Are you making your summer travel plans yet?

In the Beach vs. Mountains scenario, mountains definitely win at the Chino House.  While I can get into a little time on the beach, the rest of my family has little to no use for it.  Especially if the alternative is mountains.  I have made peace with this reality since I also love the mountains.  Plus, now I get to go to the beach with girlfriends, which is just fine by me.

I am super excited about our plans to return to Colorado for our annual family camping trip! We love the Rocky Mountains and so we will be heading back to some our favorite spots.

This summer we are shaking things up a bit and going light. We have unloaded our pop up and are planning to do our first ever Chino Family Backpacking Trip.

We decided at the end of our trip last year that all of our kids are old enough for a real mountain trek, so our plan this year is to hike from Aspen to Crested Butte.

We first visited Crested Butte as a family in the summer of 2007, and we all fell in love with this idyllic mountain village. I read about the hike between the two towns that summer and dreamed of one day being able to do it.

Well, this is the year! Lord willing, the Chinos, along with our friends, the Eubanks, will make it from one town to the other on a mountain trail that meanders along a creek for about 18 miles.

We ate dinner with our friends, Bobby and Rhonda, at their lovely home a few weeks ago to discuss the details. Or more accurately, to hear the details from Taido. He has the entire trek mapped out and planned all the way from our footwear options down to the meals we will carry.

Rhonda and I have been walking together to get ready, but Taido told us we needed to step up our game. Add in some hills. Start breaking in our boots. Maybe consider carrying a pack on some of our walks.

We have added in a hill or two since then, but we still have a long way to go to be ready for the big hike!  Still, ready or not, I am so excited about this adventure!

Are you doing anything fun this summer?  What’s your favorite vacation destination?

The post Summer Travel Plans appeared first on Alison Chino.

My husband Taido, who we also like to call the Gearhead, owns these trekking poles for when he goes backpacking.  He is usually carrying a decent sized pack in the mountains, so the poles help take some of the weight off his knees and land his feet a little lighter in spite of his heavy load.

The kids love these poles.  They frequently claim one of them for day hikes even though they aren’t really carrying anything heavy.

They always start off on the trail, using the trekking pole as it was intended, placing it before each step ahead of them on the path.  However, soon their use of the trekking poles tends to degenerate into wielding it as some kind of a weapon or as a bushwacking tool.

Taido does not appreciate his fancy trekking poles being used in this way, so the boys usually end up losing the poles before the hike is over.

After a couple of hikes this year, Taido began to notice that the bottoms of his poles were quite beat up, even sort of smashed.  He asked if anyone was using the poles for jumping.

Boys, this trekking pole is not for pole vaulting.

Of course, no one admitted to using the pole in this way.

But when we got home and I uploaded my pictures, I found that I had some incriminating evidence on someone.

Whoops.

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