Crankspedition 2011: Hawkins-Egbert-Schmidt Edition

Traveling light, we the many, the proud, the unfearful of rain, did trudge our ourselves, our families and our bikes out to the wettest spot in all of Washington last weekend. Yes, we were rained on but not as much as I had feared. Above you will find my kiddy stroller-bike hauler-pickup truck loaded light and featuring an extra kid from another family, Schmidt clan, I believe. I'm still loading pictures from the rest of the trip but these somehow loaded so I'll form my narrative structure around the few that I have.

Pictured above is also our attempt at the end of the road in the Suiattle river valley. The deindustrialization of America is great for biking as it tends to close roads and revert rail rights of way into bike trails. You can now go for days traversing the Cascade mountain range and hardly see a car, riding dirt and often asphalted roads that have been closed to cars for want of public funding approval. Keep it up, Tea Partiers. I love biking these roads, now seemingly made just for me and my family.

On the way back, I decided to grab a few snapshots of our load. That is a Coleman double rectangular sleeping bag that weighs, I kid you not, 38 lbs. It's a little unwieldy but it sure it great for snuggling in a tent and the kids just love jumping on it and making forts out of it so we keep dragging it around. I figured out a better way to strap it on the Big Dummy so we will probably keep using it despite the lack of cool factor. Note that I do haul out my trash. What? Do you think I'm some sort of heathen?

The kids here are super tired from a full day riding and digging and playing. Thorvald, pictured right just rode 10 miles on his own bike and is ready for a nap, hopefully he doesn't take one before he gets into the car. It's never fun to have a nap interrupted, at any age. Astrid is working with her baby doll and all of the camping clothing and sundries are stuffed into the two shopping bags in the front basket. This is not the stuff of REI advertising campaigns.

Here's the bored front shot of the kids. "can we go now, dad?" Note also that two kids bikes fit nicely on the outside of a tent and grocery bag, balancing nicely with the sleeping bag on the right.

And so we did, and so we drove home, saw some rodeo, chased some sheep, drove some miles, and eventually we all got to cuddle with mama.
On the whole, it was the nicest camping trip I've ever done with my kids and I will be planning more, even reporting more fully on this one for I seem to have no good pictures as of yet of my dear friends, the Schmidts and the Egberts. That will change!!!!