chivas72

Hello

We are new here in the forum

We are a family of 4 from Laredo, Texas. Kids are 10 and 11.

We are not new to the outdoors as we have done camping in various places from Hill Country and south. We are also active participants in 4x4 activities alway complying with Tread Lightly to preserve our lands.

We are looking to taking up hike-in camping to further strenghten our family while we exercise and enjoy our great state.

I've done some searching and cant find exact details on parks where we can hike out of the main park and camp and hike back the next morning.

We want to obviosly start with what we have close. So if any one can give us some tips on these types of parks from Enchanted Rock / Austin Area being our northern limit. Del Rio being our Western limit. Won't mention south or east as they are natural bounderies.

Thanks for you help and look forward to seeing you out on the trails

Troop198

Welcome

I can not help with much first hand knowledge or south Texas but here is one suggestion and some parks that have hikes

there is a book called hiking and backtracking trails of Texas by Mickey Little its at least in its fifth edition now.that is my number one resourch for our family and the scouts

Your describing backpacking if you want to hike in, eat, sleep and hike out, that is not the easiest thing to do if you have not done it.

Gear (stoves, shoes and packs are the most important here) and weight distribution of food,gear and water is very important especially with children.

The backpaking park closest to your circle are Choke Canyon SP (says 18 miles of trails)there are 2 units.
Hill Country SNA and Bastrop and Lost Maples all have backpacking trails

If you have more questions let us chip in see this link
TPWD: Campsites

chivas72

that is more that enough help...lol

thanks for the tips

i will look for the book this weekend

we havent done it as a family but i have done it with some friends when i used to do some rappeling

i hear on the pack shoes and stove / weight deals

We are all in great shape exercise daily, the problem is we all do it in separate disciplines and want to take advantage and do something together.

Obviosly we want to start slow and shorter distances and work ourselves up as we see fit.

Chip in....lol...of course that is what forums are for

Thanks again

Troop198

Have fun, since I work with 11 year old boys in scouts there attention span is not very long on hikes, so good idea to start easy ! We were able to day hike together, and there is nothing better than camping and then do a day hike and returning to camp to have a fire

my son and I backpacked together, no offense but many women/girls don't like primative toilets or lack of toilets. But some are better than many guys I went backpacking with

campermom

Call of Nature 101 was not covered at the BALOO training for scouts. It's something you just have to learn by necessity. There are a few tips, like hold onto something so you don't lose your balance, and get as low as you can....stuff like that, with practice, she'll be just fine.

Lost Maples would be nice for backpacking. Good luck deciding where to go first.

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chivas72

lol

Thanks Campermom

with our 4x4 experience and treadlightly rules we got the nature calls 101 down to a science.

Troop

thanks for that tip. that way we can hike longer trails with out carrying all the gear. Lost Maples, Pedernales Falls and Choke Canyon are top of the list for our first trip.

Need to come back from King of the Hammers 2009 first