timmus
Well-known member
***WARNING #1: Do not read this for trail conditions, it’s mostly about emotions and parenthood****
***WARNING #2: My English is not perfect, I hope it won’t annoy you! ***
First of all, it’s been a while since I’ve posted something here on VFTT, but I feel pretty good about sharing this trip. Jean Sebastien (Motabobo) and I became parents of baby Victor last December, and of course that didn’t stop us from hiking. In fact, this backpacking trip started to be planned before we was even born! So, with the amazing weather window we got last week we thought here’s our chance, Victor will visit Thirteen Falls.
It started Saturday afternoon at the Lincoln Woods Trailhead, and everybody talks about bear alerts (see other VFTT TR’s). Now that’s a worry. Because of that we decide to start slowly and spend a night at the Franconia Brook Tent site to see how comfortable we are with bringing our little guy in the backcountry under those circumstances.
It is a quick hike to get there, so we can chill once the camp is set up. Spending time on the riverbank with Victor who’s playing with the rocks is simply delightful. The water is cold, but still he enjoys splashing his feet into the East Branch. We might have to cross that river in the morning, so we analyze it closely. By watching people fording the river, we can tell it’s above the knees but very doable with the heavy packs.
Sunday morning, despite the fact that I have a terrible headache, we decide to break camp and go north on the Franconia Brook Trail, toward Thirteen Falls. We know what to do to avoid bears, and as long as we can use the bear box we are safe. Clothes that gets spilled with milk and banana mess will be placed in the box as well.
The 5 miles between the two camps are done on an easy trail. Those who are familiar with the area know it is actually an old railroad, boarded by numerous 1900’s logging camps. My partner knows a lot about the subject, and his comments are breaking the monotonous hike. The packs are heavy –I carry Victor and his belongings, JS has everything else, and I’m a bit grumpy because of my headache. So it is no surprise that an overflowed diaper triggered bad words out of my mouth (actual words : REALLY, what is fun so far in this trip? Everything is so complicated and I don’t enjoy myself at all!) But as soon as we arrive at destination my head clears up and I finally understand why JS insisted on doing that trip. The water cascades are beautiful, it is remote and quiet, and the tent sites are perfect. There’s even a cooking area with a tarp, and the Caretaker Nick is doing a great job of keeping the place tidy.
At that point we have to admit we have a great outdoor baby. Victor loves the child carrier, he looks around and smiles to everyone. When he cries a little we put him down and let him play with leafs and twigs. At home we do everything to keep the baby clean, here we don’t care, now that’s real vacations!! We spend all our time at the cascades, taking millions of pictures. I’m amazed to see the old metal rods showing where the railroad use to be. Imagining a train right in the middle of the waterfalls is quite a vision! Too fast the sun comes down and more people are joining us at the tent site, we wish a good night sleep to everyone and get into our sleeping bags at the same time than Victor.
Monday morning. Another sunny day is starting and we have to decide what we do: backtrack or make the loop via the Lincoln Brook Trail. I feel much better, and trying a new trail (for me) sounds more fun. I know about the 1000 feet ascent, but no matter what we do I’ll probably complain about tired muscles, heavy packs and bugs, so let’s make it worth the trip!
On the way it’s going so well we start to talk about doing Owl’s Head. That’s a crazy idea, climbing the slide seems impossible with a baby on the back. We’ve been there, we know it’s rocky, steep… but it has great views! The peakbagger inside us is never far, which makes us think how cool it would be if Victor’s first 4K is Owl’s Head. I attack the slide with the living load while JS carries only the essentials (we dropped the fat pack at the junction). Then we switch when we enter the woods, because my legs are done. We get on the ridge, hike to the true summit, and backtrack to the first summit. We make a quick stop to feed the little guy, and then back down on safe ground. It is now 3:30pm, and we are getting hungry. After three days out eating Mountain House all we think about are burgers and comfort. The result of this lack of mental discipline is an unexpected renewal of the physical strength, enough to lead us all the way to the car. The crossings were not a problem and only the feet were painful.
On that day Victor spent 10 hours in the child carrier (about 14.5 miles), it’s a lot and not something we would do every weekend. The only thing I regret is not using the mosquito net we had, because during the last couple of hours he got several black fly bites on the head.
It was an absolutely awesome trip; the millions of pictures we took are precious as they’ll keep the images clear in our memory. My conclusion is this: Happy hiking parents = Happy hiking baby. My wish is that Victor will end up as a Happy hiker one day!
***WARNING #2: My English is not perfect, I hope it won’t annoy you! ***
First of all, it’s been a while since I’ve posted something here on VFTT, but I feel pretty good about sharing this trip. Jean Sebastien (Motabobo) and I became parents of baby Victor last December, and of course that didn’t stop us from hiking. In fact, this backpacking trip started to be planned before we was even born! So, with the amazing weather window we got last week we thought here’s our chance, Victor will visit Thirteen Falls.
It started Saturday afternoon at the Lincoln Woods Trailhead, and everybody talks about bear alerts (see other VFTT TR’s). Now that’s a worry. Because of that we decide to start slowly and spend a night at the Franconia Brook Tent site to see how comfortable we are with bringing our little guy in the backcountry under those circumstances.
It is a quick hike to get there, so we can chill once the camp is set up. Spending time on the riverbank with Victor who’s playing with the rocks is simply delightful. The water is cold, but still he enjoys splashing his feet into the East Branch. We might have to cross that river in the morning, so we analyze it closely. By watching people fording the river, we can tell it’s above the knees but very doable with the heavy packs.
Sunday morning, despite the fact that I have a terrible headache, we decide to break camp and go north on the Franconia Brook Trail, toward Thirteen Falls. We know what to do to avoid bears, and as long as we can use the bear box we are safe. Clothes that gets spilled with milk and banana mess will be placed in the box as well.
The 5 miles between the two camps are done on an easy trail. Those who are familiar with the area know it is actually an old railroad, boarded by numerous 1900’s logging camps. My partner knows a lot about the subject, and his comments are breaking the monotonous hike. The packs are heavy –I carry Victor and his belongings, JS has everything else, and I’m a bit grumpy because of my headache. So it is no surprise that an overflowed diaper triggered bad words out of my mouth (actual words : REALLY, what is fun so far in this trip? Everything is so complicated and I don’t enjoy myself at all!) But as soon as we arrive at destination my head clears up and I finally understand why JS insisted on doing that trip. The water cascades are beautiful, it is remote and quiet, and the tent sites are perfect. There’s even a cooking area with a tarp, and the Caretaker Nick is doing a great job of keeping the place tidy.
At that point we have to admit we have a great outdoor baby. Victor loves the child carrier, he looks around and smiles to everyone. When he cries a little we put him down and let him play with leafs and twigs. At home we do everything to keep the baby clean, here we don’t care, now that’s real vacations!! We spend all our time at the cascades, taking millions of pictures. I’m amazed to see the old metal rods showing where the railroad use to be. Imagining a train right in the middle of the waterfalls is quite a vision! Too fast the sun comes down and more people are joining us at the tent site, we wish a good night sleep to everyone and get into our sleeping bags at the same time than Victor.
Monday morning. Another sunny day is starting and we have to decide what we do: backtrack or make the loop via the Lincoln Brook Trail. I feel much better, and trying a new trail (for me) sounds more fun. I know about the 1000 feet ascent, but no matter what we do I’ll probably complain about tired muscles, heavy packs and bugs, so let’s make it worth the trip!
On the way it’s going so well we start to talk about doing Owl’s Head. That’s a crazy idea, climbing the slide seems impossible with a baby on the back. We’ve been there, we know it’s rocky, steep… but it has great views! The peakbagger inside us is never far, which makes us think how cool it would be if Victor’s first 4K is Owl’s Head. I attack the slide with the living load while JS carries only the essentials (we dropped the fat pack at the junction). Then we switch when we enter the woods, because my legs are done. We get on the ridge, hike to the true summit, and backtrack to the first summit. We make a quick stop to feed the little guy, and then back down on safe ground. It is now 3:30pm, and we are getting hungry. After three days out eating Mountain House all we think about are burgers and comfort. The result of this lack of mental discipline is an unexpected renewal of the physical strength, enough to lead us all the way to the car. The crossings were not a problem and only the feet were painful.
On that day Victor spent 10 hours in the child carrier (about 14.5 miles), it’s a lot and not something we would do every weekend. The only thing I regret is not using the mosquito net we had, because during the last couple of hours he got several black fly bites on the head.
It was an absolutely awesome trip; the millions of pictures we took are precious as they’ll keep the images clear in our memory. My conclusion is this: Happy hiking parents = Happy hiking baby. My wish is that Victor will end up as a Happy hiker one day!
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great tr +pix, this tr made me smile more than once! thanx for sharing! what an awesome family trip, hats off to all 3 of you!
