I returned home one evening last week to find my daughter Elisabeth and her fiancé Jude squatting in my driveway with my son Kevin and his wife Lennie. They were in the process of test firing my old MSR Whisperlite backpacking stove and were trying to remember the exact process for priming and then igniting the burner. It seems Kevin and Lennie were introducing friends of theirs to the joys of backpacking. They’d come to my house to borrow equipment from my “gear loft” (actually, Elisabeth was returning a two-person tent she had previously borrowed …).

A gear loft is a rectangle of mesh netting that ties to loops suspended from the top of a tent. It serves as a small storage area for lightweight items like a flashlight – or for drying a damp camp towel or freshly washed socks. I’d dubbed the decked area above my garage my “gear loft” when I realized it was a great place to store tents, sleeping bags, backpacks, bicycle accessories and all the other accoutrements of camping, cycling and canoeing we’d accumulated over three decades of adventures together.

I squatted in the driveway and led an impromptu coaching session on the fine points of operating the collapsible stove – including a safety inspection and some needed adjustments to the venerable burner.

“Dad, when did you get this stove?” Elisabeth asked.

“Hmmm,” I reflected. “I think I bought it for the trek we did on the Nantahala Forest section of the Appalachian Trail.” We both grinned, vividly recalling treasured memories from ten days we’d spent backpacking together in 1990.

Kevin chimed in, “Isn’t this the same stove we used at the Grand Canyon?”

I instantly conjured up a picture of him cooking supper on a South Rim campsite picnic table in 1996 the evening he and his brother Brian and I had just hiked river-to-rim following an overnighter at Bright Angel Creek. We’d gotten a backcountry permit and had packed into the canyon just the day before.

“Yep,” I answered, “and the family camping next to us refilled our fuel bottle and saved us a walk to the store that we didn’t need after that long climb up Bright Angel Trail!”

We lingered on the driveway for a while as a thunderstorm approached – sharing recollections of various backcountry trips I’ve taken over the years with diverse groupings of my children.

I’m very grateful for the terrific adventures we’ve had together – and the ones we’ll have in the future. And I’m very pleased that my children continue to work together as brothers and sister – and with their respective friends and now with their own children – to extend our family tradition of planning and sharing wonderful outdoor adventures.

That’s why my gear loft is always open!