We like camping...

... we like it so much that we went on another trip. Instead of a plain, old camping trip, we went backpacking.

We went to Pedernales Falls in Johnson City, northwest of Austin, Texas.

The hike in to our campsite area was 2 miles. My pack weighed about 25.5 lbs, Josh's weighed 42 lbs, and Erik's weighed 48 lbs. Let me just say we all got an awesome workout from the 2 miles on our first day. The rest of the time we hiked everywhere, but without our packs... until we hiked the 2 miles back to our starting spot.

I can hardly believe that we forgot to take a picture of ourselves with our backpacks on. Come on, we were on a backpacking trip! I even mentioned it on our hike back the last day, but we were so hot and tired by that point we just wanted to sit down and rehydrate. Maybe next time.

Pedernales Falls has primitive campsites and also water/electric sites. We chose the primitive sites. Why make things easier, right? No really, since we were backpacking we didn't have a need for electricity.

The sites were great. You basically picked your own spot within the trees. The spots were spread out so that we were far enough from the other people camping as well.

The one thing we did not like was that the rangers we spoke to (since we had to make reservations) didn't tell us that our only water source was the river. That wouldn't have been so bad, but we had to hike about 15 to 20 minutes to reach it each time we needed water.

We knew enough to be prepared for the river water "issue". We had a water filter and tablets to add to it to make sure it was safe. Next time we know to have more containers to gather and hold water so we don't have to make two trips per day just to have water to cook with and drink.

Other than the water issues, we had a great time.