Stephen Koch

Father and son's first camping trip

Axl and dad having a moment.

I took my son, Axl, camping for the first time over the weekend. After work Saturday I decided to pack up the car and head into the hills with my boy! Tent, sleeping bags and pads, food, pot, lighters, bug juice, diapers, wet wipes, warm cloths, water and away we went. The drive to Shadow Mountain from town is about 30 minutes. We came upon a great camping site that was unoccupied and drove in. I started setting up the tent and Axl discovered that fine dust is like “smoke” and he really liked “making smoke” by shuffling his feet. I was into it too!

In the first 5 minutes Axl was bitten by mosquitoes. Oops…dad forgot to put the bug juice on. Sprayed down and up and all around Axl was again content with making smoke and checking out our new environment as I set up the tent and got the fire going 30 minutes before sunset.

Shadow Mountain lies directly across the valley of Jackson Hole from the Tetons, in the Bridger Teton National Forrest. The views are spectacular. We soon had a deer walking through camp and heard coyotes howling and yipping not far off.

Once the tent was set up and our pads down and bags out of their stuff sacks, Axl did not want to leave the tent. I was a little apprehensive with having my three year old open and close the tent by himself because of the delicate nature of tent zippers, but after a quick lesson to follow the track with the zipper pull, “like a train on a track” he had it down!

Dinner was left over home made chili, grapes, crackers and string cheese. I heated up the chili in a pot right on the wood fire. I love cooking right on an open fire like that. It makes an incredible mess of the pot, but there is something so satisfying about it.

My initial attempt to get the fire going failed, which pissed me off because I had seen Bear Grillis do it so many times and it looked so easy. Tripling the amount of grass was the key to success!

Axl ran around and tried to control the smoke from being emitted from the fire. He is a strong willed boy who has a habit of telling people what to do. It didn’t work so well with the fire, but it was a good lesson none the less.

We ate our dinner and watched the sun set quietly behind the Tetons. After our meal Axl discovered that jumping over a log is great fun and did it several times as the light faded and day turned to night.

Axl enjoying the fire

Axl and the moon in firelight

We were treated to a 3/4 moon this night. A little before we were going to get ready for bed (change diaper, put jammies on, brush our teeth) Axl said he wanted to “go home.” I told him this was our home, for the night. He said he wanted to go to our “other” home, where Mommy was. I told him we would be there tomorrow and that we had already discussed this before leaving on our camping adventure…that we would not be coming back to sleep in our beds this night. He persisted for a few minutes and then I remembered what my wife is the master of, distraction. I said, “let’s brush our teeth and read a book.” It worked and we were in the tent ready to sleep before long.

Axl and the headlamp

Axl loves playing with his headlamp. What a great invention! Hands free light that won’t burn you, is easy to use, inexpensive and easy to carry. I have been using Petzl headlamps for years and highly recommend them.

In the morning I got the fire going again, heated up some water for coffee and oatmeal and we ate breakfast while being treated to a beautiful sunrise on the Tetons.

Sunries on the Tetons

After breakfast we went for a walk on game trails and saw many standing dead trees which had been burned in a fire. We also found some Bison poop and other, raising size, poop, of which its origin I am not certain. On the way back from the hike we found a dog leash which Axl held and called his new dog friend Mooxie.

Breakfast

Axl and the Tetons

Axl and dad

Axl walking Mooxie

After an unsuccessful attempt to poop in the woods I broke down camp. We planned on meeting Mom and my friend Peter France at Kelly Warm Springs at 10 a.m. The warm springs were a bit cool so we only spent a few minutes in the water. On the shore, basking in the sun, eating a banana and grapes we listened to a frog as we enjoyed the morning together.

Peter and Mom showed up and Axl was very happy to see his mommy! I handed him off to her and she immediately noticed the bug bites on his neck and gave me a scathing look. Later that day Mom and Axl would head to the Emergency Room for the bug bites which had swelled up Axl’s hand and arm to an alarming degree. A little Benedril and he was on his way.

Peter and I went for a beautiful mountain bike ride behind the Teton Science School.

I look forward to many more camping and other (climbing, hunting) adventures with Axl in and around this beautiful home of ours, Jackson Hole!

Axl's first camping experience