We wanted to do something special for Owen's birthday, and we knew he loved going for hikes in his backpack and he liked camping. We decided the time was perfect to take him on his first backpacking trip. We picked Sespe Creek above Ojai for a few reasons: (1) we knew we could find a spot to camp close enough to the car and trail head that we could easily get back to safety if something went wrong on this first backpack outing; (2) we had a safe place to stay at Lena's house if we needed to bail at the last minute; (3) the creek was running and the weather would be perfect; and (4) our friend Doug was in town from Alaska and wanted to have dinner with us in Ventura on Sunday evening, so being in Ojai set us up perfectly to meet the next day.
I'm not going to lie, I was a little nervous about going backpacking. From the outside, it must seem like we are a crazy family that does wild things without thinking much about it. That just isn't the whole story. We think about it a lot. And we plan. And we prepare. We do everything we can to minimize the risks of the activity so that the risks are small enough to make us feel safe in the decisions we are making.
More than that, we have thought a lot about our priorities as a family, and we've realized that spending time outside together is very important. We feel like better versions of ourselves, more grounded people, and refreshed when we make that a priority. I can go on and on about why we think spending time outside is important, but I'll save some space here, and just say that it works for us, and we want to inspire others to have the courage to find out if it works for them.
I interact with other like-minded people and families, and the thought of taking an 11.5 month old backpacking didn't seem out of the ordinary to many of them. They were just excited for us. But I was nervous just like any other mom would be. Will Owen be cold at night? Better pack the snow bunting (which was completely over the top, by the way). Will he be comfortable sleeping with us? Of course he was, silly. Will we be able to find the car in the dark if we need to leave? If the 6 foot wide walking path still wasn't big enough, the backtrack feature on my GPS would get us there. We would be fine.
So we took off for a quick overnight with our son Owen, who seems to love being outside as much as we do. Here are the photos from our weekend, from our arrival in Ventura on Saturday morning, to backpacking, surfing, and meeting up with friends for Easter dinner. We hope you enjoy this story through photographs.
The trip started at our favorite breakfast restaurant in Ventura, then to the beach to play and for mom and dad to surf.
After nap, we arrived in Ojai for lunch at Farmer and the Cook. This trip was as much about the adventure as it was about food!
After lunch, we headed up to Sespe Creek off Rose Valley Road and started our hike. Lots of families were on the trail to play in the water, and Owen had many fans stop and say hi.
We hiked for 45 minutes and found a nice spot near the creek. Brandon set up camp while Owen and I played in the water. We didn't realize it, but we were eaten by gnat-like flies. Luckily, Owen wasn't bit up like us.
We played until dinner (who can say no to freeze-dried mac and cheese?) and then bed. Owen had so much action during the day, he passed out while drinking his bottle. Success!
We fell asleep to the sound of the creek and the singing frogs.
Owen slept (relatively) decently. We discovered the tent was the perfect pen toy for him. He could see everything outside and hold the sides of the tent, and when he fell, he would roll around on the sleeping bags. He thought it was the best thing ever.
We hiked out later that morning, and timed it with Owen's nap. He slept in his backpack the whole hike back.
We made it back to the car!
We headed into Ojai for lunch at Rainbow Bridge Market. Owen again ate all of our food.
After lunch we went to the beach to surf and wash off the trail dust.
Playin in the closed up camper is so fun
Insect damage from the night before. Brutal!
Happy Easter!
Then it was time to meet Doug, Jen and Lena for dinner. It was great to catch up with old friends at our favorite sushi restaurant, I Love Sushi
