Backpacking babyless in the Bighorns

We love taking Eli along with us on outdoor adventures.

We also love leaving Eli with the grandparents and hitting the trail without child. This past weekend, we did just that and spent four days/three nights out on a 30-mile hike through the Bighorn mountains of Wyoming.

If you’re wondering whether you’d enjoy a trip like this, ask yourself if any of the following sound fun…

• Carrying a 35-45 lb. backpack over varied terrain at 9000 feet and higher
• Losing count of how many mosquito bites you have all over your body
• Developing blisters on your feet and taping them up each day to continue hiking
• Eating only meals that you can add water to and only snacks that come out of a mylar wrapper
• Getting dirty, very sweaty and somewhat stinky
• Sleeping on the ground in a tent
• Seeing a total of 8 other people over four days
• Pumping mountain water to drink
• Not using your smart phone or laptop
• Having a moose cross the trail twenty feet in front of you
• Navigating stream and snowfield crossings
• Summitting a 13,000-foot peak consisting mostly of boulder fields

I happen to love all of the above.

(Well, not the mosquito bites so much, but I did find myself working on my inner calm as they buzzed away all around me. Seriously. You try staying sane with a cloud of mosquitoes hovering and trying to eat you for lunch. It was difficult.)

(I also don’t really love the blister. But that’s what I get for experimenting with running socks on the trail.)

Here’s what the blood, sweat & tears got us…

And lest you think that everything was gorgeous up in the mountains, I present you with a little something we found at our second campsite…

Yes, it’s a dirty thong. No, it’s not mine.

But it just goes to show you how much fun one can have backpacking.