Hiking.

There's a good post on introducing your kids to backpacking at Sectionhiker.com.  The author is Tom Murphy, a guest-poster from the comboxes.   Good to read it, because one of my great frustrations is hiking with children.  

Maybe it sounds like a bit of a cliche, but of all the kinds of exercise in the world, probably my favorite for sheer enjoyment is a medium-strenuous trail hike, taken fairly swiftly.  I don't much like to stop and rest and enjoy the view; I like the way the view keeps changing when you keep moving, and I like the steady bite of my soles into the ground and the slight soreness of the muscles when you've been going for a long time, and I love how delicious trail food can be when you've worked up an appetite by walking all morning.  Here in Minnesota, most of the hilly sorts of hikes are forested; my favorites have been out West, on drier, rockier land, in and out of gullies, having to scramble here and there.  We had an extended-family trip to Las Vegas a couple of years ago; Mark was thrilled to get to do some premier rock climbing (not with me!), and I was thrilled to take several hikes in the canyon including one without the children.

(Mark doing his thing)

(Nobody took any pictures of me on MY cool hike, but I did get some cool plant photos) 

It's not that it's not fun to hike with the kids -- it has its own charms -- but I get so impatient at how slow we have to go.  I want to GO GO GO and they want to do stuff like look at bugs or hide under overhangs or or identify flowers or stop to eat trail mix or climb on big rocks.

What is with them, anyway?  I mean really.

Anyway, I am going to show the linked article to Mark, because it's one thing I definitely wish we did more of:  hiking with the kids.  

And -- frankly -- also, hiking without the kids.

Or at least only with the kids we can carry.

Comments

[Alishia]

Thanks for being frank. I miss hiking, too, and as much as I want my kids to enjoy it I want to enjoy it without them, too.

[Amber]

My husband and I did do one backpacking trip when we just had one, when she was 2.5. It went quite well and we'd love to do another... but the logistics get a lot more complicated with a 7 yo, a 3.5 yo, and a 1 yo. Still doable though, at least for something fairly short.

[Amber]

Weird, I had a longer comment and it ate the first two paragraphs. Oh well - suffice to say that I'm with you on the hiking thing!