Welcome to episode 96 of the first 40 miles.

If you're new to backpacking or if you're hopelessly in love with someone who wants you to love

backpacking, then this podcast is for you. We'll talk about the essentials, how to lighten your load,

and how to make the most of your time on the trail. I'm your host, Heather Legler.

And I'm Josh Legler and this is the first 40 miles.

Today on the first 40 miles our last family trip of the summer, and this trip did not disappoint.

We'll share the top five things we loved about our trip to the Oregon coast.

Then on the summit gear review Review we'll share a hammock that's light

enough to throw in your day pack and may even fit in your back pocket. Next on the backpack hack of the week a simple hammock hack that will keep

you cocooned and snug on your next hammock hang. All this and that's about it. Today on the first 40 miles. It seems like our

summers have been getting busier and busier as our children have grown older.

And you know it's fun they get to go to camps and do high adventure and Cub Scout Day Camp.

It's a lot of fun for our kids,

but in some ways it almost leaves us grasping for family time.

You know, where are we going to have that magical family backpacking trip that we're all going to remember from the summer of 2016 and it was really really hard this summer to make the time to have that family backpacking trip.

Before summer started, we looked at our calendars and we saw that we had a period of like three weeks throughout the summer that were not already scheduled with

something that someone in our family needed to be at and so before summer

even started we had to just tag one of those weeks and say okay that's the week we're

doing our family backpacking trip otherwise there would have been no family

vacation this summer it would have been a nice summer still I mean the kids

would have had great memories but some of the best memories are when we all get together and go Trapsing up a hill with packs on our backs and we eat food that we don't normally eat at home.

It's just, there are some great things that happen when we go backpacking together.

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