Finally, got the stars to align and took my 7 year old son on his first REAL backwoods trip. Decided on taking him to the ole' standby spot of Hidden Pond in the Ocala NF. Took the Hidden Pond Short trail in since it was his first time carrying a pack, which pretty much had most of his gear for the 3 days. He made the hike in just fine only commenting on minor bouts of an uncomfortable pack and feet (we found out only a few days before that he had outgrown his hiking boots, and we didn't have the time to replace so he was in tennis shoes. Held off on his snack till we got on the Florida Trail. Then on into camp. Got us both set up and camp made pretty quickly. He had mac and cheese for lunch, I skipped lunch due to a late breakfast. We then had an H-Hour, which is an hour where you have to be horizontal and quiet. You don't have to sleep, but can read, listen top music, or if you're me sleep. Then slathered on the sunscreen and hit the pond. Wow the pond was SUPER low. Definitely lower than I have seen it before. But no matter, he played in it for 2 hours. He had MH lasagna for dinner (which he liked), I had a Knorr Teriyaki noodles with Thai chili tuna, yea...not so much. The first night didn't go all that well sleep wise. Before leaving the nighttime low was 69, so i didn't worry about an underquilt for either of us, which we have done multiple times. Well...it got down to 65, and we were both cold, we did have PLTQs but both suffered from CBS. He eventually climbed into the hammock with me and he slept the rest of the night...me not so much.
Day 2 we pretty much just played around camp and avoided the heat, which remained difficult.Oatmeal for breakfast and mac and cheese for lunch again (his choice) Almost 3 hours in the pond, came across a few day hikers, crazy kids. I cant imagine putting in 20+ miles on the FL in that heat with no shade. Taught my son all the finer points of pooping in the woods, filtering water, and those blasted barking spiders. the ticks were pretty terrible, my son's tally by the end of the trip was 15, luckily non had attached. Our hammocks were soaked in permetherin, but i hadn't gotten our clothes before leaving. Dinner was Knorr Fired Rice and a chicken packet, would do that again. It fed us both. Had a little battle with homesickness, but we pushed through. Slept much better on night 2 with a low of 72.
Day 3 started early, as I promised to get us out and back home early from the night before. All we really had to back up was food and our hammocks. Oatmeal for breakfast then it was on the trail by 7:00am. I think this was the only time i have hiked out of HP and not been beat down by the sun. We beat it for the most part, where the scrubs still gave us a bit of shade and the heat had not started yet. Made it back to the car just fine. On the way back home we stopped at a little diner and had 2nd breakfast. Pretty humbling experience going into a public place after being in the woods for a few days, normally I do not notice folks, but this time I for sure did. Eh, oh well,
Overall a great trip, I think my son experienced more than he thought he would. It was a very different trip than we have taken in the past. He seemed to have fun, still on the fence of joining me in September for the "Summer's Last Gasp" Hang, but he has some time to marinate on that.
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