The Joint Trail Backpacking Menu

     Growing up we either ate really well backpacking or else food just tastes so much better when you are tired, hungry, and there's not any other option.  Here's a menu of what we ate. We brought Karen along who is the best cook I know, so we ate better than ever!!
      Day 1:
           breakfast at home
           lunch: Roadburgers, home grown peaches, and raw broccoli in the parking lot.
                      Roadburgers are ground beef mixed with cream of mushroom soup served on a roll or bun.  We have this awesome travel cooker called a Rock Pot. Sorry, they are not made anymore, but you could put the meat in a thermos or something to keep it warm.
          dinner: We bought sandwiches and salads in a grocery store in Moab and just packed them in.

     Day 2:
          breakfast: Karen's homemade granola and whole wheat berry muffins
          lunch: mini bagels with pb (I stole a bunch of pb packets from a hotel earlier this year), homemade raspberry jam, mandarin orange cups, and apples.  Since we had to carry in all our water anyway, I splurged on the mandarin orange cups. They were a huge hit!!
          dinner: Ground beef, Lipton rice packets with dried peas all rehydrated with the  backpacking stove.  The kids cooked up seconds on this meal and ate all of it!!

     Day 3:
          breakfast: instant oatmeal and hot cocoa/ leftover bagels from lunch the day before
          lunch:  Chicken salad pitas (canned chicken mixed with mayo, craisins, nuts, etc)
          dinner: we were out by about 2pm so we stopped and got dinner at our favorite hamburger joint in Green River, Utah. Ray's Tavern! Best hamburger ever! They are so big I usually split a meal with someone!

     We supplemented with granola bars, jerky sticks, fruit leather, fruit bites, trail mix, candy, etc.  (Some of the links on this post are affiliate links)

Backpacking with Kids, What to Pack!!

    Pack List for the Joint Trail Backpacking Trip 

     I gave an overview of this trip in my last post, so look that up if you want those details.  This was a three day two night desert backpacking trip.  As with most adventures with kids, probably the hardest part of our backpacking trip to the Joint Trail was the prep.  The first problem was finding a backpack small enough for a super skinny, 50 lb. ten year old.  I borrowed a couple but the waist belts were too big.  Karen stopped by Recreation Outlet to see if she could find something for her daughter and lucked out! The backpack actually adjusted small enough for my skinny mini, Karen got it for $35!! I went down to Recreation Outlet and guess what? The backpacks were on sale!  I did the usual anyway and asked at the counter if they would give me a deal if I buy two.  I walked out of there with two kid sized backpacks for $22 each!
     They aren't super sturdy and I wouldn't recommend buying them if you plan to backpack every weekend, but for $22 we can take them on one or two trips a year and my kids will outgrow them long before they wear out!!  The blue backpack is a little smaller, a 42 Liter, but it carried plenty of weight for a 10 year old.

    The orange backpack is a 55 Liter. It carried a bit more weight but didn't ride as comfortably.  The pouch on the top was a little in the way, though I think we got it adjusted eventually to be more comfortable.
      Here is a list of what I had the kids wear for hiking.
(Some of these links are affiliate)

• pants or leggings
• t shirt
• hiking socks
• hiking boots
• sun hat 

     Here is our pack list: actually in the pack.  This is a desert specific list and we had no water source so we had to pack in all water but we didn't have to take a water purifier.

• 1 pair pants (leggings)
• t shirt
• long sleeve shirt
• 2 pairs underwear
• 2 change of socks
• warm fleece jacket
• sleep clothes
• winter hat
• gloves
• small rope
• candle
• matches
• lightweight shoes to wear around camp
• camera to share
• lightweight poncho (from the $1 store)
• whistle
• toothbrush
• toothpaste to share
• wash cloth or small towel
• dish soap to share
• hand sanitizer
• food divided
• toilet paper
• human waste disposal bags, we took 3 of them for a group of 7 (you can buy these at the visitor center)
• headlamp
• map
• playing cards to share
• chap stick
• small book to read
• first aid kit to share (band aids, ointment, suture, ibuprofen, any other meds, feminine hygiene items, sunscreen, etc)
• plastic bowl/spoon/knife/fork (we have a combo utensil)
• stove to share and fuel and a coffee can to cook with
• tent to share
• water bottles and bladders (at least a gallon each)
• sleeping pad
• sleeping bag
• ear plugs
• comb/extra hair elastics
• bandana
• walking stick
• baby wipes

     A few items I was really glad we took were baby wipes, chap stick, and ear plugs (snoring is a trait commonly inherited in my family and I'm not used to sleeping near my kids!!)

     One thing I really wished I had was a sleeping eye mask (it was a full moon and clear skies!!), luckily my mom had an extra and shared with me. She also brought a neck pillow. I might do that in the future!!

     I packed a bag of clean clothes, underwear, socks, shampoo etc in the car for when we were done. We filled some solar showers and left them in the car when we left. When we got back to the truck we all rinsed off and put on clean clothes. It was so much more comfortable for the drive home.

The Joint Trail, Canyonlands National Park, Utah

     It's been years since I've posted. I don't know if I even remember how!! I had a baby I took camping last time and then another surprise joined our family in 2015! So now we are a family of 8!! I never thought I would have so many kids!  We've still been camping, I just haven't been writing about it. Camping is really the only thing we can afford to do with so many of us!!

     Last fall I had the hair brained idea that I wanted to get out and backpack again!! It had been more than 10 years since I had been out with everything I needed on my back into the woods.  So my friend Karen and I cooked up the idea of taking our oldest girls on their first backpacking trip.  S and A are both 10 years old.  Karen's oldest E, is 9 years old.  They are all pretty good hikers.  They had a Friday off school at the end of September so we decided to go for it.  Karen had hiked The Joint trail years ago and thought it would be a good place to take beginners.  The Joint Trail is in the Needles Section of Canyonlands National Park about an hour from Moab, Utah.

     We convinced my parents to join us for extra support and let's be honest, to help carry the weight, haha!!  In my mind I pictured walking on an established trail in the desert through miles of sage brush! Boy was I wrong. I'm glad my girls are so tough or this trail would have destroyed them.  It was up and down, over and through with more elevation change than I ever expected as we traversed through canyons and washes.  It was the prettiest place I think I have ever seen! I love desert camping! I feel at home around red rock and sandstone!
     We started in the Elephant Canyon parking lot and took the Elephant Canyon trail into Kesler Park.  It was about 3.5 miles from the parking lot to our first camp site.  We spent three days and two nights camping.  The first night we stayed in Kesler Park Campsite #1.  It was definitely the prettiest campsite in the area.  In the future I think I would try and reserve that spot for all the nights we are there.  In the morning we picked up and moved to Campsite #5 to stay for a night.  Ideally we wouldn't have had to move to another campsite, but we planned this trip late and didn't have many camping options.

 



















    We spent a day hiking The Joint. The Joint is about a mile long slot canyon that you can hike through.  It's like God took a pie cutter and cut waffle marks in the rock. There are side canyons branching off in perpendicular directions.  We had so much fun exploring all the canyons we could fit through.  There was one crack the kids explored that I couldn't even squeeze into.  They had a riot!!
     My favorite part of the trip was leaving my busy, harried, anxiety ridden life behind for 4 days.  It's such relief to only worry about your basic needs for 4 days.  Do we have enough food and water? Will we stay dry if it rains? Are we warm enough? I left drama home. No worrying about if the cleanliness of my house is tolerable, or if I'm going to make it to the carpool in time, or if so and so is going to eat his dinner or choose to go to bed hungry.  We had some awesome meals.  There's a reason why we like to bring Karen the gourmet cook on our adventures!!   Life is so simple when backpacking.  The food tastes so good, the water satisfies so much more, and the clean up is so quick!!
     Overall, the best part was spending 4 days and 3 nights of uninterrupted time with my girls, my parents, and Karen and her daughter.  We played card games, went exploring, and enjoyed the scenery.
     I'm hoping to revive the blog and be more regular in posting from now on. I hope to start by posting more details about this trip: including, menus, pack lists, gear reviews, etc.  Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions and I can hopefully address them!!