BACKPACKING WITH BOWDEN (or P is for Promise)

 For quite some time Bowden has been asking me to take him on a "real adventure" into the woods, which means go way, way out, maybe kill something, maybe construct a shelter, and defnitely put ourselves into positions that may call for Bear-Grylls-type survival skills. You can only say "not today," and "sometime soon" so many times before you start feeling like a horrible Father. So finally in a rash moment I blurted out, "Bowden, we can't go this week, but I promise next week we'll go." I promised. Let that be a lesson to all you Fathers of young boys out there. That word, "Promise," is binding. So even though the forecast was calling for rain and possibly even snow overnight I loaded up my Uncle Brad's old backpack and Bowden and I headed out into the big woods. Originally my plan was to hike Tahquitz Peak, then find some place to camp in the National Forest before coming home the next morning, but with temps in the low thirties, and a storm blowing in overnight I opted for a shorter hike out to Suicide Rock (3.3 miles one way, 6.6 round trip). Bowden was beyond excited.

Before heading out we stopped and prayed to the wild God of adventure to keep us safe during our time up in the lonely places.

 I made Bowden work. That pack wasn't for show. He packed in pretty much all of our food as well as some other items. The day of the hike up to suicide rock it was actually very warm. Bowden opted to go shirtless like a savage most of the way.

 Taking a break. Bowden didn't complain at all. He's a stout little guy. The only thing that betrayed that he was feeling tired was that occasionally he would say "Lets stop here and take in the view." I know soon I'll be the one slowing him down so I took as many breaks as he needed. We stopped to take in the view quite a bit on the way up, but he would run the entire way down to where we ended up camping.

 A stream. Bowden wanted to explore up the stream. I told him that would be an adventure for another day.

 Finally we made it up to the rock. The view from up there was amazing. Bowden and I both peed on top of the rock to show it who was boss. The fun thing was that during the entire hike Bowden and I laughed and talked the whole way. I can't wait to see what kind of a man he'll grow into.

 After taking in the view from up top we found a nice flat spot and set up camp. The first order of business was to construct some kind of toilet, which Bowden dubbed "The Official Toilet." I modeled the construction of our toilet off of on one I saw in a Martha Stewart magazine once (J/K) by jamming an oak branch down between two boulders.

 Then Bowden and I modeled how to use it.

Pretty sweet, right?

 The tent.

 Wood fires are strictly forbidden in the San Jacinto Mountains so I used a little sterno canister to heat water so that I could make our food and hot cocoa.

 While I was making dinner, Bowden constructed this "cupboard" out of sheets of oak bark.. As the sun went down there was a chilly edge to the wind which grew increasingly bitter as the night went on. It was a long night. It was cold and windy with periodic showers of rain.

 In the morning it was not fit for man nor beast outside. We both woke up at four am, and it was way too dark to even think of trying to head down off the mountain. (Although Bowden and I were both longing for the comforts of home by that point.) I started boiling some water and Bowden warmed his hands by placing them on the tea kettle. I had brought along some dehydrated meals, which were light weight , and all that was required to prepare them was to pour a couple cups of boiling water into the pouch and seal it back up. They were surprisingly good. For dinner the night before I made Beef Stroganoff and Teriyaki Rice, and for breakfast I made a caramel apple crunch. Yummy! However, after pouring the water into the caramel apple crunch pouch it bgan to rain in earnest so we took up the packs and, using the flashlight we made our way back out to the trail and down the mountain. I carried our breakfast with me and we ate it once we got back home. When we finally got back home Bowden said of the warmth, "It's like I'm sitting in the middle of a big cup of cocoa!"

It was a blast! I can't wait to do it again, and what's really exciting, Bowden can't either.