Hiking

Image by vastateparksstaff via Flickr

Whatever That Means . . .

Hiking . . . great for all the family. It gets ‘em away from the television and games consoles for a few days if nothing else. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m all for taking the kids hiking . . . it’s great for them, teaches them about life in the great outdooors, and it’s great for the parents too . . . nothing quite sparkles as much as it does when its seen through a childs eyes for the first time, and if you take the kids with you, you can share in that experience with them.  Okay, one incy wincy tiny potential problem with hiking with your kids . . . the “apres hike” entertainment (see how I effortlessly slipped into French then), you can only hike for so many hours in a day, and (especially when you’ve got kids with you on your hiking trip) you need to make sure that your hiking base camp is all set up well before dark . . . and then what? Hiking makes everybody tired, but you can’t guarantee that your children will obediently fall to sleep at nightfall and wake up again when the birds start singing . . . life don’t happen like that . . . at least, my life don’t! So what are the alternatives.  

 “Somebody told me it was frightening how much topsoil we are losing each year, but I told that story around the campfire and nobody got scared.”  -Jack Handey

• Singing around the camp fire at the end of a days hiking? Won’t be long before some naughty ”playground songs” appear . . . and that’s just the adults!
• Telling ghost stories as darkness falls (with flashlight shining under chin to make really scary ghosty faces) . . . got into big trouble for that one time . . . such a screaming and a hollering . . . took ‘em ages to settle down and go to sleep!
• Playing “I spy” – gets more difficult as darkness falls around the hiking party . . . something beginning with “T” – Tree, what . . . again?

That’s why, if you follow the advice of a hiking parent who knows all about these things, that carrying just that little bit of extra hiking equipment to keep the kids entertained is well worth the effort. You’ll be glad you packed those couple of things in your back-pack, even if they did add a few ounces to the overall weight.

Oh I know very well that lots of people hike with their iPhones, iPads, even Laptops these days, which themselves have got a seemingly endless supply of games which only children below a certain age can even  remotely understand . . . but is that really what you went hiking for? There has to be a better way of keeping the kids (not forgetting the bigger kids) entertained on a hiking trip . . . and there is!