Storage: What We kept and What We Shouldn’t Have

Post author By Sam
Post date June 18, 2017
3 Comments on Storage: What We kept and What We Shouldn’t Have

When we sold our house in Lehi, Utah 6 months into our travels, we got rid of mostly everything. What we kept was stored in a 5ft by 10ft storage unit and we have added a few things from our travels over time. We recently emptied it out on our way to set up a condo as an AirBnB in Driggs, Idaho and have some thoughts about what we kept. We figured it could be useful for anyone considering what to keep and what to lose as they set out on a full time travel adventure.

Stuff We Kept in Storage

Tools

Sam kept most of his small hand and power tools. They were compact and easy to store, and he wasn’t going to be able to recover enough money from selling them to make replacement easier. The only larger tool he kept was the planer. And a collapsible ladder. Gone were the table saw, band saw, shop smith, and other large tools. Keeping the smaller tools has been handy while setting up the condo, and the pain of storing these was low. Sam’s brother eventually grabbed the planer and took it up to Driggs where he has a garage/workshop and that’s been super handy to have around as we’ve made furniture.

Kid Toys

The kids were very willing to give up some of their toys, and these we gave away or sold at garage sales. There were some toys that they really wanted to keep. Recognizing this, we told the kids they could keep anything they wanted, and we’d store it. They didn’t realize that they’d be years older, and mostly not interested in the same toys (Barbies come to mind). With the exception of the wooden train tracks (which are my favorite anyway) & possibly the Imaginext Castle & Aircraft carrier the kids have not been very interested in the toys they kept. We are NOT sorry we kept these, as the decrease in child stress as we transitioned to travel was totally worth it.

We did keep a bucket of baby toys as I have quite a few younger nieces and nephews, including a small-ish plastic kitchen set. I figured its always nice to have a few things around to keep babies and toddlers entertained. These are coming in handy as now we can advertise the condo as “baby friendly”.

Family Pictures

We had a decent appreciation of good photography prior to travel. We had a collection of nicely printed family pictures: canvas wraps, nicely framed photos, and mounted prints. As we are setting up the condo as a rental, we are not hanging them up. Part of me is sad, but I’m sure our renters don’t want a 20×30 canvas of my children on the wall. We may make some changes after Hawaii, when we plan to spend more time here but mostly I’m not sure what we will do with them. There are a few I still love but are too personal to put in a rental space, so we may just keep our favorites for some future date and throw away the rest.

Yearbooks and other Mementos

A small number of boxes contain things like high school yearbooks and items from childhood adventures. These will stay in the garage. I’d like to come up with a better way of preserving these memories, but until I do, we’ll keep them.

Folding Chairs and Storage Tubs

We kept some folding chairs and extra storage tubs that we didn’t have contents for. Some of the tubs have worn out in storage and developed cracks. We’ll throw these out and use some of our spares instead. We wouldn’t be hurting if we hadn’t kept the extras. The extra chairs have come in handy as we’ve had visitors to the Condo, but folding chairs are pretty inexpensive and it would have been fine to just buy some.

My Old Office Decorations

Just a few months before we left for the house swap never to return, I had redone my office downstairs in the Lehi house. It was perfect. I painted one wall a deep shade of purple, had white furniture and then brightly accented decorations all over the room. It was a happy place and I loved being in there to edit photos and work on my photography business. I didn’t keep any of the furniture, but I did keep my favorite small rug, a vase with bright pink & yellow gerber daisies, and some bright storage bins. It made me smile when I pulled them out of the storage tub and they’ve actually all found a place here in the condo. Its been perfect.

Pots & Pans

We’ve had our set forever and its still in great shape. Since buying a new set can be slightly prohibitive (even just picking out which one I want!) I’m glad we kept these. Its been great to have cooking gear from the get-go without any effort.

Select Comfort California King Bed

For our wedding, Sam’s parents bought us a California King Select Comfort bed. We love it. They are crazy expensive and easy to fold up and store in the original boxes (which we’ve always kept – makes moving really handy) so it was a no brainer to keep. Its the only bed/mattress we kept though and I’m happy about that. It was also really strange to go from a smaller-than-a-double bed in the Airstream, to a Cal King. I think I got lost the first few nights.

Holiday Decorations

We did garage sale quite a few of our holiday decorations, but there were also a lot I made and loved. Ironically, we are going to Hawaii this year and won’t be here over the holidays, but I’m still glad we kept them. We have some seasonal decorations for spring/summer, some for Halloween and then Christmas. We’ll see how they fit into our lives before we decide what to keep.

Games

We kept quite a few games, and have actually switched them out in the Airstream a few times. We are avid game players and I’m not sorry we kept the ones we did. We’ve added a few group games and they are stored on a shelf in Rachel’s closet. We’ll leave them out for guests to use and continue to swap out which ones we want in the Airstream.

Stuff We Lent To Family & Friends

We loaned out quite a few items to friends before we sold the house and were able to collect them during our mad dash to load up the moving truck. Various family members babysat our TV, entertainment center stand, waffle maker (double Belgian flip – my favorite!), bread maker, some framed photos, an IKEA chair and two dressers, a lamp, and some miscellaneous kitchen dishes. My sister got married a few months before we needed to gather things and no longer needed our stuff; pretty good timing. While these items would not have been too painful to replace, having them is a nice bonus. They weren’t worth the space to store however, so I’m glad we had good people to watch over them.

Items We Are Happy We Didn’t Keep:

Furniture

Our 2400 square foot house is vastly different than the 1300 square foot condo. While I loved our large, oval, pedestal dining table in the house, there’s no way it would have fit in the condo. Same with a lot of the bookshelves, couches, chairs, and other furniture. We are different people and love different things now, plus its honestly a lot of fun to switch things up.

We did manage to pick up a really comfortable $50 couch from my mom’s neighbor which we transported in the moving truck. So much better than any couch we could have stored. See? Things work out. We also did the Costco run of all Costco runs and picked up three mattresses (two twins and a queen), in addition to paper towels, toilet paper, flour, sugar, and other miscellaneous items. Loading them in the moving truck was a fantastic way to transport everything up to Driggs.

Everything Else

As I sit here and type, there’s not a single thing that I think “Oh, I wished we would have kept that.” Maybe its been too long and I don’t remember, but perhaps that’s also a testament to how much stuff we really don’t need. We’ve been very deliberate about buying items for the condo, making sure we really need it and that it serves a purpose. Okay, we probably didn’t need to buy an Instant Pot, but its sure been fun to have.

Stuff we kept, but shouldn’t have:

The Armoire

When Sam was a kid he finished a large, freestanding armoire. They used them to store clothes in their small home, and for most of our marriage we’ve used it as a game closet. Super handy. Except the stupid thing is ridiculously heavy and huge. We had thought we’d bring it up in the condo, but after moving it up from Utah we have no desire to do so. Our rooms are fairly small and it would take over the space. We’ve since listed and sold it, but not having to lug that thing around would have been much better!

Clothes

Sam and I each kept a bin of clothes that we didn’t want to part with, but didn’t want to bring in the Airstream. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in this process, its don’t keep things that don’t bring you joy. Going through my bin it was easy to donate most everything I kept. If I don’t want it in the Airstream, why would I want it elsewhere? I think in hindsight we could have kept quite a bit less.

Photography Business Supplies

I ran a boutique business with cute packaging, welcome packets, and had samples to show at client consultations. Since I wasn’t sure what the fate of my photography business would be, all my supplies went into storage. While I still love photography, I have no desire to take on clients so now I have a large box of paperweights. Sigh. Its just one more thing I have to deal with and get rid of now.

Books

This one is hard. We’ve had a bit of a “roving library” with all our books stashed at my parent’s house in Sandy, UT. When we went through to visit (every 6 months or so) we’d swap out books. I also have a love for used bookstores. There are some books we simply couldn’t get through the library Overdrive system to read on the kindle and I searched for used copies in various states. Now we have boxes of books, some which I’m sure the kids won’t ever read again. We need to go through them and decide which ones to sell back to a bookstore, and which are our favorites to keep. It’ll take time and I’m not exactly looking forward to it.

Conclusion

Overall I feel we did pretty good. We don’t have a ton of excess stuff, and most of the items we kept have been useful upon re-entry. We have spent quite a bit of money outfitting the condo. By the time we are done we estimate close to $10,000. We are doing a really nice job as we want to AirBnB the space, so I’m sure it could be done for less money otherwise. We knew it was coming and our main purpose for hanging out in the southwest last winter was to work a ton, live cheap, and save money.

The more you get rid of, the more you have to buy on the flip side, but if you add up the storage costs over three years I feel like its a pretty good trade off. Plus, the freedom of not owning a lot (or even having it in storage weighing on your mind) is amazing and we would definitely do it all over again!

Camping Outdoor Gear

Easy Camping Meals with Legacy Premium Food Storage

Post author By Jess
Post date June 14, 2017

We haven’t done a whole lot of car camping in the last few years. Understandable as we have the Airstream and just take our whole house with us wherever we go. “Camping” meant throwing on our packs and heading out into a back country site. Since we’ve been in the condo for the last two months, however, I’ve made a considerable effort to get the family out tent camping in some of the front country sites in Grand Teton National Park where we wouldn’t take our trailer.

One of the biggest struggles for me is figuring out what to eat while camping, and then getting it all packed in the cooler. We love tin foil dinners, dutch oven meals, and roasting hot dogs over the fire, but those take quite a bit of prep and feel overwhelming when we just want to head out for the night.

Enter: Legacy Premium Food Storage.

They contacted us a few months ago about trying out their meals, and I immediately agreed. We are always looking for good alternatives to Mountain House or homemade camping meals and although these guys seem like they make only emergency food storage items, their meals are actually quite handy for outdoor adventure! Legacy Foods sent us quite a few meals and its been fun to try them all out and see which ones we like best over two different camping trips.

Jenny Lake Camping Menu

Sam surprised me just before Mother’s Day with the suggestion to head out camping overnight midweek. I jumped on it and within a few hours we were packed and ready to go! It was so easy to toss in the Legacy Pouches and not stress about food. For dinner we tried out the Enchilada Beans & Rice in tortillas. We kept it pretty simple, but it would be easy to add cheese, lettuce, and tomatoes to really round out the meal next time. We chopped up some carrots & cucumber for veggies and called it a meal!

Breakfast the next morning was hot chocolate, and Strawberry Creamy Wheat with fresh strawberries, and brown sugar on top. It had been a long time since a cooked Cream of Wheat and I totally forgot I needed to stir it continuously. Oops. We ended up with slightly lumpy cereal, but it tasted good just the same. The strawberry flavor is subtle, but adds some nice flavor.

Both meals were delicious and we had leftovers with just one pouch! Sam and I were both seriously impressed. We’ve always found food storage, or even other freeze-dried meals to be completely inadequate as far as serving size goes. There never seems to be enough to go around. Just one Legacy pouch makes about 6 cups of prepared food which was plenty for our family of 5. Each serving is roughly 400 calories, with all non-GMO ingredients; perfect for after a day of hiking and exploring.

Colter Bay Camping Menu

Our friends from over at Kidproject.org drove up to hang out last weekend. The problem with getting two, outdoor adventure families together is we want to do ALL the things. We finally settled on camping at Colter Bay in Grand Teton, taking the bikes to ride the paved trail from Taggart to Jenny Lake, hiking, and possibly getting the canoes out on Two Ocean Lake. See? We can’t ever decide.

Once again it was super easy to toss in Legacy Food pouches for meals, and it was fun as we shared meals so everyone got to try them! We decided on 2 pouches of Pasta Primavera as well as 1 pouch of Macaroni and Cheese for dinner. Alyssa also threw in a veggie tray and hot dogs for the kids to roast over the fire. The kids gobbled up the Mac & Cheese, and we ate almost all of the Pasta Primavera. Quite a lot of food, but after an 8 mile hike everyone was hungry. We did sprinkle salt over the top of the pasta which helped bring out the flavor. Definitely make sure you have some on hand.

The following morning was cold. Everyone layered up once we convinced ourselves to climb out of our warm sleeping bags, and we sipped on hot chocolate while we waited for the Maple Oatmeal with Brown Sugar to cook. We cooked two pouches of oatmeal, and I probably should have split it into to pots because boiling that much water at high elevation takes awhile.

Having something warm to fill our tummies was fabulous. We ate ALL the oatmeal even though I think everyone was full before it was officially gone. It did need a little salt to bring out the flavor (should have added some to the water), and we topped with fresh blueberries. Loved that the brown sugar was already in the mix so we didn’t have to bring extra. Pretty delicious.

Overall we’ve been super impressed with Legacy Premium Foods. Their serving sizes are the largest we’ve seen and I love that one pouch can feed our entire family. On average, each meal takes between 12-20 minutes to cook and we found that at high elevation (7000+ feet) they took longer than the package stated. Pretty typical for cooking in general, but handy to know when all the kids are hungry!

We wouldn’t take these backpacking with us as we are more of the pour-hot-water-in-the-pouch type people (less dishes to wash!) in the back country. For car camping, however, Legacy meals were perfect. I loved not stressing about food and being able to just throw them in and head out was awesome. We have a few more flavors to try (pancakes, potato soup & stroganoff!) which makes me even more excited to head out camping again this summer.

Disclosure: We were sent product and compensated by Legacy Premium Foods for our blog post. All opinions are our own, and we are totally happy they contacted us to work with them! We’d never blog about anything we didn’t absolutely love.

Re-Entry

The Good and Bad of Temporarily Living in a Sticks and Bricks House

Post author By Jess
Post date June 6, 2017

We’ve been in the condo for over a month. With less than a month to go before our re-launch date, things are getting pretty serious around here. We still have a mile long list of projects to accomplish, a two night canoe trip in Grand Teton, plus friends & family coming to visit. We’ve been able to get a lot done over the last 6 weeks, however, and being in a “sticks and bricks” house definitely has its upsides as well as its downs. We are making the most of it while still getting excited about our travel plans for July & August.

For fun, I thought we’d detail out some of perks of condo life, as well as some of the things we most miss about the Airstream. Ready?

Same View All the Time

The view here in the Teton Valley is beautiful. Even a quick bike ride to town affords amazing views of the Tetons. But… the view is always the same. We miss having a constantly changing back yard, where the view is sometimes a stream, sometimes a forest, and sometimes a desert.

Takes More Effort to Get Out

I wrote over a year ago about how I Don’t Trust Myself in Suburbia. While I feel that I’ve made some progress since then, the struggle is still real. Its so much easier to stay in, let the kids read or watch something than load up and get outside. In the Airstream, adventure is literally outside our front door and the options are always changing. We can walk outside in the evenings and go on a short walk, and the next week that walk is something new and completely different. Sure, we can head out of our condo front door and go for a walk, but that walk is going to be the same every time. I think I’m addicted to new places and get bored easily.

We’ve been making a concerted effort to put the projects on hold and get out and explore. We’ve camped over in Grand Teton at Jenny Lake, had my parents up for the weekend, hiked in the Big Hole Mountains, canoed a small piece of the Teton River, biked into town countless times to visit the library and park, and most recently attended the Jackson 25th annual Kids’ Free Fishing Day.

The adventure is there, we just have to be willing to throw on the packs, grab some snacks and GO.

Overwhelming Projects

In hindsight, I think our project plans were a bit ambitious. Building furniture, buying ALL the things, and trying to organize everything we brought out of the storage unit has been completely overwhelming. Don’t get me wrong, we are all for a good home improvement project but we like them a little more spread out. We’ve got two bed frames welded and finished, but still need bunk beds, nightstand frames, a dining room table frame, and need to finish the wood top of the table plus two more nightstands. Oiy. We are super grateful for my brother-in-law who has taken so much time to help us with these projects. Yes, we could have just bought furniture, but where’s the fun and satisfaction in that? Plus, this furniture is going to be indestructible.

In addition to that, we still need to fix the Airstream floor from the rot we discovered while in Manti last summer. We did a temporary patch job, but need to replace a larger section under the table. We’ve pulled the gaucho out to rebuild it as the slide mechanism has been going. Plus, lots of little touch-up items that we’ve just been putting off.

Not Planning

Full-time travel requires planning. Not only are the activity options different everywhere, but we need to find a place to go when it’s time to move along. When you do need to plan something in advance, you have double planning duty. After 3 years of constantly planning, 6 weeks of NOT PLANNING has been pretty refreshing.

Rachel Gets to Bake

Even as I type this, Rachel is cooking something up in the kitchen. Recently she’s become obsessed with baking and loves experimenting with different recipes and frosting decorations. It hasn’t been so good for my waistline though, and partially triggered a 21 day Sugar Detox for me! I do love her enthusiasm and I’m grateful we can encourage a hobby she so obviously loves.

Awesome Library & 3D Printing

The local library system here in the Teton Valley is excellent. The kids enjoy being able to ride the library by themselves. They host fun activities, including a Mother-Daughter book club and writing groups. The library also has a 3D printer available for use, which Sam has taken advantage of during our stay.

Stable Friends & Church Teachers

Cara is flourishing at church. This was one of our biggest concerns over the last year as she’s really been struggling. She was scared to be dropped off to her class and left alone with a roomful of complete strangers. I totally get it. It’s nerve wracking to always be the visitor even for me. Having 6 weeks of the same teacher, the same kids in her class, and knowing where her class is has been wonderful for her. At the Teton Kids Fishing Day, she was even content to stay with her group, and didn’t need one of us right nearby!

Bedroom Door that Closes and Locks

Having a bedroom door that locks is definitely the best perk of living in the condo. In our Airstream, we have a couple of curtains we can pull that separate us from the kids. When you pull them back, the latch kind of “pops” so we call it our “early warning system” if uh, certain things should be going on. Also, its kind of hard to snuggle during the day or morning when you pack up your bed and stow it for the day. In the condo, not only do we have a bed that just sits out we have a door. That locks. Blissful.

There are pros and cons to every lifestyle and the trick is knowing what your tolerance levels are. We’ve enjoyed the downtime here at the condo (well, busy downtime), but are also anxious to get back on the road and start exploring again!

On the Water Utah

Paddle Labyrinth Canyon on the Green River – Utah

Post author By Jess
Post date May 25, 2017

Located just north of Canyonlands National Park, Labyrinth Canyon is a flatwater stretch of the Green River. Completely remote and isolated, this float trip boasts towering, sandstone mesas, side canyons, lush vegetation, peace, and solitude.

When We Went: April 27 – 29, 2017

Ages of Kids: 11, 9, 6

Stretch of River: Ruby Ranch to Mineral Bottom

Having just completed our overnight trip on the Rio Grande down in Texas we were falling hard for flat water canoe trips. After meeting up with Steve & Tess from The More We Explore in Moab, we decided to jump on their planned 3 day trip through Labyrinth Canyon. Paddling a three day trip down a swift moving, large river was a bit intimidating but knowing we would be with others helped boost our confidence levels.

Don’t forget your map! Get it here on Amazon: Belknap’s Waterproof Canyonlands River Guide

Boat Choice

While the rest of the group decided to single kayak, we choose canoes for a few specific reasons. From previous experience, we knew we could fit all our gear. Utah had an abnormal amount of snow over the winter and the river was running fairly swift. While our kids do great kayaking small streams and lakes, paddling a big, fast, river by themselves was outside their skill set. With canoes, we could always have one adult in each boat and the kids could switch out.

Rafts were out due to the flat water nature of the river. When there are no rapids, a sizable raft is hard to paddle and steer while being completely overkill.

Steve introduced us to Sea Eagle Boats, and after some conversation they agreed to send us two of their T16 Inflatable Travel Canoes to test out in exchange for some drone footage of the trip. We were stoked. With our traveling lifestyle, there’s no way we could ever buy canoes, but these seemed like a viable option and we couldn’t wait to try them out.

Packing the Gear

We mostly just brought our backpacking gear. Sam’s dad has been unloading gear for years, and we managed to recently snag his two large, bright yellow, dry bags. We put tents, sleeping bags and pads in one, and then packed our clothes in color coordinated e-cubes and threw those in the other one with our two REI camp chairs.

Specific to this trip we also needed to bring our own water as the river can’t be filtered. We brought our two two 5 gallon Rhino water jugs for fresh water. The recommendation is 2 gallons per person per day but that also depends on what you plan to cook. We ended up with quite a bit extra, but I like to err on the side of too much water.

We also needed a toilet system as we had to pack out all human waste. For the Rio Grande trip we rented a system, but this time we bought a folding toilet seat on Amazon (threw away the plastic bag and just kept the seat and legs). We combined it with a 2 gallon, Leaktite bucket, a seal tight lid, and a lid tool to pry it off. Worked great and we just found an RV dump after the trip to depose of the contents.

Sam has been bugging me for awhile to try out a pStyle for our back country trips. I was never really on board, but for some reason this time I pulled the plug. Serious life changer! The pStyle basically lets us girls pee standing up which is especially useful on cold mornings. It also helped to not fill the bucket up with pee and we used less toilet paper. Both Rachel & Cara used it like champs, so its going to be a staple in our backpacking gear from now on! Plus, there are a ton of cute covers available so we can be styling while we are at it.

Meals & Food

We packed our typical Freezer-Bag cooking meals. This trip we also tried out a new flavor from Mountain House. They sent us their new Chicken Fajita Dinner Bowl and a Spicy Southwest Breakfast Hash to try out. Love that they are adding some Mexican inspired dishes to their product offerings! Inspired, I also dug up our own recipe for chicken fajitas and we had fun comparing the two. The Mountain House version definitely had more kick, but we liked them both! We also pulled a Mountain House Breakfast Skillet out of our emergency supply (time to rotate it anyway!).

With our REI member dividend a few weeks earlier, I bought a Classic IceMule Cooler & a couple of Coleman Chillers Hard Ice Substitutes to go with it. I figured that we could have some refrigerated meals our first day while the ice was still cold.

Day 1: Breakfast – bagels, cream cheese, Naked Juice smoothies; Lunch – Hard boiled egg sandwiches on pitas, carrot sticks; Dinner – Thai Noodles; Dessert – Cookies Rachel made pre-trip

Day 2: Breakfast – Strawberry chocolate oatmeal, and hot chocolate; Lunch – BBQ Chicken Wraps; Dinner – Chicken Fajita Bowl on tortillas with leftover cheddar cheese from lunch; Dessert- Mountain House Apple Crisp (not my favorite).

Day 3: Breakfast- Mountain House Breakfast Hash & Skillet (was going to be in tortillas but we ate them all the night before); Lunch – Tuna & crackers, cucumber; Dinner – Hamburgers at Groggs Pinnacle Brewery in Price, Utah. Seriously the best burgers ever!

Snacks: I thought we had totally over packed on snacks, but then the shuttle took so long and we didn’t get to dinner until around 8:00pm Saturday night. Between the take out and dinner we seriously snarfed the rest of what I packed. We took Fig Bars, Perky Jerky, Bare Snacks, fruit snacks, Go-Go Squeeze, peanut & skittle mix, and Twizzlers. Yum.

Shuttling the Vehicles

A major portion of river logistics is running a vehicle shuttle. Its not like a backpacking trip where we can plan a loop, ending up back at our car. There’s no way we are paddling back UP the river, so we needed to get our vehicles down to the take out.

The night before put in, we tent camped near Moab on some BLM land. I’ll admit the drive down from Salt Lake was not my finest hour. Packing for a trip is always stressful, plus we added a dentist appointment & stormy weather to our afternoon and I was literally thinking, “What on Earth are we doing?!” as we drove south.

Luckily the rain blew over, we woke up dry and excited and met our group at the dinosaur museum near the turnoff to Canyonlands National Park. From there we sent three cars and drivers down to the take out at Mineral Bottom (about 45 minutes), while the rest of us piled into Fred the Van along with the boats and made for the put it at Ruby Ranch (1.5 hours or so northwest).

This is where its convenient to have multiple cars and a large group. We left one car and our truck at the take out which was enough to fit all 11 of us and our gear at the end of the trip, and the third car drove all the drivers up to Ruby Ranch where we had been inflating boats and getting the gear ready.

There are companies you can pay to shuttle your car for you, and depending on your group size and budget can be a good option. The post-river shuttle took a good 5 hours once we had loaded the boats, driven back up to Ruby Ranch, grabbed the other cards, and reshuffled gear. It was a lot of driving. For our family of 5, though, having a company shuttle us would have been cost prohibitive. Grateful we had friends to go with!

Put In at Ruby Ranch

The boat launch at Ruby Ranch is on private land. They are gracious enough to allow boaters access but do charge a $10/boat AND $5/person fee. Exact amount in cash is required.

The put it was easy enough to find and we were the only group headed out that morning. Our three kids were a huge help inflating canoes and kayaks and we had everything just about done by the time our shuttlers showed up. We ate a quick lunch and then were off!

Floating the River

We needed to cover 45 miles in just three days. The plan was to evenly split and cover about 15 miles per day. The river was moving at a pretty good pace, and I think we mostly expected to leisurely float down the river. I also expected our canoes to be the slowest. Not so much. I think our kayaking friends were slightly annoyed at how much paddling they had to do to keep up!

In order to keep our boats pointed downriver we needed to steer, and in order to steer there had to be a bit of paddling. When they were behaving, our canoes literally sliced through the water. At one point, Sam and Rachel pulled out their ‘A’ game and took off outpacing the kayaks by quite a bit just trying to see how fast they could go.

We were the first to push off (I think everyone thought we’d be slow) so we tried to keep it casual while waiting for everyone to catch up. Just a few miles downstream we started encountering sandstone walls. While the Green is at least 4 times as wide as the Rio Grande, both Rachel & I started getting fidgety as memories of crashing into rocks and getting dumped in the river came flooding back.

We also learned our canoe was imbalanced. I had put the heavy water jugs behind my seat in the back and we kept getting turned around. Once we were exactly backwards, our canoe did just fine floating in a straight line. Rachel was frustrated at my lack of control and may have burst into tears and quit paddling right then and there. I think one of my better parenting moments was to let her cry it out. I knew why she was frustrated and scared, and we weren’t in any danger.

Steve came to our rescue and helped us transfer our heavy, 5 gallon water jug to the front of the canoe instead. Not an easy task while both still floating downstream and trying to not to tip in. It totally worked though! With the heavy weight in the front, we were more prone to stay pointed the right direction. What a relief!

Most of the paddling was easy and enjoyable. The scenery is gorgeous and once my brain finally settled, I was utterly at peace. We had quite a bit of sun our first day, but the following two days were colder and we kept our jackets on. I joked over on Instagram that life on the river can be tedious for young kids. Good thing we brought some stuffy friends along to keep us company!

Fighting the Wind

The biggest challenge was the wind. At one point, Andrew, Cara, and I had drifted to the far side of the river and we needed to make it all the way across for a take out. With a strong headwind pushing us backwards, we gave it everything we had. I was so proud of my kids at that moment for digging in and as we neared the far side we could hear everyone cheering us on! Definitely one of my favorite moments, and also one of the most exhausting.

On Day 2 we headed into Bow Knot Bend. This section of the river literally looks like half of a bow tie while the river bends back on itself. Between the changing river current, and wind coming up over the saddle there was some crazy strong, unpredictable wind. We cut our miles short on Day 2 so we could hit the majority of the Bend with fresh arms and spirits the morning of Day 3.

We set off early and right out of the gate were fighting the wind. I was still having trouble keeping the boat straight, and both Rachel and I were extremely frustrated with our situation. Not a good way to start the day. We rounded the mushroom side of Bow Knot and received a welcome relief from the wind. The sun came out, and we mostly just rested as our boats continued downstream.

As we rounded the corner, I braced myself for the wind I knew was coming. It came HARD. We tried to keep about 20-30 feet away from the bank as one of our biggest frustrations was being blown into the Tamarisk plants along the edges. Not our favorite place to be. The current seemed to moving slightly slower out there as well, although with the strong wind pushing back at us we literally were seeing white capped waves. It was insane.

Rachel and I finally got into a rhythm where I would provide driving force from the back, and she would do a reaching stroke from the front to keep us pointed downstream. We realized later that our skeg (small fin in the back of the canoe) was severely limiting my ability to steer from the back. I could be back paddling extremely hard and go absolutely nowhere. Rachel’s strokes in the front helped pull us to one side or the other and I battled against the wind from the back.

“After battling up a long section of river, Andrew and I ducked under this tree for a brief break before heading on. A few minutes later we were joined by the others as we rafted up briefly before continuing downstream.

We headed back out and battled onward into the wind and spray. As it intensified, Andrew joyfully yelled “THIS IS THE LIFE!” Yes it is, Andrew, yes it is.” – @telegramsam

It was amazing to me that we could literally see the line where the wind stopped. Something about the shape of the canyon, but once we crossed that line just below Bow Knot saddle the wind reversed into a tailwind, the sun broke through the clouds and the kids and I happily sang, “There is Sunshine in My Soul Today” at the top of our lungs.

Exploring Side Canyons

One of my favorite parts about this trip was all the side canyon exploring. It was fun to get out and hike. Standing up and stretching our legs always felt great!

Day 1 we stopped at Three Canyon & Trin-Alcove Bend near river mile 90 and parked the boats for some land exploring. There was a social trail leading up into the canyons, but mostly we just picked our way over boulders until we reached the end.

Morning of Day 2 we hit Ten Mile Canyon. We could’ve paddled a ways, but mostly just went until we felt like turning around. These side canyons were a great time to switch things up, and my kids were given the opportunity to kayak for a bit. They loved it!

A little later in the day we stopped at Hey Joe Canyon to stretch our legs. There is a Uranium mine up the canyon a bit, but we realized it was getting late, we still had miles to paddle, and we wanted to save time for the saddle hike.

Evening of Day 2 we camped near, and then hiked to the top of BowKnot Saddle. Don’t miss this! There’s a legit trail headed to the top and the view up there was unbelievable! Just watch out for the wind.

Day 3 we intended to paddle up Horseshoe Canyon, but never quite find out. We found a bank for lunch instead and just enjoyed the break. Before taking out our last stop was Hell Roaring Canyon where the D. Julie Inscription is located. Super cool history – just don’t carve your name into the rock!

Finding a Campsite

Part of the stress of river running is finding a campsite. We joked that often it is too early, too early, and then suddenly its two hours past dinner and everyone is starving. @themorewexplore did a ton of research on possible campsites, but with changing river levels and overgrown tamarisk we didn’t know what we’d find.

We had to make sure that our group stayed together when we were hunting along the banks. If someone drifted too far downriver it was almost impossible to get back upstream.

Our first night, Mariana darted across the entire river and found the BEST campsite we could have asked for near mile 84 on river left. The bank was steep due to the river levels, but we managed to bring all the boats up and there was plenty of room to spread out.

We hung out in the “kitchen” area while everyone prepared their dinner, and afterwards had a roaring fire (well, as good as we can get while using a firepan!). This spot was pretty sheltered from the wind and we all had a great night’s sleep!

Day 2 was a bit more of a scramble. Tess knew of some sites past BowKnot, but by the time we got to the saddle take out between miles 70 & 69 on river right I was tired. I could also tell the kids were also pretty done. There was no way we were hiking to the top and then paddling another 5 miles into the wind to find a site. After inspecting the bank for a few dozen yards, we found a spot to beach the boats and haul our gear up on the bank. It wasn’t the “perfect” spot, and meant we needed to cover more miles the following day but we were able to set up camp and then hike to the saddle.

“We found this campsite just when we needed it. Unfortunately it was a bit windy (sand everywhere!) and there were pack rats (everyone survived), but we did get our hike up to the saddle and were able to sleep close to the river. We’ll call it a win. ” -@currentlywandering

Most of the magic of finding campsites is knowing what to look for. At lower river levels, sandbars are a great option. Unfortunately, the river was so high we were reaching for banks and hanging onto tamarisk to keep from floating downstream. Most often people have carved paths through the vegetation to spots where it opens up for enough space to pitch a tent. You just have to look.

Take Out at Mineral Bottom

We made it to Mineral Bottom in the early afternoon on Day 3. This is one pull out you don’t want to miss!! The next take out is a good 6 days down river and involves getting a jet boat to shuttle you back up the Colorado. Kind of a big deal if you miss it!

Mineral Bottom is on river left, and at the time had a great big eddy we could pull in to with a nice beach. We pulled all the boats out of the water and then came the task of folding them up and cramming everyone’s gear into the back of our truck and a small, 4 door sedan. Good times.

There is an outhouse at the take out but its pretty nasty so don’t plan on using it.

Once we loaded everything, we then had the pleasure of driving out the windy, steep road. I’m just glad I wasn’t one of the drivers on the way IN. I think I would have passed out as I don’t do well on narrow roads with steep drop offs. Also note this road is absolutely impassable after a large rainstorm as it can easily get washed out.

Once we got back to the main road, we drove up to Ruby Ranch for our other vehicles and a reshuffling of gear. From there it was on to a celebratory hamburger dinner in Price!

Would We Do It Again?

I would do this trip again in a heartbeat. It definitely takes planning and coordination, but spending time with our kids on the river is one of my favorite things! We had our ups and downs, moments where things didn’t go exactly as planned, but that’s what life in the back country is like. Most importantly we had moments where we could really connect with our kids, and that’s what matters in the end.

HUGE thanks to Sea Eagle for providing our boats for this trip. As always, any opinions expressed are completely our own. This post also includes affiliate links. Purchases made through our unique links will provide us with a small commission that will go toward keeping the blog running. Thank you for your help!

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Best Summer Road Trips: Lake Superior Circle Tour

Post author By Jess
Post date May 22, 2017
6 Comments on Best Summer Road Trips: Lake Superior Circle Tour

Loading up the kids in a minivan and hitting the road over summer break is a rite of passage. I figure if you can all survive being crammed together for days or weeks on end, you can do anything, right? Traveling in the Airstream is a bit different, since we mix in school & work year round but occasionally we hit upon just the right schedule to create an epic road trip.

We visited my brother and his family in Minnesota one summer, and after taking a look at our schedule and the time available we decided drive around Lake Superior. Turns out its a thing. There are patches, stickers, maps, and even a website for that, something we didn’t realize until we started seeing the street signs pop up. The aptly named Lake Superior Circle Tour is a 1,300-mile drive that completely circumnavigates the lake, including the North East shore in Canada.

You can start the tour anywhere and travel in either direction. Most people take about a week, we just happened to stretch it out into 42 days. Our tour started at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in Michigan and traveled clockwise. While our adventures on the shores of this great lake could fill a book, we’ve picked out a few of our favorite destinations to get you started.

Stop 1: Michigan’s Upper Peninsula

We spent 10 days exploring the “UP” as the locals call it. We started in Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, ate a lot of pasties, learned about mining on the Keewinaw Peninsula, and hiked in the Porcupine Mountains. There’s definitely something for everyone!

Stop 2: The Apostle Islands National Lakeshore

The Apostles are a beautiful cluster of islands that sit just off the coast of Wisconsin’s section of Lake Superior. You can learn about the islands from visitors centers on the shore, but a rich experience awaits those willing to board a ferry. We opted for a two-night backpacking trip on Stockton Island. A ferry trip from Bayfield let us off onto the docks. We explored, hiked, and even celebrated Andrew’s birthday there! Other popular activities include kayaking to the sea caves, and lighthouse tours.

Stop 3: The City of Duluth

Duluth has a rich history in shipping activities, and you can watch huge cargo ships navigate in and out of port. Check the schedule before you arrive, and you can get an up close look as they come and go. There’s also some great mountain biking in the hills, a decent children’s museum, and a cute downtown with great food.

Stop 4: The North Shore

There are numerous spots along Minnesota’s North Shore worth stopping for, but Gooseberry Falls State Park was a favorite. We enjoyed our time on the shore here, appreciating the magnitude of this lake we were driving around. Split Rock Lighthouse is just a short drive away and don’t miss Betty’s Pies located to the south. We ordered the Pig Trough to share, complete with three slices of pie, four scoops of ice cream, a banana, and whipped cream and toppings. We liked it so much we returned a few days later and had the same thing again!

Other stops along the shore included Tettegouche State Park, Grand Marais, and Grand Portage. Check out our post here for more details.

Stop 5: Sleeping Giant Provincial Park

We had heard amazing things about Sleeping Giant Provincial Park and knew we wanted to spend at least one night there. It was mid-September so fairly off season for this part of Canada and the campground was not busy. The park hosts amazing hikes and beautiful views. We also enjoyed our lakeside campsite on the smaller Marie Louise Lake.

Stop 6: Sault Ste Marie

Our visit to Sault Ste Marie was punctuated by two things: Poutine (on the Canada side) and the boat locks (on the US side). Watching the huge lake boats move through the locks was enthralling, and everybody’s bellies were fat and happy after we ordered (and ate) far too much from Smoke’s Poutinerie.

Even having driven around it, I still don’t think I full appreciate the vastness of Lake Superior. It literally looks and feels like you are standing on the edge of the ocean, but there’s no salt smell. Something about it just drew us in and we were smitten from day 1. It was hard to narrow it down to just a few places on our journey! Maybe we will write that book….

What to Wear:

The weather around the lake is constantly changing. There’s sunshine and warmth, then there’s fog & rain. We had crazy wind and were wearing all our layers on the Apostles, and then up along the north shore it was t-shirts and shorts. Its best to plan on layering your wardrobe and taking pieces that are versatile! Check out some of my favorites from Aventura’s spring line: