back to camping

I am embarrassed to say that my 3-season tent came out of storage for the first time in three years this June. Yes folks, this Peer Resource Program member and Outward Bound instructor pair have not been completely grounded or particularly well balanced the last few years. I've made excuses in the past, like not having a vehicle here in Boston for 9+ months, then once Z moved here we rarely had the same days off, or when we did, we had so much city exploring to do that we could barely muster the energy to get out of town. Well there is still lots of city exploring to do, but now that we have a puppy that needs green space and lots of off-leash time, we have the perfect motivation to get ourselves back to the woods. And we've done that successfully, 3 of the past 5 weekends. We've done moderate day hikes just 30 minutes from our house and extreme hikes (for a puppy) that involve scaling vertical rock slabs in the White Mountains (including part of Mt. Washington). We took Banjo on his first overnight camping trip, which he loved, and also found lots of rivers and lakes for him to swim in. He is such a natural swimmer that goes in without even a stick or ball. This past weekend I HAD to be near fresh water, as I was thinking of my whole family at the cabin in northern MN, so we headed to north central MA for a great hike and more swimming. Thus we were OK with missing the Boston fireworks this year, plus we had such a magical Independence day last year with Kate and Nicko that we knew the fireworks would only be a disappointment without them.