< back to writing

Into the Woods: A Father-Son Camping Trip Gone Awry

What's for breakfast? McCarthy's son takes in the view over a tasty meal of sardines and M&M's.

What’s for breakfast? McCarthy’s son takes in the view over a tasty meal of sardines and M&M’s.

By Andrew McCarthy

“This is the worst day of my life!” my then seven-year-old son turned and yelled at me. He dropped to the ground and hung his head to cry. And there, on a trail in the middle of the Catskill Mountains in New York State, he melted down. We were two hours into a five-mile hike to a remote lake, high on a ridge after several hundred steep feet of elevation gain. The view, when the trees broke, was expansive. None of that beauty mattered now. We still had miles to go; the afternoon was wearing down, and my son wouldn’t budge.

The idea had been simple; take my boy on a father son overnight camping trip. I’d grown up in suburban New Jersey and never spent a night outdoors until I turned thirty and decided I ought to know how to pitch a tent. I went to Wyoming and took a month long course in the Absaroka Mountains and learned to be comfortable without a roof over my head. Every year thereafter I tried to make at least one trip into the outdoors, to keep my skills up, but also because it was in the mountains where I discovered that simple connection—to not only the natural world, but also my place in it. I felt an “at homeness” in myself when I was far from home and deep in the wilderness in a way that I never had before.

I had been telling my son and his younger sister about the joys of camping for a few years, and he was keen for me to take him. I was eager for both my kids to experience at a young age what it had taken me so long to discover, yet I was apprehensive. It seemed that every time I went camping, I forgot something—the frying pan, my knife, or how exactly to tie a trucker’s hitch. These mistakes were easy enough for me to live with when on my own, but being responsible for my son’s safety?—an unacknowledged fear had been exposed, one easily masked in the comforts of daily life.

But one of the benefits of parenting is that it forces us to try and live up to the idea of our better selves, and so with fears acknowledged, supplies triple checked, and spirits high, we piled into the car and headed north.

At the trailhead my son and I hoisted our packs. He was excited and ran ahead. The late summer air was humid, the trees heavy with a full season’s growth. After twenty minutes the trail began to climb and my son asked, “How much further, Dad.”

I’d been worried that five miles might be too far for his first real hike, but on the map, the lake had seemed the perfect destination. I began to tell my son long stories to take his mind of the walk. He gave me his backpack to carry; and eventually, after the steep grade, he had enough and quit, right in the middle of the trail. The reality of his experience in direct opposition to the fantasy of my father son utopia, and I saw whatever glorious bonding I had imagined vanishing under the reality of my son’s exhaustion. I did the only thing a father could do; I reached for the secret stash of the normally forbidden M&M’s—the ones meant to be saved for after dinner, after all our work was done—and dangled them in front of his wet blue eyes.

“Really?” his voice held a glimmer of hope.

“Really.” I offered him two.

Three-dozen M&M’s later, we found the lake—our spirits soared. I showed him how to set up the tent, we unrolled our sleeping bags, then splashed in the clear water. As darkness fell, a riot of frogs began their bellowing serenade. My son found their croaking symphony hysterical, and laughed himself to sleep.

In the morning when the stove wouldn’t light (I had neglected to bring enough propane) my son had sardines and M&M’s for breakfast; he pronounced it the best meal he had ever eaten; and camping a glorious adventure. After languid hours we packed up and skipped back along the trail that had seemed endless just a day before.

The following year we were rained out of our camping trip, and last year time got away, but we’re headed back out for another overnight next weekend—and the big yellow “value size” bag of M&M’s is already in my pack.

back to top

JOIN ANDREW McCARTHY ON TOUR

Tuesday, March 28 at 7pm
Barnes & Noble Union Square
In conversation with Gayle Forman
33 E. 17th St., New York, NY 10003

Wednesday, March 29 at 7pm
Barnes & Noble
Vernon Hills Shopping Center
680 Post Rd., Eastchester, NY 10583

Thursday, March 30 at 7pm
Books & Greetings
271 Livingston St., Northvale, NJ 07647

Saturday, April 1
Texas Teen Book Con | Houston, TX

Sunday, April 2
Alamo Drafthouse | Austin, TX

Monday, April 3 at 7pm
Books, Inc Opera Plaza
Not Your Mother’s Book Club
601 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco, CA 94107

Tuesday, April 4 at 7pm
Book Passage
51 Tamal Vista Blvd., Corte Madera, CA 94925

Wednesday, April 5 at 8pm
Live Talks LA
In conversation with Pico Iyer
Ann and Jerry Moss Theatre, New Roads School
3131 Olympic Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90404

Thursday, April 6 at 7pm
Elliott Bay Books
1521 10th Ave., Seattle, WA 98122

Friday, April 7 at 7pm
Powell’s Books
3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd., Beaverton, OR 97005

Sunday, April 9 at 5pm
Politics & Prose
5015 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20008

Monday, April 10 at 7pm
Boswell Books
2559 N. Downer Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53211

Tuesday, April 11 at 7pm
The Book Stall at Chestnut Court
In conversation with Betsy Bird
811 Elm St., Winnetka, IL 60093

Wednesday, April 12 at 7pm
Talk of the Stacks Series
Hennepin County Library
Minneapolis Central Library
300 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis, MN 55401

Thursday, April 13 at 6:30pm
Parnassus Books
Hillsboro Plaza Shopping Center
3900 Hillsboro Pike #14, Nashville, TN 37215

Tuesday, April 18 at 6:30pm
Rainy Day Books
At Woodneath Library
8900 N. Flintock Rd., Kansas City, MO 64157

Wednesday, April 19 at 7pm
St. Louis County Library
With The Novel Neighbor
1640 S. Lindbergh Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63131

Thursday, April 20 at 7pm
Georgia Center for the Book
With Little Shop of Stories
Dekalb County Public Library
215 Sycamore St., Decatur, GA 30030

Friday, April 21 at 7pm
Books & Books
265 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables, FL 33134

Tuesday, April 25 at 7pm
Barnes & Noble
Market Fair, 3535 US-1 #400, Princeton, NJ 08540

Wednesday, April 26 at 7pm
Brookline Booksmith
279 Harvard St., Brookline, MA 02446

Monday, May 1 at 7pm
Darien Library
In conversation with Dani Shapiro
1441 Post Rd., Darien, CT 06820

PRE-ORDER NOW