Back from "hiking" on Rialto beach. We went about 1.5 miles, to the other side of "Hole-in-the-Wall, and then pitched the tarp-tent on the beach just inches from the evenings high tide line. My husband was too exhausted to look for a more suitable spot after working an especially hard shift two days earlier.
We had fun staying up till high tide at 11:pm watching to see if we would have to move the tarp-tent. A drift log kept the sea off the tarp, it might have been hit by one wave if not for the drift log. We had to move our campfire twice as the ocean came in and put it out. The moon was full so we had plenty of light.
My husband said there were brown creatures the size of rabbits running through the woods the first night but I did not see them.
We bedded down for the night in the tarp with the kids in the middle. We had more food then would fit in the bear can, we kept the extra (all trail mix) by our heads. The idea being that animals would be afraid to come near us to steal the food.
I was woken up by a vole running across my arm, I let out a good scream and promptly went back to sleep after zipping the bug screen shut on my half of the tarp.
Rain woke us up at 10:00 am but the tarp kept us dry. I dressed the kids in their rain gear and kicked them out for the day. My husband had forgotten to pack any rain gear for himself, so we were not able to hike in the rain. I was at the peak of PMS and fighting a cold so I did not really mind just sitting around the campfire all day. My husband was able to stay dry by the campfire. It drizzled all day long.
I bought a MSR mini works water filter just for this trip. Normally I drink right out of the mountain streams and have never gotten ill. I do not trust the river water down at sea level though so in preparation for this trip I bought the first water filter I have ever owned.
My oldest daughter and I walked about 1.5 miles round trip to fetch water from Ellen creek. The creek flowed onto the beach but then went underground before it reached the surf. I walked up stream to a point were the flow was good and started filtering water. I was able to fill a wide mouth Nalgene bottle 4 times before I had to clean the filter element. I don't normally carry heavy Nalgene bottles but my filter was made to fit on a Nalgene bottle for the ease of two handed rather then three handed operation.
In the afternoon we moved the tarp to a campsite up in the woods since the high tide was predicted to be even higher.
Shortly after moving the tarp-tent I spotted a rabbit so the mystery of the brown creatures "running" through the woods seemed to have been solved.
While I was looking at the rabbit I observed some movement out of the corner of my eye. I turned to look as saw a skunk. SKUNK! My duagher and I both yelled. That frightened the skunk so it ran away, It was an adult skunk with several children and they all ran off and disappeared under our tarp tent.
OH NO! A whole family of skunks in our tarp-tent.. How to get them out?? We knew that we did not want to corner them in the tent. So we thought that opening the front wide and then banging on the back of the shelter might be the best plan to get the skunks out.
My husband opened the tarp-tent and shone his light in and could not see the skunks in the tent. It turned out they had only run under one end of the vestibule and out the other end.
We observed the skunk family several more times that evening. We had pitched our tent on their beach access trail.
Once again we stayed up to watch the tide roll in. We determined that the tarp-tent probably would have only been hit by one wave if we had left it in place.
The rain stopped and my family went to bed, but I could not sleep so I sat up under the full moon and watched the waves until about 4 am from the warmth of the fireside. A group of backpackers passed by in the night, they too were enjoying the full moon.
The next morning we got up at 7:00 and prepared to hike out on the low tide. My husband had an easier time hiking out then in because he had carried the food in and most of the food was gone now. My load was slightly lighter since I did not have any water to carry, but I did have some dirty diapers to carry.
My pack weighed 48 pounds with the baby (30 pounds) in it but she walked about a mile so for most of the "hike" my pack weighed 18 pounds but I still had to hold her hand and keep her out of the water and coax her along even when I was not carrying her. My husband's pack weight was 38 pounds and daughter's pack weight was 18 pounds.
My husband carried the food in a 1.5 pound bear can, the tarp-tent, my sleeping pad, diapers his clothes and sleeping bag and pad, stove fuel, the water filter, two pounds of GORP his head lamp, cigarettes and his toiletries.
My 9 year old carried her clothes, the baby clothes, her sleeping bag, her and the babie's sleeping pads, the babie's sleeping bag, two quarts of water, two pounds of GORP, her headlamps and two small toys.
I carried the baby, the first aid kit, three quarts of water, my clothes, my sleeping bag, my toiletries, two pounds of GORP and my head lamp.
We also all carried an ultra light cook set, each set weighed between 8 and 10 ounces and included a pop can stove, pot, windscreen, reflector and a spoon.
Our 42 ounce ultra light tarp-tent worked out well, we all stayed
warm and dry under it and surprisingly condensation was almost non-existant. I expected a fair amount of condensation to form under it since we were camping at the ocean in a steady drizzle.
On the way out My husband's pack was about 28 pounds, my 9-year-old's was 16 or so pounds and mine was about 46 pounds.
I have no pictures from the trip because I did not want the extra weight of the camera.
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