Backpacking at Horns Pond and a Creative Recharge

Today is my hiking day-off. I realized late last summer that if our family was going be hiking almost every weekend I needed a day off once every few months. Physically, emotionally and mentally. I need this time to recharge my creative batteries.

photo credit: Laurent Tougas

Time to putter around in my pjs, garden, fool around with photos, read, write or sew. No destination, no early morning drive, no summit to climb. Just time to be. 

Today is that day. It's also a very rainy day in Maine with thunderstorms in the mountains. Though we are learning to hike in rain we avoid thunderstorms for obvious safety reasons. So, we're all home together - recharging our creative batteries. 

This morning Damien is sewing, I'm making soap in between sharing the computer with Celine who is programming, the kids are all building legos and the younger two are making chewing gum (beeswax, peppermint extract and honey).

It's a creative, rainy day. It's perfect.

But this post is not really about today (though it seems to be shaping up that way). It's a photo post about our backpacking trip last weekend to Horns Pond in the Bigelow Preserve. 

It was such a great weekend, though not without its trials for me. I always seem to have some struggle, large or small, to work through when we backback.

Backpacking is huge character building for me. It's hard work but it has so many rewards (nature, photography, time with my family, physical training etc.) that make it worth it. Not to mention, my husband absolutely rocks in the woods. It's his domain to be sure and I put my faith in his knowledge and strong back to get us safely where we are going. And he does it fantastically well.

As a family we are learning how to balance a creative home, a full time job for daddy and an active outdoors life. There is not a lot of models to follow in this regard but we are finding our own way. 

And today I'm thankful that way involves a day off for time at home. 

Please see the accompanying post at AinP for more photos and trip specs from our weekend in the Bigelow Mountains.