily Bennett calmed down and went back to sleep and I didn’t have to pull the SOS rip cord. That definitely got my blood pressure up and kept me up for most of the night. Ironically he didn’t remember anything the next morning.

Overall it was a good first trip out with Bennett. Not exactly what I was hoping for, but the weather held up and we didn’t have any “real” injuries. Hopefully we can try another trip before 2020 is over.