Car-camping on the shores of Lake Tahoe and beyond can be a great way to get little kids ready for the bigger reward—backpacking. Just don’t linger there too long and stay focused on the goal of getting into the backcountry as soon as possible. This brief post is related to another article, Top five first backpacking …
In a previous article, Backpacking with Kids in Tahoe-Tips for Success, I describe a dawning realization that an article written a few years ago, Backpacking around Tahoe with Kids in Tow, needed a serious update. I had described our first camping and backpacking trips we had taken with our young godchildren but never re-visited whether those …
Diane wrote to me early in the summer to ask some questions about backpacking with kids. We kept up a lively correspondence and as Diane got further in her planning we realized that she, her 6 year old daughter, Joanna, and husband, Pepe, would be passing right by our house in Alpine Meadows as they …
In an article I wrote several years ago, Backpacking around Tahoe with Kids in Tow, I described our progression of backpacking with our godchildren, Taira and Chase, now 16 and 14, from the time they were tiny tots. What I neglected to include were my recommendations for others who want to introduce their children to …
In Part 1, BACKPACKING WEBBER LAKE TO DONNER SUMMIT ON THE PCT, we trekked from near Webber Lake to White Rock Lake on a pleasant six mile stretch of the Pacific Crest Trail near Lake Tahoe. In Part 2 we set off toward Paradise Lake, where we hope that it will be warm enough to swim …
The backpacking trip I look forward to each year is not the longest, hardest or most exotic, it’s the one we take in Tahoe with our godson, Chase, and his mom, Laura. We used to be a group of six, but goddaughter Taira, at 16, is focused on water polo, and her dad, Ken, is …
“This is awesome!” seven year old Chase exclaimed excitedly. What got him so excited? Disneyland? Action figures? Trucks? No, he was building a dam in a shallow creek to catch the elusive fingerling trout slipping by. We were deep in the Granite Chief Wilderness on a multi-day backpacking trip and his face reflected pure joy …
“How much longer? Are we almost there?” The familiar refrain from our godchildren came, not in a car, but in the Sierra wilderness, as they shouldered heavy backpacks and bent toward the granite formations as we neared the summit, having gained 1,000 feet of elevation in about 2 miles when we went backpacking to Loch …