Savage Falls Hike with Kids

“I posted a trip for this next weekend. I'm taking my daughter on her 2nd overnight hiking trip. If anyone wants to get their kids out for a hike then this is an easy one for them. Let me know if you have any questions.

:D”

“It's a possibility...gotta check on next weekend with the wife.”

“Don't you people watch football? It's Alabama/Auburn week. Just kidding MDS, I know you don't watch football!”

“Wife says next weekend is good, now I need to ask my daughter if she wants to go.”

“Hey Bit, I want to get one of those folding saws like Father Goose has. I use to have one but lost it. Can I get one in H'ville somewhere??”

“Hmmm, the only place I can think that might have it would be Tents and Trails. I guess Outdoor Omnibus might have it. You might also try Dick's, but I really wouldn't hold my breath on that.”

“what kind does he have..the folding swen, or the fold out long saw?...i'd check wileys..i think the hsv or decatur one has both types”

“Folding Sven...nice saw.”

“How did the trip go?”

“The trip went great. I'm working on a full trip report, it's not quite ready yet.”

“I was wondering how that trip when!
Get to work on that trip report ya slacker! ;)”

“I probably will in a minute. I'm home from work with a sinus headache today. I had to take a Lortab to get it down to the not-writhing-in-agony level...”

“A couple of weeks ago, MDSHiker posted that he was planning on taking his youngest girl Becky on a short overnighter, her second, and invited others to go as well. I read the thread and called my wife to see if we had anything going this weekend, and she said no, so I asked my daughter Frances if she wanted to go on a backpacking trip with Daddy and of course she said yes.

So, yesterday we head over to MDSHiker's place, load up his van and then drive up to Savage Gulf. We planned to just spend the night at the Savage Falls campsite, about a mile and a half from the trailhead.

We set out on the trail at about 3:00PM. I had about 45 pounds in my old North Face Inca pack, and Frances had about eight pounds in her pack, a Gregory daypack that my wife sometimes uses. MDSHiker and his daughter had similar loads.

We hiked out at a pretty good pace, about 1.5mph. Of course, after about half a mile, it's time for a break, so the girls sit down and I feed them Snickers minis while they talk. After a few minutes, they're ready to go again, so we go about another quarter mile, and we come to the first swinging bridge. We let the girls go over first and we take pics of them as they cross.

We go about another quarter mile or so, and it's time for another break. Fortunately there's a little bench, and they sit on it and I feed them a couple more Snickers minis. A couple more minutes and they're ready to go again.

We come to the second swinging bridge, and this is a long one that gets really bouncy. Again we let the girls go across first, and take pictures of them. Then we cross, and head to the campsite, but not without going by the top of the falls first.

By this time, Frances is pretty tired and the pack is hurting her neck a little, so she's asking every ten steps how much further it's going to be. I ask her if she's having fun, and she says "No." I chuckle a little bit. She's not much of a hiker, at least not yet.

We finally get to the campsite, and Frances can sit down for a bit and rest. I start setting up the tent and getting our area ready, and MDSHiker does the same. After I figure she's sat enough, I send Frances out into the brush to gather firewood. She does okay, and Becky gets into the game too, but upon returning with each armload, Frances asks, "Is this enough?" Of course it's not, so I have to keep saying "no" a lot.

I finished setting up the tent and start to gather some wood to give them an idea what I'm looking for. Neither myself nor MDSHiker has brought a saw, so we're limited to what we can break. The largest log we have is about 2 1/2 inches in diameter. It was getting a little dark, so I went to get water while they continue to find firewood.

I come back and filter some water, and we're just about ready to start the fire. MDSHiker gets it going and we all help by piling the sticks and branches on until we've got a good blazing fire. I pull out the food bag and produce that evening's repast: Johnsonville precooked brats, tortillas to wrap them in, and Pringles. MDSHiker brought some wire hotdog cooking sticks, and he lends me one to cook the brats with. I roast them right next to the fire, and everyone was surprised when they split open with a loud "pop!"

Frances ate one brat (they are one of favorites) but not the tortilla, so I ate that. Then, of course, she was ready to toast marshmallows. Using the same stick, she roasted two marshmallows at a time, and ended up eating about a dozen I think.

We enjoyed sitting around the campfire, talking and roasting marshmallows. Becky turned in at about 7:30, but Frances decided to stay up, and then for some reason, she became a little chatterbox and started talking like crazy, about whatever entered her little head. I let her roast a few more marshmallows, and she loved helping us keep the fire going by breaking the branches into sticks and tossing them on the fire. Finally at about 9:45, she announced that she was ready to go to bed, and that she didn’t want to go to bed alone, so I had to go with her. Since it was her first trip into the backcountry, (and I was pretty tired myself) I agreed and we turned in.

The next morning, we woke up around 6:30, but we just sorta laid around in our bags until a little after 7:00. I heard MDSHiker and Becky stirring, so Frances and I got dressed and I got down our food bag and fixed breakfast. Frances just had a cereal bar and some loose cereal she had brought in a baggie. I fixed oatmeal for myself, and also has a cereal bar. In addition, I made hot cocoa for her and coffee for myself.

We broke camp and got back on the trail by about 10:00. We weren’t far from Savage Falls, so we hiked down there, dropped our packs, and climbed down to the falls. Savage Falls is really nice. I got a lot of good pictures of the girls looking at the falls, and a few of Frances surrounded by the beautiful wilderness. After spending about 30 minutes or so at the falls, we went back up to the trail, got our packs, and hiked back to the car. On the way, we came across a Boy Scout and a couple of leaders, and we talked a little about hiking, and some trips that they were planning with their troop, including a trip they are planning in March to hike from the Stone Door to Savage Falls in one day, then all the back again the next.

We got back to the car and drove back to MDSHiker’s place. The girls had wanted to play for awhile when we got back, but Frances wasn’t feeling well, and so I decided to take her on home. Unfortunately, on the drive home, she told me she felt like she was going to be sick, so I pulled over, and she got out and lost her lunch into the gutter. I helped her clean up and got her back into the truck. She felt better immediately of course, and when we got home, she recovered quite quickly, so it probably just a little motion sickness. I had given her Dramamine for both trips, but apparently it just didn’t help on the return trip.

All in all, she had a good time, although she says she didn’t like the hiking part much. But she enjoyed the camping enough that she is interested in going again.

I took a lot of pics, but they're film and so I have to wait for them to be developed. I'll post them when I have them ready.”

“"...although she says she didn’t like the hiking part much. But she enjoyed the camping enough that she is interested in going again..."

LOL, sounds like a bunch of us TTers!
Glad y'all had a good trip!
How old are the girls?”

“Frances is 8, Becky is 6. They both had a lot of fun...Frances' tendendy to whine came out, but it stopped as soon as we built the fire, lol...”

“Dang, those are little girls. I would say y'all did super great with them to go at all.
I won't even take my 10 yo nephew in the woods yet! I started backpacking with 'turtle', my now 16 yo nephew, when he was 12.”

“Ditto what Bit said.

We had an awesome trip. Frances is a sweet young lady and my daughter had a lot of fun with her. I think the mileage we did was just about right. Becky says that she's ready to go back!!”

“Some pics of the kids on this hike

Hopefully they'll be up by now.”

“Oh, skip the first eight pics in that album. It's a year-old hike I took with my son. The new pics start at pic 9.”

“Thanks Bit !”

“I sneaked a peek at your past and present christmas family portraits. Nice looking family bit, bet your proud.”

“They look like they had a great time bit. Cool!”

“They had a great time. Wish I'd thought to snap some pics around the fire, toasting marshmallows.”

“Pics of the kids on this hike

Just so everyone can see how cute they are.”

“Great pics bit!
Both you and MSDhiker are lucky men.


Just think, in another 10 years or so they might become TTers. ;)”

“You think I'd let my daughter post on this board?


lol.....j/k....”

“Great pics.”