Spent the weekend camping with the family. Relaxing and challenging at the same time as we had our a 9 month old and a 4 year old. Ah, the great outdoors!

Well, at least it wasn’t really camping – it was car camping, which means schlep all your gear up to the campsite and unload the portable stove, tents and bikes and spend the weekend enjoying the fresh air. Here’s an aerial view of the campsite and as you can see we’ve got plenty of neighbors.

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The trek was about 4 hours and we left around noon – perfect timing as the drool machine was busy napping in his car seat.

Every camping trip is a learning experience and this trip, I learned that having extra space to pack things is great. We purchased the Sherpak Go! 15 Roof Bag for the trip, and what a difference it made. With the extra space I didn’t have to break out the Tetris skills of packing and we were able to take along our chariot bike trailer to tow the kids around as we visited our friend’s campsites.

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My wife and I also purchased bikes for the trip. I got a Marin Bobcat, and she got a Marin as well, but hers was more geared towards the street ride, and even had a little shock absorber in the seat post.

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There used to be a time when I went camping by tossing a backpack full of clothes and an external frame backpack with a sleeping bag strapped to it into the trunk of my car and headed for the wilderness. Welcome to family life!