Last March our JFW weekend outing was an overnight at our local JFW cabin. It is out on a chunk of leased land, part of a county park. The kids always enjoy going out to this area whether they only come for the day or brave the night in the rustic cabin.
The hike in is about 1km, up and down hills, through the forest. I'm always hoping that there will still be snow on the ground when we go out there in early spring, as I would rather deal with icy conditions than slippery, messy mud on the trail.
It feels isolated as there are no modern facilities besides the Christmas lights strung up in the cabin for light, that run off a solar panel.
The property consists of the cabin, with a wood burning stove, a cookhouse with a second wood burning stove, a firepit area, an equipment shed, a dock and several outhouses. There are also areas for overnight shelter building and an area where we can set up tents.
The previous time we came out for the weekend we filled the day with little activities, like a fire lighting and compass challenge, and making roycraft packframes.
This time around we decided to go for a more relaxed format. We hiked in, in time for lunch. We had a leisurely lunch, then had the kids practice using compasses. We had them follow the path of a triangle or square, where they are supposed to end where they began.
Then a few of us decided to explore the area a bit. Last time we only stuck around the main camp area. This time we followed a trail that led past a pond, through the bush and up a big hill, back to a main trail through the park.
Along the way we saw lots of signs of beaver, a cool bird nest, lots of chaga and some animal fur.
We were gone for quite awhile and when we got back, Russ had prepared a bowdrill fire demo.
I started a pot of chaga tea while Russ demonstrated the bowdrill. I also started on cooking our supper over the fire, as it was something that would take a while. I made baked potatoes and bacon sushi. The baked potatoes, I just wrapped in foil and placed on the grill over the fire. I could have put them in the coals on the edge of the fire, but alot of the kids were throwing sticks and chunks of wood in the fire and I felt our supper would be safer on the grill.
The bacon sushi was something I found online that I wanted to try. You take a sheet of tinfoil, lay it out, cover it in strips of bacon, then cover that in raw ground beef. You could put strips of cheese across one end, but I didn't do this part as Andrew can't have cheese. Next you roll it up, making sure not to roll the tinfoil into the meat. Then wrap the tinfoil around the roll of meat, and freeze until your outing.
I placed our bacon sushi on the grill over he fire and kept turning it every 20 mins. It turned out really good and everyone loved it! It will definitely be added to our camping recipe favourites. It would be a little heavy to take backpacking, but you'd be eating it your first night anyways. After supper 3 of our families headed home. The rest of us hung around the campfire for awhile. One of the dads always brings popcorn to our campouts and made everyone a bedtime snack on his backpacking stove.
Earlier in the evening a couple of the dads started a fire in the cabin's wood stove to warm up the cabin for the night. Once we finally decided to retire for the night, the chill was out of the cabin.
Everyone slept pretty good. I have decided though that Andrew needs a new, quieter sleeping mat. He was on the bunk above me and kept moving around throughout the night. Every time he moved it sounded like someone rustling a plastic bag and the crinkling of his mat would wake me up.
In the morning we cooked some oatmeal for breakfast, before making sure the camp was in order. We had to sweep out the cabin, refill the wood box and lock everything up.
The hike back to the vehicles isn't far, but the hill you have to climb to get to the parking lot is a doozy! It was still covered in snow this trip which was more welcome than slippery mud would have been, but the snow was pretty icy in places and you had to be careful where you stepped.
Emma was tired so we took an easy pace. Once we got to the last section of the trail, we took a break and showed Emma where we were on the map, how far we had come and how far it was to the parking lot. As soon as she saw we were almost there, she took off and almost ran the rest of the way back. She was a real trooper over the weekend, carrying her own backpack with all her gear, there and back. In the past I've usually carried some of her gear to make her load a little lighter.
It was a fun weekend though and the kids enjoyed spending time out in the woods.
The hike in is about 1km, up and down hills, through the forest. I'm always hoping that there will still be snow on the ground when we go out there in early spring, as I would rather deal with icy conditions than slippery, messy mud on the trail.
It feels isolated as there are no modern facilities besides the Christmas lights strung up in the cabin for light, that run off a solar panel.
The property consists of the cabin, with a wood burning stove, a cookhouse with a second wood burning stove, a firepit area, an equipment shed, a dock and several outhouses. There are also areas for overnight shelter building and an area where we can set up tents.
The previous time we came out for the weekend we filled the day with little activities, like a fire lighting and compass challenge, and making roycraft packframes.
This time around we decided to go for a more relaxed format. We hiked in, in time for lunch. We had a leisurely lunch, then had the kids practice using compasses. We had them follow the path of a triangle or square, where they are supposed to end where they began.
Then a few of us decided to explore the area a bit. Last time we only stuck around the main camp area. This time we followed a trail that led past a pond, through the bush and up a big hill, back to a main trail through the park.
Along the way we saw lots of signs of beaver, a cool bird nest, lots of chaga and some animal fur.
We were gone for quite awhile and when we got back, Russ had prepared a bowdrill fire demo.
I started a pot of chaga tea while Russ demonstrated the bowdrill. I also started on cooking our supper over the fire, as it was something that would take a while. I made baked potatoes and bacon sushi. The baked potatoes, I just wrapped in foil and placed on the grill over the fire. I could have put them in the coals on the edge of the fire, but alot of the kids were throwing sticks and chunks of wood in the fire and I felt our supper would be safer on the grill.
The bacon sushi was something I found online that I wanted to try. You take a sheet of tinfoil, lay it out, cover it in strips of bacon, then cover that in raw ground beef. You could put strips of cheese across one end, but I didn't do this part as Andrew can't have cheese. Next you roll it up, making sure not to roll the tinfoil into the meat. Then wrap the tinfoil around the roll of meat, and freeze until your outing.
I placed our bacon sushi on the grill over he fire and kept turning it every 20 mins. It turned out really good and everyone loved it! It will definitely be added to our camping recipe favourites. It would be a little heavy to take backpacking, but you'd be eating it your first night anyways. After supper 3 of our families headed home. The rest of us hung around the campfire for awhile. One of the dads always brings popcorn to our campouts and made everyone a bedtime snack on his backpacking stove.
Earlier in the evening a couple of the dads started a fire in the cabin's wood stove to warm up the cabin for the night. Once we finally decided to retire for the night, the chill was out of the cabin.
Everyone slept pretty good. I have decided though that Andrew needs a new, quieter sleeping mat. He was on the bunk above me and kept moving around throughout the night. Every time he moved it sounded like someone rustling a plastic bag and the crinkling of his mat would wake me up.
In the morning we cooked some oatmeal for breakfast, before making sure the camp was in order. We had to sweep out the cabin, refill the wood box and lock everything up.
The hike back to the vehicles isn't far, but the hill you have to climb to get to the parking lot is a doozy! It was still covered in snow this trip which was more welcome than slippery mud would have been, but the snow was pretty icy in places and you had to be careful where you stepped.
Emma was tired so we took an easy pace. Once we got to the last section of the trail, we took a break and showed Emma where we were on the map, how far we had come and how far it was to the parking lot. As soon as she saw we were almost there, she took off and almost ran the rest of the way back. She was a real trooper over the weekend, carrying her own backpack with all her gear, there and back. In the past I've usually carried some of her gear to make her load a little lighter.
It was a fun weekend though and the kids enjoyed spending time out in the woods.
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