A river. A sandbar. A secluded campsite and a good friend.

Sometimes backpacking doesn’t have to be about how many miles you put in and how light your pack is.

On this trip, we went 4.5 miles out to the campsite. Then stayed there all the next day. And then came back the day after.

What do you do when you don’t have a certain mileage to make before the next campsite? You explore. You take more pictures. You lay on the sandbar well into the night listening to the owls calling to each other.

You relax.