Getting reluctant kids excited about hiking

"I forgot! I DO like hiking!"

Kids can be fickle creatures. Their lack of knowledge and experience in the world often makes them cautious about suggested activities.

You want to sway kids to at least entertain the notion that a hike might be fun. If they hit the trail thinking a long stretch of boredom awaits them, they’ll make the experience miserable for both themselves and for you.

To entice kids, children, let them help plan the hike. They can help select the destination, trace out the trail on a map, choose which snacks to bring, and so on.

For younger kids, children, find coloring pages about hiking on the Internet that you can print for free (just type “hiking coloring pages” in a search engine for images). Coloring pages showing children having fun and some of the scenery on the trial often gets kids excited about the ad-venture ahead.

Show them pictures of interesting animals, plants and rock formations they might see on the trail. Photos taken by other hikers of a trail usually can be found online. Remember, though, that flowers are seasonal and most animals prefer not to be seen, so some of the photos you’ll find may not represent what you’ll actually observe along the trail when you plan to hike it.

You also can get a library book about hiking, showing all of the fun that can be had on such an adventure. If your library uses the Dewey Decimal System (and most do), you can find hiking books aimed at kids in the 796s of the juvenile nonfiction section. If hitting a gem or fossil trail, pick up a book about rockhounding in the 552s.

Children also can make their own hiking gear. Trekking poles and a utility belt to hold a water bottle and snacks don’t have to be purchased but can be constructed using materials you probably have in the yard or garage.

Don’t call it a “hike.” Some kids think a “hike” means a death march through boring countryside. Instead, you are going on an “adventure,” an “expedition” or a “trek” – or say “we’re going to see a waterfall at the end of a trail.” For really hard to crack nuts say, “We’re walking to a pool where we’ll swim.” Now you’re not hiking but swimming, from the child’s point of view. Finally, express your own wonderment and enthusiasm about nature. For younger children, it soon will be infectious.

NOTE: This post originally appeared as a guest blog on Tales of a Mountain Mama on Jan. 25, 2012.

Read more about day hiking with children in my guidebook Hikes with Tykes series.

Follow planning list when hiking with kids

Before leaving on any hike with children, plan out your trip. Here’s a useful planning checklist:
g Print a road map showing how to reach the parking lot near the trailhead. Outline the route with a transparent yellow highlighter and write out the directions.
g Print a satellite photo of the parking area and the trailhead. Mark the trailhead on the photo.
g Print a topo map of the trail. Outline the trail with the yellow highlighter. Note interesting features you want to see along the trail and the destination.
g If carrying GPS, program this information into your device.
g Make a timeline for your trip, listing: when you will leave home; when you will arrive at the trailhead; your turn-back time; when you will return for home in your vehicle; when you will arrive at home.
g Estimate how much water and food you will need to bring based on the amount of time you plan to spend on the trail and in your vehicle. You’ll need at least 2 pints of water per person for every hour on the trail.
g Fill out two copies of a hiker’s safety form. Leave one in your vehicle.
g Share all of this information with a responsible person remaining in civilization, leaving a hiker’s safety form with them. If they do not hear from you within an hour of when you plan to leave the trail in your vehicle, they should contact authorities to report you as possibly lost.

Read more about day hiking with children in my guidebook Hikes with Tykes.

How far of a drive should the hiking trail be?

The younger the child, the shorter the distance from home you want the trail to be. When my son was two-years-old, more than a half-hour in the Jeep to the trail-head was murder – even with toys and books and his favorite stuffie. As a four-year-old, he could handle a trip of up to an hour. You probably already have a good idea of how long your children can spend in the vehicle.

There are a couple of other elements to consider about the drive. Even if your children have no problem with two or three hours in the car, long drives can cramp muscles. For infants, curvy roads like those in the mountains can lead to upset tummies. Neither situation will make for a pleasant hike.

Read more about day hiking with children in my guidebook Hikes with Tykes.

Select trail with interesting features for kids

Water always is a favorite sight along hiking
trails for children.

A hike of quiet reflection through the woods may sound great for an adult, but it’s a big bore to kids. They want to see things along the way – lakes and ponds, interesting rock formations, waterfalls, fire lookout towers, wild-flowers, streams, boulder fields, sweeping vistas, nature center, abandoned buildings (though you won’t go in them), fossils, stream crossings (only for older kids) and more. Water almost always is a winner with kids.

A trail with an intriguing history probably won’t mean much to kids until they’re at least in their late elementary school years. The concept of history is too abstract for most young children, who have a limited notion of time spanning a day let alone years.

When planning the hike, try to find a trail that has a midpoint payoff – that is something kids will find exciting about half-way through the hike. This will help keep kids’ energy and enthusiasm up during the journey.

Generally, kids will prefer a circular route to one that requires hiking back the way you came. The return trip often feels anti-climatic, but you can overcome that by mentioning features that all of you might want to take a closer look at.

Read more about day hiking with children in my guidebook Hikes with Tykes.

Guest blogs at Tales of a Mountain Mama

Hikes with Tykes author Rob Bignell has written today's guest blog, "Getting Reluctant Kids Excited about Hiking", at the Tales of a Mountain Mama site run by Amelia Meyer. The post lists ways to get kids who might be reluctant to go on a hike interested (and maybe even excited) about heading into the wilds. Meyer's blog offers outdoors-related tales of family life, lessons learned, and reviews and giveaways of products.

Things to do with kids before hittin' the trail

When arriving where you plan to day hike with children, you'll want to take some basic steps to ensure everyone has the best hiking experience possible. Though everyone is eager to hit the trailhead, taking a few minutes for these simple, preparatory steps will prevent lots of headaches on the trail and hours of suffering afterward.

Begin by making sure each child is properly dressed. You did this at home, of course, but during the drive kids have a way of removing shoes and shocks and layers of clothing or of leaving their hats and sunglasses in the vehicle.

Next, apply sunscreen, lip balm and insect repellent to each child. Older elementary school kids probably can do their own (and teenagers certainly can), but you’ll need to at least talk younger kids through the steps and make sure they’ve been thorough. You can put on your sunscreen, lip balm and repellent with the kids. The order that you put on these items doesn’t matter.

Next, distribute the kids their gear, from daypacks to trekking poles. Make sure they put on the gear properly. If you don’t, you’ll either have to stop along the way and do it or you’ll have kids with sore backs, shoulders, necks, wrists or more.

Great place to hike with kids? Try a beach

Moonlight Beach, California

Looking for a great place to hike with children? Hit the beach.

Don’t just think Southern California, Florida and Hawaii, though. The United States has a colossal number of beachfronts up and down the Atlantic seaboard, the Pacific Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico and the Great Lakes, as well as numerous inland lakes, ponds and rivers.

If you’re looking on a map for a place to hike, just spy a blue line, and you’re sure to find along it a municipal, county or state park that boasts great trails and views.

Children tend to love being near water, and a beach offers them an exotic location for exploring and making all kinds of discoveries.

Check out these additional blog entries about beaches:
g Clothe beach-hiking kids in outerwear to prevent sunburn
g Fun game/activity for kids on beach hike: Rock Patterns
g Follow island shoreline with Lake Superior on Big Bay Trail
g Day (er, Night) hike sand dunes haunted by murdered woman’s spirit

Read more about day hiking with children in my guidebook Hikes with Tykes.