Every year, for their birthdays, I take each of my children on a backpacking trip, just the two of us. They love it, and so do I. I posted a couple videos about my daughter's trip last summer, and now it's Tyler's turn. He wanted to go on the same route his sister did, so he could see the same sights that were in her videos. It's really a great route and is short enough to allow lots of exploring during an overnight trip, and not have to rush any hiking.
We parked at Gray's Arch trailhead, hiked down to the Rough Trail, and followed that to Gray's Arch and then on around to Pinch-em-tight trail, checking out the clifflines and rock shelters along the way. We took Pinch-em-tight to Tunnel Ridge Road and hiked that the short distance back to the car. We got rained on overnight, but stayed high and dry until we started back on Pinch-em-tight. Then, we got royally drenched. The rain was heavy enough I could not see the adjacent ridges, and the trail filled to several inches deep, running in rapids. A few thunderclaps made it pretty scary for Tyler, but he kept bravely going. Just as the rain let up a bit we made it back to the car and dry clothes, then went for burgers. Neither of us wanted to leave.
I can't fully express how awesome it is to spend that much quality time with one of your children. You can connect and share like you can't at home. My kids would agree with that. For now, they still look forward to these trips. Hopefully they will still want to do them in 10 years.
Hope you enjoy the videos!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQ7GV__icdE
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