Have child and have not slowed down! This blog seeks to chronicle the joys and challenges of taking kids hiking, camping, backpacking, skiing, biking, paddling and all-out exploring in the Canadian Rockies.
We have a lot of of favourite campgrounds, but Redstreak in Radium
Hot Springs is definitely in the "top five" for our family. Located in
Kootenay National Park, British Columbia, we can drive here for a
weekend in a short drive Friday afternoon.
You can't visit Radium Hot Springs without seeing at least one herd of sheep
Five Reasons we LOVE Camping at the Redstreak Campground
1. You can hike out the door of your trailer or tent
There arebeautiful hiking trails
that leave right from the Redstreak Campground. On our recent trip this
past month, we discovered the Redstreak Loop Trail which ascends to a
beautiful viewpoint from the E loop (the same loop we always camp in.)
Views over the Columbia Valley from the Redstreak Loop Trail
2. Easy access to the cute village of Radium Hot Springs
Bike down to the village below the campground, visit the pump track,
bike to the big playground (located two blocks back from Main Street on St. Joseph Street,) get coffee or ice-cream on the main
street, and then hopefully somebody will give you a ride back up to the
campground. (It's a long climb back up if you don't have a vehicle
parked in town.)
So, a long weekend is coming, the forecast actually calls for sun (and not snow,) but you have no reservation. What do you do??
I had to reserve this beauty of a campsite back in January!
Many of us likely remember simpler days where we’d pack up the truck on a Friday afternoon, drive out to the nearest campground and park the trailer without so much as a reservation. Fast forward ten years and you have to book sites online at least three months in advance if you hope to camp at all in the upcoming season. Many private RV resorts take reservations a full year in advance and it’s not uncommon for campgrounds to completely fill up within half an hour of an online reservation system going live for the season.
What do you do if you’ve dropped the ball though and you haven’t made a single reservation yet for the summer? Or what if you’re just not that kind of person who likes to plan ahead? Is there anything out there for the spontaneous individual who wants to play things by ear, watch the weather forecast, and pack up Thursday or Friday without a reservation made six months ago?
While it’s definitely challenging, there are always ways to get a last minute campsite if you use a bit of creativity and if you are willing to be flexible with your plans.
Find a campsite and get out there to enjoy some gorgeous spring camping!
5 Tips for Getting a Campsite without a Reservation
One. Try Random Camping
Do a bit of research to find out where you can camp on crown land without a permit or reservation for your area. Many areas of Alberta allow free random camping in Public Land Use Zoneswhere you are not in an official park or recreation area.
Chances are, the kids won't care where you camp as long as they have friends along
Two. Look for Non-Reservable Campgrounds or Campsites
Try to get a campsite at a non-reservable campground or at a first come-first served (FCFS) campsite. Visit the Alberta Parks website for a complete list of FCFS campsites in Alberta Parks, broken down by park and indicating how many sites are available without a reservation. The National Parks also maintain some non-reservable campgrounds and all of the campgrounds along the Icefields Parkway in Banff/Jasper National Parks are first come-first served.
Note, if you are going to get a site at one of these non-reservable campgrounds or you want to grab a first come-first served site, make sure you arrive either mid-week during the summer season (Thursday at the latest) or that you arrive early in the day as campers are checking out of their sites in the morning. Prospective campers are often asked to wait in line from 10:00am onward to grab sites as they vacate from the previous night.
It is also common for families to drive out to Kananaskis from Calgary on a Wednesday or Thursday night to grab a site for the weekend (a very popular option for long weekends.) You will have to pay for the nights that you don’t use if planning to drive back to the city until the weekend and you will be expected to set up your RV or a tent as a bare minimum to show your intent of camping on the site.(Note, I'm not saying I approve of this action - just stating that it is a very popular practice.)
There are lots of great first come - first serve campgrounds in Kananaskis (like Willow Rock in the Bow Valley)
Three. Book a Site in a Private Campground
Call around to private campgrounds or resorts and see if you can find a site. These campgrounds often have last minute spaces and it’s usually easier to find a site at a private campground than it is in a provincial or national park. You’ll pay more for your site but you’ll also get a serviced site at most private RV campgrounds.
Tip for finding a private campground: Be flexible with your plans and destination, and call around before you leave to see if you can find a site before leaving the city. There’s nothing worse than driving around for three hours in the Okanagan mid-summer trying to find a campground!
We always stay at a private campground outside of Waterton Lakes National Park and love the easy bookings
Four. Networking!
Join a Facebook camping group, an outdoor meet up group, or a community group where you’ll receive first-hand information if a family has to cancel a campsite booking, wants to sell one, or is looking for others to join them on a trip. I’m a member of several groups and there are always people looking to transfer or sell camping permits with short notice. I’ve seen some amazing campsites become available for those who can jump last minute and grab them.
Don’t be shy about approaching friends who like to camp as well. You never know who’s going out this coming weekend and might have room for an extra trailer or tent in a group site.
One of our group campsites last summer (with lots of room for friends!)
Five. Be Flexible!
There is usually something available to book last minute, even over a long weekend, if you are flexible with your plans. Northern Alberta has some beautiful campgrounds and there are lakes spread all over Central Alberta with campgrounds on them.
Worst Case Scenario, you can always camp somewhere "near" where you want to explore and then drive to your chosen park for day trips. (a popular option for places like Dinosaur Provincial Park or Waterton Lakes National Park)
There are gorgeous lakes like this all over Central and Northern Alberta - with beautiful campgrounds!
If there’s a bright side to booking frustrations, it’s that you learn for next year, you come up with a better plan, and you make sure you’re organized by mid-February for the booking season. If you didn’t get your site this year, make a note in your calendar for next year, aim to be on top of it and jump the second you are allowed to make reservations. Meanwhile this year, seize the opportunity to try something new, look for a new favourite campground or seek out that hidden gem you didn’t know about.
Disclaimer: This story "Five Tips to Finding a Campsite When You’ve Dropped the Ball
on Reservations" has been edited and is being re-shared for a fresh
camping season. It was originally published in a local magazine, no
longer in print.
A few people have asked us why we bought a new trailer and I've
had lots of questions about the features in our chosen Keystone
Hideout.
Our Hideout with our DIY outdoor kitchen
First of all, I need to be clear that Keystone is not a sponsor of this blog and we paid for this new purchase on our own like normal folks. Second, we bought our trailer second hand off of Kijiji. (So this means no dealership was involved or sponsored our purchase)
Our trailer is a year old and was used for just one season. Good for us! We saved a few dollars and still got a new trailer we would be able to trust.
We're still getting used to the size of this thing!
Why We Bought a New Trailer
Easier Camping: We had a small hybrid trailer (with pull out beds similar to a tent
trailer) and were tired of having to set so much stuff up when we got to
camp. It was a lot of work to camp for just a short two-night camping
trip. (one night stays on road trips were out of the question!)
Easy Sleeping! We wanted our beds to always be beds! No pull out beds, no slide out
beds, no sofa that turns into a bed... (So we bought a larger trailer
with a queen sized bed at the front for us, and bunks at the back for
our son and a potential friend.)
Yes, we wanted to glamp things up a bit. We wanted a nicer awning
(the new one is fully automatic,) we wanted a newer model of trailer,
and we were intrigued by some of the features out there these days. We
now have a stereo with indoor/outdoor speakers (Bluetooth compatible,)
and we have a charging station that runs off the trailer's battery even
if we don't have a campsite with power! (so excited about that!)
Storage!!!! With our old trailer, everything had to ride in the
middle of the trailer on the floor. We had "some" space underneath for
lawn chairs and a couple of big items but everything else was stored
inside. This meant that when we got to camp, we had to first take
everything out of the trailer before we could go in and fold out the
beds or do basic camp set up.
Our new trailer has a "bike door"
underneath the bottom bunk bed and we can store a lot of stuff here
(toys, sports equipment...) We also have a gigantic cargo area under the
front part of the trailer with doors accessible from both sides of the
trailer. Everything else gets stored here. (And true story - I actually
asked my husband about all the "missing items" I thought he'd forgotten
to bring out to the trailer, and then realized everything was in, but
completely stored and out of site! It was a glorious feeling.)
Easier Camping in Bear Country! We wanted to be able to store food, toiletries and pantry items
inside our trailer all the time! Technically though, you can't do this
if you don't have a fully hard sided trailer in bear country. You are
supposed to treat your hybrid trailer like a tent - and we moved on from
tent camping a long time ago! (I'm done with storing everything in my
vehicle overnight)
Quieter Camping! We wanted something with more soundproofing so that I didn't have to
use ear plugs every night at camp. With our hybrid, I could hear
everything coming from the surrounding campsites and found it hard to
sleep. In our new trailer, I can sleep peacefully and I don't even hear
the trains go by. (a reality when camping in the Bow Valley near railway
tracks!)
My son and his friends loved the bunk beds at the back and spent a lot of time reading books in their own private nook
Initial Challenges with the New Trailer
The Hitch!!
As
with any new (major) purchase, there is always a learning curve and
work to be done before you can thoroughly enjoy your new toy. For us,
this meant buying a new hitch (a distribution hitch in our case) to tow
our trailer safely. We had to take the trailer in to an RV repair shop
to get it measured and installed correctly, and had a major challenge
trying to get a drop bar long enough to make the trailer 100% level.
(apparently the standard bar sold with the hitch wasn't long enough for
our trailer)
We're still not "sold" on the way the
hitch works (bars so low to the ground they drag on bumps going into
campsites) but the RV technician swore it was measured right and was put
on correctly. For now we're going to let it be, but we may have to make
some adjustments as we get out a big more and see how things work. Lesson learned:
Allow yourself a few weeks to get everything ready to go with a new
trailer before you plan your first camping trip!! I was trying to get
this hitch put on days before our first trip and it was very stressful.
(especially since my husband works in the daytime and I was left to
negotiate everything with the repair shop by myself)
Learning to tow a bigger trailer safely is a major challenge
The Battery (and Furnace!!)
We
didn't test the battery on the trailer before going out on our first
trip. Yes, we charged it, but we never actually tested it in the trailer
to make sure it was good. Turns out it was dead (as in needs to be
recycled and won't ever work again) and so our furnace didn't work! This
would have been a major deal if I hadn't have brought an electric
heater with us for the weekend!
Lesson Learned:
Make sure your battery is charged AND working! Test your furnace, test
your lights, test everything and make sure it all works.
Daytime temperatures were warm but evenings were chilly and we definitely needed a furnace
The Stereo (yes, a small problem)
We
discovered that there was a blown fuse in the stereo and so it wouldn't
work. Not a major problem but a quick trip to the Canadian Tire in
Canmore fixed this problem so that we could have music while cooking at
our campsite.
Lesson Learned: Camp near
a town or city on your first trip out with a new trailer so that you
can purchase any last minute supplies you may need. (and I suspect this
will continue for the next month as we get to learn more about our
trailer and what it requires to run smoothly)
A little quiet music is nice at camp. Glad we got the stereo fixed
This is a story of first experiences for our family including our first April camping trip where we didn't stay in a cabin, hut, or hostel.
Thanks to the new trailer in this photo, our family is now camping in April!
Another first was staying at a campground for its opening weekend of the season. And trust me, it's really easy to get a campsite on Tuesday for the upcoming weekend, when you want to go camping in April.
Riverside camping in Bow Valley Campground at one of the premier sites
The third "first experience" was that we used our new trailer for the first time, taking it out close to home so that we could work out any bugs or problems that we might discover. (always a good idea when it's a second hand trailer and you neglected to get an inspection!)
Our new trailer and our DIY outdoor kitchen
Our First April Camping Trip
We saw several families or groups tenting at the Bow Valley Campground two weeks ago but that's just never been my style. I don't tent in the snow or when the temperature drops below zero at night (and trust me, it definitely went down below zero while we were camping last weekend!)
We've had a small hybrid trailer for the past few years and it's definitely warm enough for an early season camping trip (especially if you have a power site and bring an electric heater with you) but it's still not as comfortable as cabin or hut camping - something we've always done until mid-May.
Thanks to our new fully hard-sided trailer though, and an awesome electric heater that we brought, we were toasty warm while camping in April. We spent a little bit more time inside the trailer than we normally would have (eating breakfast inside for example,) but we still kept things pretty simple and didn't use the water or any of the plumbing since we were afraid the pipes would still freeze if they had water in them.
April camping and toasty warm with our new trailer
Spring Camping in Bow Valley Provincial Park
Bow Valley Provincial Park is the perfect place to launch a first camping trip of the season from Calgary. We chose to camp at the main Bow Valley Campground with its gorgeous riverside campsites, playgrounds, hiking and biking trails, and reservable campsites.
The view from our campsite at the Bow Valley Campground
Bow Valley Awesomeness #1 - Bow Valley Provincial Park is close to home!!
Get too cold? Bail and call it quits with minimal loss.
We lucked out and had a gorgeous weekend for late April
Bow Valley Awesomeness #2 - You'll be camping in the sunny Bow Valley
The Bow Valley loses its snow earlier in the season than other areas of Kananaskis or Banff. Mornings and evenings were chilly but the daytime temperatures were pleasantly warm while we were there at the end of April.
It was supposed to be quite rainy but this was the surprise we got instead biking around Canmore
Bow Valley Awesomeness #3 - Great spring hiking trails!
The Bow Valley Campground is located close to many great early-season hiking trails that we enjoy every spring. The Many Springs Trails is accessible by bike or on foot from any of the campsites at the Bow Valley Campground. The Flowing Water Trail is just across the road in the Willow Rock Campground, a first come first serve campground. Other early season favourites nearby are the Heart Creek Trail or Raven's End on Yamnuska (a good hiking trail takes you to the bottom of the cliff face that you'll see from the campground.)
Mount Yamnuska as seen from the Many Springs Hiking Trail
You can also check out my previous story onthe Yamnuska hiking trail if this mountain intrigues you.
Picnic beside the Bow River in Bow Valley Provincial Park
Bow Valley Awesomeness #4 - Great Bike Trails!
You'll be close to some fabulous bike trails if you go camping in Bow Valley Provincial Park! We like biking around the quiet Bow Valley Campground roads over to the Many Springs Trail or to the Bow Valley Paved Bike Trail which takes you down to the park information centre.
Biking on the Bow Valley Bike Trail
We also love biking on the trails around Canmore, a short 10 minute drive away, or you can head down Highway 40 towards Kananaskis Village where the Bill Milne Trail is an excellent early season favourite. (something we did Sunday after packing up camp)
Biking the Bill Milne Trail off Highway 40 (a short drive away from Bow Valley)
Bow Valley Awesomeness #5 - You are close to everything!
From the Bow Valley Campground you can drive further into Kananaskis, pop over to Canmore, or even head to Banff for the day for a bike ride, easy hike, or trip to the hot springs.
There's honestly no shortage of things to do when you're camped in the Bow Valley for a weekend.
One of the gorgeous bike trails in Canmore we drove to Saturday while camping in the Bow Valley
Stay tuned for more on the new trailer coming up in my next blog post...
Last year, I asked a large group of outdoor-loving moms what their families could do to make their Mother’s Day weekend camping trip just a little bit more special, perhaps a little more comfortable, and completely “spoil a mom” worthy!
How will you make mom feel special this weekend?
Originally printed in a local magazine last season, I wanted to publish
this story online to get these fun tips and suggestions out there again
for this Mother's Day weekend.
Laughter aside, “Make my weekend special by not taking me camping,” “Take the kids camping and leave me at home for some peace and quiet,” or “Tell me we are going camping and then take me away to an all-inclusive,” these moms had a lot of great suggestions I’d like to share with you.
Taking a moment to soak in the peace and quiet at camp
25 Ways you can Spoil us and Make us feel Special on this Mother’s Day Weekend Camping Trip
Be the first one out of the tent in the morning, start the fire, make the coffee, and let me sleep in
Take the kids fishing or for a hike in the morning and leave me with my coffee and Baileys for an hour
Sneak a bottle of bubbly into the cooler for my morning orange juice. (Mimosas anyone?)
Do all the planning, organizing and packing for the family (and not at the last minute so that a bunch of stuff is missing) – Bonus points if you can even prepare the snacks and entertainment for the kids for the drive out!
Pre-make a nice dinner for Saturday night. (Something other than hotdogs and hamburgers) – and don’t forget a yummy campfire dessert
Buy wine and a cake, and put them in the bottom of the cooler so I don't see them, then surprise me with it after dinner one night
I'm hoping for some “mom time” with a book in a camping chair and a cold beverage – Bonus points if you know my favourite kind of beer or splurge on the good wine!
Pack and prepare all the things needed to help the kids make a craft to remember the weekend
Make a playlist of my favourite songs to listen to by the campfire
Think up a nicer than just cereal breakfast for Saturday morning. Bonus points if I get served in bed and if you remember the Baileys for the coffee!
Make all the meals, do the dishes, and take care of all camp chores for me this weekend
Invite my mom and dad to come with us so that we can celebrate Mother’s Day together (and perhaps even take off for a bike ride or hike without the kids for an hour or two)
Take me glamping (think yurt, wall tent, cabin, teepee…)
Find a trailer for the weekend! I’m too old to tent it anymore
Plan a special family hike or bike ride with a picnic lunch (that I don’t have to plan for or pack) – Bonus points if we have the picnic near a stream, lake, or waterfall where the kids can play and I can enjoy a nice relaxing lunch and maybe a glass of wine
Take me OUT to eat in a nearby town for Saturday night dinner or for Sunday brunch (I hear the Banff Springs Hotel has a great brunch – hint, hint)
Plan some special one- on-one time for us as a couple after the kids are in bed (think cheese fondue, a special dessert, a nice bottle of wine, a new board game, etc.)
Get a professional house-cleaner to clean the house while we're away
Wine, wine, wine
Plan a day trip to a mountain spa for me while you amuse the kids (and I hear that the spa at the Banff Springs Hotel or at the Delta Kananaskis Lodge are both amazing!)
Help the kids to make me a homemade card made from treasures found on our weekend hikes (think pinecones, leaves, wild flowers, etc.)
Buy me a new book for the weekend or upgrade a piece of my camping gear (new sleeping bag or camp chair perhaps?)
Give me a night off from having to put the kids to bed so that I can sit by the campfire or relax in the hammock with a book
Invite some of our best friends to come camping with us so that I have girlfriends to socialize/hike/bike with while you dads take care of the kids for an afternoon
Make me feel special with simple things like a colourful table cloth for the picnic table with a camping mug used as a vase to put wildflowers into and bring me a nice big camping chair with a nice bright pillow for me to read my book in while you take the kids for a walk
So there you have it dads. Pick one idea above and treat that special mom to a little bit of extra peace and "chill time" at camp this weekend.
Add a book and a bottle of wine, and this is where I'd chill this weekend
This story was originally printed in Alberta's RV and Resort Magazine, no longer in publication.
We like to spend Easter in the backcountry surrounded by friends, mountains of snow, and large amounts of chocolate. This year was no different and we decided to book the entire A.O. Wheeler Hut at Rogers Pass for our spring adventure.
Easter at the Wheeler Hut, Rogers Pass, BC
The Wheeler Hut, Rogers Pass
The A.O. Wheeler Hut is located in Glacier National Park, British Columbia, Canada (not in the American national park with the same name.) Rogers Pass is located roughly halfway between the Town of Golden and the City of Revelstoke, and from Calgary is a 3.5 to 4 hour drive.
The hut is maintained and operated by the Alpine Club of Canada, which operates the largest number of backcountry huts in Canada. In winter it can be reached via an easy 45 minute ski or hike from the parking lot off the TransCanada Highway. From the parking area, it's a steep climb when pulling sleds for the first 5-10 minutes but then the grade levels out and it's flat easy walking or skiing from that point on. Snowshoes or skis are usually needed in winter unless the trail has been well packed down.
Skiing into the Wheeler Hut
We drove out to Rogers Pass on the morning of Good Friday and easily reached the cabin in 30 minutes or so from the parking lot. My son and I both cross country skied in while my husband used his backcountry skis. We also carried two sets of snowshoes for day touring along with my son's downhill skis and boots (which we hoped he would get to use further up the valley from the hut after snowshoeing up one of the backcountry ski trails.) Add food, overnight gear, sleeping bags, and chocolate of course - and it felt like we were moving in for a month!
Skiing into the Wheeler Hut on the easy access trail
Renting the Entire Cabin
The A.O.Wheeler Hut sleeps 24 people in the winter and we originally had 7 families coming but after a couple of last minute cancellations, we were down to 5 families sharing the hut over Easter (which was perfect actually.) We had paid for the entire hut and I had made the booking a year to the date for Good Friday (which, yes, is necessary if you want to book an entire hut over a long weekend!)
Kudos to those who get out camping in their tents year round but I'm not a winter camping kind of gal. I like to sleep warm and cozy in a log cabin heated by either fireplace or propane heaters. (And the Wheeler Hut is actually big enough to have two fireplaces!)
The Wheeler Hut is larger than many of the other cabins maintained by the Alpine Club of Canada (ACC). It has three rooms on the main floor (main living room with fireplace and two tables for eating, kitchen, and then a third room at the entrance meant for drying gear which also has a fireplace.) Each room has at least one table so groups can spread out when the hut is full.
Winter Gear for three people!
The Wheeler Hut also has two floors to it (unlike many smaller huts.) The main floor is for cooking, eating, and socializing. The upper floor is where you'll find mattresses and platforms for sleeping (separated into three open rooms.) - note there are no doors separating the rooms.
Packing for a cabin camping trip at an ACC hut is pretty simple and we had first timers along who had never done a backcountry trip before. The hut has heat (thanks to the fireplaces,) has a stocked kitchen with all of the pots, pans, dishes, and cooking utensils that you would need, has propane stoves (and usually an oven, though it was broken on this trip,) and has sleeping mattresses. Bring your own sleeping bags, toilet paper, food, headlamps or flashlights, and hut booties or slippers - and that's it!
Indoor games and fun in the main living room at the Wheeler Hut
As with regular camping, bathrooms are located outside in the form of pit toilets - just to keep you from feeling too glampy!
To see more indoor photos of the hut, visit the ACC website and scroll through the slideshow for the Wheeler Hut.
Main living room at the Wheeler Hut (photo: Suzanne Burgman)
Our Weekend Entertainment
Entertainment is pretty easy when you have mountains of snow outside a backcountry hut, trails leading out your door for exploring, and a good collection of toys (sleds, skis, snowshoes...)
The kids couldn't resist the snowy roof of the hut!
The big goal for the weekend was to build an epic backcountry luge track - so we built two!
The other goal we had was to introduce the kids to some of the easier ski terrain at Rogers Pass (which is famous across North America for backcountry skiing in epic amounts of powder.) It being April, and us staying low down in the valley out of avalanche terrain, we didn't have any powder or fresh snow.
Out exploring with the kids
We snowshoed and skied as a group up the Illicilewaet Valley for a couple of kilometres until we would have started to enter avalanche terrain. This is where we turned around and where we switched our son from snowshoes to skis. The other kids either stayed in the skis they'd already been wearing or stuck with their snowshoes. We knew our son Noah though would do best with downhill skis in this terrain (rather than cross country skis) and we don't have a backcountry touring set up for him yet.
The very snowy bridge on the Illicilewaet Valley Trail
Snowshoeing up the Illicilewaet Valley
Skiing down the Illicilewaet Valley Trail on downhill skis was quite easy and Noah had a blast on the short descent back down to the ruins of the old Glacier House hotel.
Easy backcountry skiing at Rogers Pass
The Boys of Rogers Pass
Later in the afternoon a few of us moms headed up the Asulkan Valley Trail to the first bridge and this proved to be quite exciting on cross country skis on the descent. I'm happy to report no broken bones though and I only had to take my skis off for one short hill.
Skiing down the Asulkan Valley Trail
Easter Fun at the Wheeler Hut
One of the moms brought some muffins to bake (which was a bit tricky with a broken oven) and we had the kids decorate them for Easter. She had also brought some paper eggs for the kids to color and decorate.
Easter crafts at the hut
Easter morning the kids discovered that the Easter Bunny had shown up at the hut and hidden chocolate filled eggs all around the cabin. They all came away with a good haul and had fun running around in the snow finding their candy. This is always one of the highlights of our Easter backcountry trips and I don't think we'll ever be able to do a "normal" Easter egg hunt in the city again.
Finding Easter Eggs in the Snow Cave
Hunting for Easter Eggs in the snow
No shortage of candy in the hut Easter morning
Back to Civilization
We spent two nights at the hut and then left on Easter Sunday so that those who worked the Monday could get back to the city. We had thought about heading out to do some more skiing or snowshoeing Sunday morning but ended up heading back down to the highway late in the morning so that we could be in Golden for lunch. And despite the long drive, we were easily back in the city by late afternoon in time for dinner.
Spring at the Wheeler Hut
Skiing out from the hut (photo: Megan Dunn)
Next Year...
Very "unlike" me, I have actually not booked anything yet for next year. Getting a hut is out of the question at this point so if you have any cool ideas for Easter 2018 let me know! And, if you've booked a hut and need another family, let me know!! I'll bring the chocolate.
