As a kid my parents shared their love of the outdoors, passed on I’m told from my grand parents, and while we as family never did more than day hike together, some how that lead to my love of backwoods hiking and camping. I’ve since sectioned hiked the AT a bit, “bike” camped, and now, in my latest incarnation car camped.

I never would have thought it.

But my wife is more of a city girl, and so far my son is a city boy as well. Now he’s young, and there’s plenty of time for him to develop the put it on your back and walk aesthetic I enjoy so much, but I recognize that if I’m going to maximize my own outdoor time, it’s going to be with necessary compromises on how I go about that… so car camping it is. Recently, The Kid slept in a tent all night with me for the first time and loved it. He’s hiked up various paths in NY, ME, and NH… and loves rock climbing (like many kids). I appear to be off to a good start.

Some unexpected additions?

A solar chargeable battery arrangement that allows my son to use his devices. We also have the ability to recharge it from the car, and or run various things while in the car. There’s more LED lights than I would have expected, but they do make it easy to see. There’ll be more cooking related things than I would have thought. We have an excellent cooler that will hold ice for days (or other things frozen or cool).

In short, there’s way more gear than I ever considered in my light and ultra-light days. but it sure does make it homey regardless of where we hang out.

If anyone cares for details about what gear we’re using… feel free to get in touch.