Manresa State Beach
Ever since I started talking about backpacking to my kids a few months ago, they have been curious about it. So I picked out Manresa State Beach, where I had come to test out backpacking by myself less than a month ago, to see if the girls would really enjoy the experience.
We parked our car in the overnight parking lot and walked a quarter mile downhill to our campsite, site #61. We found this site to be delightful. It has a private water faucet, and two spots for tents, one exposed, and another one underneath a tree. We picked the latter, setup the 3 person tent, and started cooking.
We had been curious about these freeze-dried meals that we had bought in preparation for this trip. The girls shared a spaghetti, while I tried out Chicken Pad Thai. The Pad Thai wasn’t bad, but the spaghetti was delicious! We were all so surprised that a rehydrated freeze-dried meal could be yummy. The amount of food wasn’t quite enough for the girls, so we also had some salami and cheese on the side.
We then played on the beach for about an hour, before retreating to the tent. The girls took turns playing video games, while the other watched a movie with me. We all then called it a night before 10pm and went to sleep.
In the morning, we had breakfast, and hung out at the beach for an hour or so. We then hiked up to the car and drove home. It was a huge success as the girls now want to backpack to more remote places.
What I Learned:
Even though I was carrying a 5lb three person tent and three sleeping pads, my pack weighed the same (~27 lbs) as my previous trip as I was not carrying extra cooking gear (all the meals on this trip just required hot water). While I like cooking, I really enjoyed the lighter pack.
Freeze dried meals can be delicious!
The three person tent was more than roomy enough for all three of us and we all slept surprisingly well. The tent is well ventilated (compared to my one-person Walmart tent), which meant manageable amounts of condensation in the morning.
We got lucky with direct sunlight at Manresa State Beach (usually this area is fogged over until the afternoon), which meant it was warm in the morning.
I bought my youngest a super light backpack, but the lack of padding on the shoulders caused the pack to be uncomfortable for her. Guess who’s getting a new backpack before the next trip?
Camp Review:
We camped at site #61, which was an awesome site. We loved the private water faucet, and the great tenting spot underneath a tree. The downsides of this site was that it’s close to the road, so during the day there’s a lot of foot traffic and car noises (but not that bad).
We found a tick on one of the girls’ jackets in the morning. There were no ticks found elsewhere (and the tick we found was not gorged with blood), but that was surprising to see as she had not strayed too far from established paths.
The bathrooms were cleaner than they look, but they do not have lights.