Living in Los Alamos has its advantages and disadvantages. We don’t have anywhere decent to eat, and we may only have one or two decent places to get a drink. BUT… I can come home from work at 5 and still go camping with the boys in national forest, on a weeknight. There are few places to live where that is feasible.
I am proud to say that I have done this, solo-dad style, a couple dozen times to date. Even if we can’t get out anywhere else for a longer trip, we can camp at the ski hill even in the middle of the week. If we have an excessive gap between longer trips, I try to get them up to the ski hill, so we keep the regular practice alive. I also try to get up there at least once a month throughout the winter for the same reason.
It was often hard, especially in the beginning. Nights were occasionally sleepless and unpleasant (but that’s normal for parenting, anyway…). When he was young (age 1-3), Bodie did not sleep well at all, waking and crying frequently all night long (it must be noted that this was not because of camping discomfort; he was that way at home also). Once Jasper had violent diarrhea all night. A couple of times we were snowed on (which was fantastic). Early on, I discovered that bourbon and benadryl were helpful evening accessories, a practice which has stayed with me. Occasionally I can manage to convince others to join us. Some family friends will come join just for the campfire. Sometimes Karen drives separately and leaves when us boys head for the tent. But whether anyone else comes or not, I’m still committed to going it alone, just me and the boys if need be.
My go-to spot for weeknight camping is only 15 minutes from the front door (see map and links at the end of this post, including the pizza and the morning-after-burritos spots). There are a half-dozen different spots in the woods off that same turnoff, nicely separated for sufficient privacy, and just far enough off the paved road to feel away from the traffic.
I have a separate, abbreviated camping list I use for the weeknight camping. I get home somewhat brain-dead from work and start going through the list, throwing stuff in the action packers. The beauty of the list is that I don’t have to think, I can go into autopilot mode checking everything off. Some of the tricks for these trips are the same as for longer camping trips (for example the light-stick nightlight springs to mind), and I intend to go over all these at length in future posts.
Another key element to making it happen on a weeknight: no cooking gear. We pick up a pizza on the way, and in the morning we do chocolate milk and then pack up and go to a local restaurant (Morning Glory) for breakfast burritos (I get the sausage-green, the boys get sides of sausage patties and donuts since that’s all they’ll eat).
If you live in a place where the camping is easily accessible, I highly recommend finding a system that works for you, to be able to pack up and make it happen any random old time you like. For our boys, it has made a crucial difference in their knowledge of and comfort with camping. Half of all the camping they have done—if you measure simply by nights spent in a tent—has been up on the ski hill for these single-night outings. Put differently, I have managed to DOUBLE the number of nights they have spent in a tent with these short overnights.
If you have questions or need advice, feel free to contact me, it would make me feel great to be the extra push that makes a trip happen.
This link will open a google map with the road turnoff location for the camping.
I should also mention that Camp May is an alternate spot at the end of the same road, a proper campground (which I disdain, but we’ll talk about that some other time) with restrooms, fire grates, and picnic tables. Truth be told, the Camp May spot is a bit prettier than the national forest, as it is slightly higher elevation, slightly more lush, with aspens as well. This is a link to a google maps waypoint for Camp May.
