Another year, another teenager. This year Seth wanted to get the Coe experience. Apparently he had a little FOMO when Ada and I went last year, so here we go.
He's 13 and hasn't really hit his growth spurt yet, but he is really athletic and has good endurance. Let's see how he does with 20 lbs on his back for 29 miles and 6000 ft of climbing!
The first couple of miles snaked across a stream several times. I had originally estimated there would be about twenty stream crossings and we would surely get our feet wet. It turned out to be 24 crossings and Seth was determined to do all of the rock hopping and pole vaulting that he could pull off to keep his feet dry. He actually succeeded until a stream finally got him later that morning (which I got video of). This picture is just a picture that Seth wanted me to take because he really liked it.
Seth was great on the climbs. He even invented his own climbing technique he named "beetle mode" where he really leans into his hiking poles and picks up his cadence. He is also hilarious.
Top of our first big climb:
Seth, not keeping his feet dry: Seth hungry: Dad showing how it's done:
He's always been a climber.
Seth and Dad taking a much deserved cooldown brake at the base of Pacheco Falls:
I think I took this same picture of Ada sitting on this rock last year, so I had to get this one of course.
We knocked out 18 miles in no time. In fact, we were so fast that we had a pretty early camp setup while the sun was still pretty high in the sky. The spot was halfway up a ridge from Coit Lake.
I thought I would do a similar camp setup to last year, where I would have the kid in the tent and I could sleep out in the open and enjoy the stars. Similar to last year, I hung out in the tent with Seth to play video games on the phone - killing time until sleep and having fun. I went out of the tent to check out my setup only to find out that there was moisture over everything and a bright moon spoiling the stars. Oh well. I started collecting my stuff to join Seth in the tent for the night and as I started throwing my stuff in Seth asked "So you're gonna come thug with me huh?" Yeah, sure, Seth. The crickets were especially annoying that night, so we just kept playing video games. At some point Seth turns to me and says: "This is nice right? No one to tell us to go to bed, brush our teeth, we get to do whatever we want!" I giggled to myself and thought "that's thug life baby!". At some point we got pretty desperate for a strat that might bring us our sleep, so I dialed up a Lex Friedman sciency podcast, and we were asleep in no time.
Next morning, getting packed up. Leading up to our trip Seth asked if I was going to keep my beard so that all of the dangerous animals would keep their distance.
The Birds at Kelly Lake doing their thing like usual:
The wildflowers were out in full effect once again.
Time for some McDonalds!
Overall I was really impressed with how Seth moved over the hills with weight on his back. He would even run the steep downhills "because it was easier". He seemed to have a good time and hopefully this leads to more adventures down the road!
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