Tayson: Hey what's up everybody welcome back to the Live Ultralight podcast powered by Outdoor Vitals today we are going to be talking through a trip that I did as a little over a month ago I've been so busy that I haven't been able to record this but um it was a personal trip that I took where I took my little boy out on a backpacking trip that's something I like to do with him at least once a year and so this was like our dedicated trip and we went and staged out of my parents home and while we were there I decided kind of last minute to invite my dad to come along with us and so with that um we went out on a trip where we were you know we're doing some fishing and.
Tayson: Just trying to make the trip all about my little boy Atlas and him having a great time out there and so today in this podcast I wanted to go over that and basically walk you through that trip how it turned out um some of the fun that we had some of the lessons that were learned and at the end of this I do want to share a pretty big takeaway that I had that really really stood out to me um on this trip so so the trip um yeah so the trip started and and I apologize this is this is I don't need like a title for this uh you know talks with Tayson or something like that but I do appreciate you guys joining me I'm gonna pop this open here and uh.
Tayson: Just kind of sit back and hopefully tell a story have a good time and like I say hopefully we'll you know at the end of this I'll kind of wrap it into some of my big takeaways and thoughts of the trip but um I'm not sure which will come first but I just did a podcast interviewing a gentleman by the name of Brandon and he had a lot of tips we talked the entire podcast is just about taking kids outdoors and getting them backpacking and a couple years back now so I think this is the third year in a row that I've taken Atlas on a backpacking trip with me um I I've been inspired by Brandon to try to do this a lot more throughout the year um and and figure out how to.
Tayson: Do that better but these trips have been super fun and and well worth it Atlas looks forward to them so much and I think I think it's just honestly because they've become so special because we make them specifically about him so typically I'll plan these so that they go to a lake you know lakes and creeks and stuff like that are things that kids can have an infinite amount of fun with whether it's from fishing throwing rocks throwing sticks uh you know or just anything of that there's kind of a destination to get to and and something that they really enjoy and I typically like to find ones that are off the beaten path a little bit and that's that's been a you know a good recipe I guess you could say last year I.
Tayson: Took him into this area that was it was only a mile in but it was about a thousand feet of elevation climb so it was like straight up for one mile and he did an awesome job I really focused on not on making it good for him and so the way that I did that with the hike was basically he carried nothing except for a trekking pole he had a single trekking pole and a backpack that was full of a snack that he chose which was uh backpack full of high chews so you know he'd hike as far as he could he'd stop he'd get out of high chew he'd eat and he'd walk a little more and you know just a lot of patience I think is required to to do this but he.
Tayson: Did an awesome job had a lot of fun it was a really good time so this year really wanted to um go and do the same thing so I plotted out this new area that I'd never been to before had kind of heard from someone that there's some really good fishing up in this area and uh wanted to see if we could push Atlas a little bit more so the the trail itself was two miles and about 900 feet of elevation over the course of those two miles so a lot less aggressive a little bit less climbing than the year before so I thought he could we could do a pretty decent job with this and and do well and as we went over to Grandma's house and we're going um kind of decided last.
Tayson: Minute you know I've got almost all the gear and to take my dad with me and um you know he's he's honestly never really backpacked I guess I didn't realize this I think I asked him on that trip you know how many times he'd been backpacking and the first time was the time that he came with me and then this time so this is literally a second backpacking trip of all time you know my little five-year-old's been on more backpacking trips than my dad had so I thought it was a good opportunity to take him out and that's one of the goals I've kind of had lately with him too is to get him out there get him a little bit more comfortable with the idea of backpacking and just kind of open up that.
Tayson: World to him so really two two birds with one stone I guess you could say and bringing them both out there and and hopefully making a good go of this so um so yeah we dial in some of the gear that my dad will need um he packs it but really same scenario applied for my dad as my boy which was try to get as much weight off of him as he can um wouldn't wouldn't say he's someone who is Super Active uh as far as hiking and some of that goes and so you know this this hike wouldn't be hard it wouldn't be easy for him I guess I should say I don't think it was going to be hard for him but you know the lighter I can make it the more enjoyable.
Tayson: It's gonna be for him you know and and so the goal was to just try to put as much stuff as I could in my pack and go and so we drive out there we get to the trailhead and my pack at that point was probably just under 30 pounds between water food and and basically everyone's gear and so in my pack I had you know my Dad's sleeping pad I had a two-person tent I had an extra top quilt a lot of these were actually things I was going to bring anyways for Atlas so I already had those in there um I had atlas's extra clothes I think I had three fishing poles because I thought I would do some fly fishing as well as bring atlas's fishing pole and a fishing pole for.
Tayson: My dad uh might have just been two I can't remember on that one though um I had it hammock because I thought Atlas might enjoy hanging out in the hammock I had a chair because it was going to be a little bit more relaxed of a trip had a lot of extra food and then and then the water so compared to what I typically might be at the start of a trip you know let's see let's say loaded on on the hoof you know 17 to 20 pound you know backpack weight I was I was really up close to 30 pounds um but anyways we got in here and started hiking and this Trail was was really unique because it was there's like no one who hikes in here it's just like this Trail that's.
Tayson: Not really a trail at times to get in there goes up to this kind of secret Lake that's just tucked up behind a little bit of private property Down Below in the in the valley and so um I love to talk to Atlas and kind of make it this this uh experience of like we're going to the secret Lake you know it's it's it's a kind of exclusive feeling I think he really loves that in fact the year before we went to a different secret Lake you know and and I think he just really enjoys you know trying to make it special like that so um started hiking and honestly Atlas did not make it uh far at all before he started you know are we there yet and and just kind of struggling so.
Tayson: Started having a lot of stops earlier on and that was you know a good exercise in patience so all you dads out there or parents uh be better way to say that that are taking your kids out getting them out there I think just go into it with no expectations of time go into it with a very level head and knowing that you will have uh some patients required um as for me it was like I was judging so much of it based off the your previous and thinking oh he did this effort now he's another year older and kids grow fast and get strong a lot you know in these younger ages and so I was like well he he should be able to do this this will be you know elevation wise it's.
Tayson: Even less than last year even though it's two miles um but the fact of the matter is you know kids are either in it or they're out of it sometimes and so he was he was kind of struggling a bit I think to stay focused on it and we were not very far in uh probably a quarter of a mile before I started trading off between him hiking and me putting him on my shoulders so uh this was a great test for the shadow light because I was basically carrying between 30 and 70 pounds because my boy's about 40 or a little over 40 pounds and I was trying to set him up up on the frame so that it could kind of shift the weight down to my hips so that was that was.
Tayson: A good test for the shadow light um it was it was uh but it was good hiking was pretty good it was really pretty um just going through these Meadows that were basically untouched because this just isn't really a destination that people go to a lot of elk sign in there really pretty um and yeah just a pretty Pleasant hike in stopped a handful of times for snacks and and breaks and um just looking at some of the terrain and so it's really pretty but as we got higher up it was cool because we started to walk uh kind of along this draw I guess you'd say that you could tell it's going to go up to the lake and then it but it was cool because it it came up and it looked like.
Tayson: It was just going to be kind of this background of cliffs behind it and then the lake so we uh you know we hiked up through there it's really pretty get to the lake you know and uh it's just a cool setting took us a little bit to kind of navigate around the lake and find a spot to camp but eventually found a spot to camp and and that chapter I guess of getting in there was done and when we first got there there was just all sorts of these these little boils looks like fish you know boils on the top of the water and I was like man the fishing is going to be great this is this is gonna be a really uh good time and uh so set up camp I had.
Tayson: A two-person 40th setup and then uh blew up the pads set up the hammock so Atlas my dad kind of hung out in the hammock and and uh had a good time using the uh I put a man I'm gonna it's been a minute since I've been really into hammocks and uh but there's we had a Ridgeline that's what I'm thinking I had a Ridgeline in there they were launching sticks off of the Ridgeline as high as they could and as they were laying in it and just having a really good time and uh so I got I got camp set up and decided hey let's let's go try to do some fishing and I get down there and I start casting and I'm casting and there's you know no bites and I'm looking and.
Tayson: I'm watching I'm thinking something's something's a little off here like I haven't seen a fish jump I've just seen like these bubbles on the top of the water it boils on the top of the water and uh so I kept fishing and I was watching and I'm like man this is so weird and then I'm out on this log so I kind of walk up out on this log and I I'm fishing I look down and I can see a fish ripelomie and I'm looking at it it's kind of floating along and uh also looking like is that a leg on this fish and then it and then it swims and it starts swimming around and it's not a fish it's a salamander and so what Nelson I see another salamander and then I see.
Tayson: The salamander come up to the top and basically boil on the top to grab a bug off the top and then go back down and I realized that this lake has hundreds Pro I don't know maybe thousands hundreds of salamanders big ones like six seven inch eight inch long salamanders are just littering this Lake and then I'm looking again I'm like well I haven't seen a single fish boil and all I'm seeing is salamander boils apparently and uh anyways I'm I could be a lot more of a fisherman but also wanting to spend time with Atlas it was kind of like well let me get the fish going and then I'll help him catch fish and after I realize that I'm like oh okay I don't know fishing's gonna be the thing at this Lake.
Tayson: Right now um because it required maybe a little bit more patience and work and and again not seeing a single fish boil is a little disheartening and so kind of came back off of that and thought um well what what are my what am I going to do here and uh because he loves fishing he really enjoys fishing um so we took a little hike over to another Lake that was you know a couple hundred yards away and looked at that and same thing tons of boils no fish jumping come back and I was just trying to think of what to do you know we could throw rocks into the lake and then we just had the idea you know let's let's start a fire and uh man sometimes you have those moments where you.
Tayson: Just feel like you forget the joys of certain things in life um what I mean by that is is so I have a I have a camp trailer that will pull around sometimes to Camp with friends and family and and make it a little bit easier especially when we got little kids and with that I've got a propane fire pit that I'll often take if we're gonna have a fire and then when I'm out backpacking just due to sometimes time on trail or um you know not wanting to get sparks on expensive gear or I don't know fill in the blank I don't have a lot of fires on trail anymore so I just don't do fires very often and so we we got this fire going and Atlas just came to life he was.
Tayson: Having the best I've I mean I've just never seen a kid just more excited to find stick after stick after stick after stick after stick uh to keep this fire going I mean he had that fire roaring so high and so hot the whole time um and was just having an absolute blast uh such a good time um and it was just so fun to sit there and watch him you know interact with me interact with Grandpa you know light this fire and uh it was it was it was just one of those moments where like man as a kid I loved fire I loved uh starting fires and just anything to do with fire and so a lot of fun I think just to watch him and just kind of reminisce on me being.
Tayson: A little kid as well but we uh so we did that for a long time and started to get dark I you know decided to cook up some dinner so made a atlas last time we went um had a biscuits and gravy from Peak refuel and he is obsessed with that so made us a a peak refuel biscuits and gravy he ate a ton of it and just sat there by the fire hadn't had a great time and at one point I looked behind me and just before I was getting all the way dark I saw something swimming across the top of the water and I jumped up and turned around sure enough this big huge water snake was coming directly at the fire like he was attracted to the the light of the fire.
Tayson: And uh so I stand up and kind of yell and throw a stick or something and scare it off and he kind of swims away and I thought in the back of my mind felt like he was coming for that fire for a reason and I wonder if he'll be back but sat down finished the meal hung out for a while I I stood up to I think hand my dad something and man right behind him this massive massive water snake is right behind him with this big fat lump in his body you could see clearly just eating like a six to eight inch salamander that was like halfway down his body and I've never seen a water snake so dang massive but um yeah it was a good a good start a little bit.
Tayson: Of a fright I guess you could say I don't love snakes but um I dang near stepped on the thing because he was coming right into our fire Pig and uh which was which was just kind of comical but anyways had a good enjoyable evening had some snacks cooked up some hot chocolate sitting next to the fire and then uh you know called it a night went up to Camp which is just 30 yards up the hill and uh we all three fit into the 40th two-person tent so we had two of our long wide pads and Atlas and me just kind of shared one but really he was just kind of in the middle of our two pads and uh and both had top quilts we could just kind of pull corners of it.
Tayson: You know to make sure that he was covered and I always like to bring uh big fleece like onesie style pajamas for my kids just to help make sure that if they do get a little bit of exposure or something out of the covers uh or not with not in the sleeping bag that they have you know something on that'll keep them sleeping through the night well and so um yeah slept really well uh brought my two dogs and they chased something out of camp it in the middle of the night but other than that was was just a very enjoyable uh evening got some pretty decent sleep even with the kid you know kind of crawling up and cuddling up against you all night on a sleeping pad in a small tent but um.
Tayson: Was was very adequate and honestly I think the Vegas con was just that it was pretty dang hot felt pretty dang warm out there so a lot of times you go up into the higher elevation you know nine or ten thousand feet and hoping for some relief from the Heat and uh but it was it was good it was a good enjoyable night um and uh yeah woke up the next day and literally the first thing Alice wanted to do was go start that fire again so he went and started the fire with Grandpa and they tended it while I took down camp and and you know I think I recorded a little bit of what gear I had and uh we may we may put out a little video on this as well but.
Tayson: Um you know basically took down Camp packed up all of our bags and then um you know had breakfast with them and and uh I think I had breakfast then took down camp but um yeah and then it was basically hiking out these are just kind of quick quicker overnighter experiences not multi-day or anything like that but uh uh I do I guess one of the funnier Parts is on the hike out I did expect him to do a little better it's downhill less exertion um we got about halfway down we started to ask for food and I said yeah I can I could make food and and I just I kind of knew that he was gonna want the biscuits and gravy so I just mentioned them I said you know I don't have.
Tayson: Any more of the biscuits and gravy and um man he was not happy about that but we walked a little bit further and he said yeah you know I'll try it all right why don't you still cook it up and I'll try it so I cooked up I think it's a chicken pesto from Peak refuel and uh gave him a bite and man he just devoured that one as well um so Peak refuel kit approve definitely love them um anyways had a good hike out got out of there and it was overall just a really good trip but what I guess so my takeaways from this are one two twofold I guess I had a an incredible time taking both my dad and my boy out backpacking um I think that people get nervous about.
Tayson: Taking kids backpacking um that's going to be hard or all these things and to me it's it's uh just a factor of changing your expectations changing your plans and you know making some gear changes that'll work but I think the bigger thing that was on my mind was you know this is incredible that we can take three people out and by using you know ultra light focused gear that I personally could carry all three people's gear comfortably and make it a very enjoyable experience for them so again think about it I was carrying as much as I possibly could for my dad the only things that he was carrying was food and clothing and I also helped him you know maybe flashlight and it was another thing and stuff like a phone but um you.
Tayson: Know I helped him kind of make sure he wasn't over packing any clothing and and so he was pretty streamlined there so really his pack was probably just a you know sub five pounds of of gear and clothes and then the pack and and anything else you might have snuck in when I wasn't looking um but so I had I had as much as I could everything else I had the cook system I had a sleeping pad I had his top quilt I had you know a two-person tent um I had all the fishing poles I had the hammock I had the chair um I didn't think I had the dog food I think that was in my pack as well and so it was it was a really cool feeling to think man I.
Tayson: Can take three people backpacking in one backpack worth of gear and make it super super enjoyable for them and it was it was one of those like side benefits I guess you could say of packing ultralight you know people love to pose that question of well why why do people want you know why do you need ultra light gear I want to be comfortable I want to have luxury items I want to have you know fill in the blank and and I believe in those but my philosophy and I think I've said this quite a few times is you know get your base weight down to about 10 pounds and then add in the few things that might be luxury items for you maybe it's a seat maybe it's the you know bringing a Helen.
Tayson: Ox seat or something like that that's great get your base weight down to 10 pounds add in the one pound Helen Ox seat or let's say you go Ultra Luxury and you bring the two pound Helen oxy or or something along those lines um but once you have the ability to go super super lightweight it gives you so many more options to do things whether that's to go farther mileage wise whether that's to bring additional people carry other people's gear when needed bring kids on the trail um you know just thinking about me man if I was to go backpacking as a kid with the gear that that I had available there'd be no possible way my Dad could have carried our gear because one sleeping bag would have filled up a whole backpack so.
Tayson: How is it going to carry two plus other gear you know metal metal uh stainless steel mess kits and and big Coleman cook pots and you know all sorts of things like that and uh so I think I guess just in the in the grand scheme of things it was just really cool to realize an extra side benefit of having ultra light gear um it really didn't feel like that much extra throwing another top quilt throwing an extra pad you know throw in these other things to jump from I mean you look at it top quilt pound and a half a pad long wide big pad another pound and a half to go from a one person 40s to a two-person 40us a little over half of a pound which that that one's kind of.
Tayson: Crazy you know I probably brought extra clothes for Atlas I brought him pajamas I brought them you know extra changes of socks and underwear and and you know big puffy jackets so that he wouldn't be cold and and so that was maybe two pounds worth of gear um I I didn't I really didn't skimp there I guess you could say uh fishing poles about had probably a pound and a half worth of fishing poles and tackle a pound for a hammock a pound for a chair you know so I'm I'm sitting at about nine extra pounds to add um enough gear for me my boy and my grand my dad to to go backpacking so overall I guess it was just really cool it was really cool to see what ultra light gear can do.
Tayson: For you it was really cool to see kind of a different application of like another reason why um having lighter weight more packable performance focused gear is important and uh is a really cool experience so if you're someone who's thought about taking your family out uh bringing kids out on the trail it's an incredibly rewarding experience I would highly highly encourage you to take new Backpackers out on the trail and kids out on the trail in fact we just completed the 100 Mile Challenge and next year we really want to bring it back with a lot more bang and open up what it means so we're gonna be changing up the tiers that they can also be focused around new Backpackers or kids that are getting into backpacking and make it a more better experience.
Tayson: There we also want to make it more interactional so we're going to change up our live streams to not be like a like a live stream but actually be an interaction or like a zoom call with with our with members so um there's there's a lot of things we're going to change but there's not much more rewarding in my mind than to bring people out to experience nature and to have a different experience with nature there's a trip that I'll remember for the rest of my life um and it was it was an amazing bonding time for me in Atlas as well as Grandpa and Atlas um this time they had they had probably the best time because as I'm doing all my Camp chores they're over there just playing with the fire and swinging.
Tayson: In the hammock and having a great great time so they they did have a a really fun time doing that but um yeah don't be afraid I think to take people out new people uh as well as little kids or family members um there's additional benefits to uh getting performance focused and ultra light gear that pay dividends when you are taking some people out or maybe need to share the load a little bit but overall I just wanted to share that with you I hope that that brings a little bit of value hopefully the story was was worth hearing um it was definitely fun to go out there and do we've got more content coming around kids and bringing new people out on the trail if you are a new Backpacker I would love to.
Tayson: Hear from you because it will help us I think I think a lot of times because we're more like in the I don't say expert but like seasoned Backpacker uh realm a lot of times the content that we're interested in is is that versus talking to more of the beginner Backpackers so here's my here's my pitch tube if you're a beginner Backpacker go leave us a review that says you know what you think of the podcast hopefully it's nice five star review but you know you can review how you want and give us a little bit of feedback say I'd love I'd love to hear about beginning backpacking I'd love to hear more stories whatever it is I'd love to hear the comments from you guys and it really could sway some of the content.
Tayson: That we build but if you're a new Backpacker please don't hesitate to get out there push your limits push past those limits and experience The Great Outdoors now let me just double check on my notes here from Joe our podcast producer um that we don't have anything else to cover but if you have any questions for us directly you can reach out to Live Ultralight podcast gmail.com again that's live ultralightpodcast gmail.com make sure to send over your reviews and really appreciate you guys joining me today get out there take new people into the backcountry and have a good time keep living ultra light and we'll see you guys out on the trail.
