Well look out-LEAVE YOUR CHILD AT HOME!

[hikerboy57]

Good story - I hope you have many more "Marches" in the future.... I am thinking a few circle trails when young under a mile or two in the woods or beach, but nothing serious until ten to twelve years of age.

im looking forward to my second go round as my daughter is expecting my first granddaughter in May.
gives me an excuse to watch cartoons again, as well as a visit to the childrens zoo.

[OBXWaMi]

I took my 6 year-old granddaughter on OUR very first hike this weekend. I definitely didn't drag her, she has been begging me to take her hiking since September when I started talking about it. I started researching and reading long before deciding to take her along. We also camped out in the backyard and then a local campground to see how she would do out-of-doors. She is in GoFAR (Go Out For A Run) at school and has 2 5k races under her belt, so I knew she was fit enough for it. She carried her school backpack with a half-size inflatable sleeping pad, a polar fleece sleeping bag liner, a change of clothes, water, bug spray and snacks. She carried it all but 2 or 3 of the the 13 miles we hiked yesterday. My 17 year old daughter went too. We all had a GREAT time.

A child who whines and cries makes the trip miserable for everyone. It isn't fair to the child or the adults around them. Leave them HOME!

[rocketsocks]

im looking forward to my second go round as my daughter is expecting my first granddaughter in May.
gives me an excuse to watch cartoons again, as well as a visit to the childrens zoo.

That and more,like;milk out the nose,thee ole pull my finger,where does it end?congrats on your expecting...Gramps

[hikerboy57]

That and more,like;milk out the nose,thee ole pull my finger,where does it end?congrats on your expecting...Gramps

twinkies.
i just hope i get my figure back!

[Pedaling Fool]

A child who whines and cries makes the trip miserable for everyone. It isn't fair to the child or the adults around them. Leave them HOME!

Why not just leave them in the woods

[Tinker]

I just got back from that area today and noticed the same thing.

I just hope the dads teach their kids not to litter. The Knife Edge, particularly, was a mess of garbage.

[rocketsocks]

I just got back from that area today and noticed the same thing.

I just hope the dads teach their kids not to litter. The Knife Edge, particularly, was a mess of garbage.

I'm visualizing that old Indian with tear running down his face after seeing a bunch of garbage.

[joshuasdad]

Some of those hikers may have been coming from the campground below the Pinnacle and Pulpit, that would be a much easier hike. I found that section to be particularly miserable, though I was 10 miles in at that point. The rocks, especially near the Pulpit, are killer.

If you do take kids out, do make sure you have good information. I "thought" I was taking my kid out for a 2 mile, 500 ft. elevation gain hike based on a trail profile, but the trail profile had "smoothed out" a 300 ft steep drop to a stream. Sure enough, about 500 ft up the climb, my daughter was claiming she was going to die, and she could not breathe. I learned I could carry an unbalanced 80+ pound pack, though not very far...

[Wombat Farm]

I'm not sure exactly how things were but...when my kids were little I started backpacking with them after I had been doing it for about a year or so. My two boys were about 7 and 9 when I started them doing overnighters. I very much knew what I was doing growing up being "dragged" up the high peaks in NH. My youngest who was always a bit dramatic (haha understatement), would have appeared as being on a forced march to many onlookers but...I knew his ability and whenever we got to a peak he'd turn to me and kiss me and say "thank you thank you for making me come on the trip!"....Cottling kids is not doing them a favor. Now having said this, I do think the parents must be experienced and always be under control and not show "fear" to their kids if it turns out things are not as they seem. Start them slow I agree...until my kids were "experienced" I always carried nearly everything but made them carry their clothing and sleeping bags (not dodgey heavy crap ones either) and we had an awesome time.

And remember....everyone (even kids) are green for awhile.

[DLANOIE]

Guess I will chime in here. Thanks for the thread Woo. And welcome aboard Auntie! Dont forget to post pics of your dog(s) on my "meet my dog thread".

I got into hiking on my own. Its always been a personal experience, backpacking, for me. I got a bike when I was 15 and rode it from Nashua, NH to just north of Franconia Notch State Park. Bought all my gear at walmart and camped out off the road in the woods for a month in the summer. The next summer I rode my bike to Vermont just near the NH/VT border. I think the road was rte. 101 west or something like that. Camped out the whole time. Did some fishing, had a blast! Then I started hiking BIG mountains and eventually over the next 4 years I finished all of the New England highest peaks including Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. In 06 I hiked the AT sobo. Now I have two boys, 3 and 5. I take them on 1-2 mile loop hikes all around where I live. Mostly Belgrade Lakes Region. They have both hiked some of the AT, but not much yet. They love it and have alot of fun most of the time. Even in the winter!! I recently got a new tent which I hope to use with my oldest son atleast once this summer. That would be awesome!

I agree with you Wombat Farm 100%. If the parents are experienced, then teaching their kids about ettiquete, LNT, history etc will come easily. If the parents are just out "dragging" their kids it will show!

[Wise Old Owl]

Some of those hikers may have been coming from the campground below the Pinnacle and Pulpit, that would be a much easier hike. I found that section to be particularly miserable, though I was 10 miles in at that point. The rocks, especially near the Pulpit, are killer.

If you do take kids out, do make sure you have good information. I "thought" I was taking my kid out for a 2 mile, 500 ft. elevation gain hike based on a trail profile, but the trail profile had "smoothed out" a 300 ft steep drop to a stream. Sure enough, about 500 ft up the climb, my daughter was claiming she was going to die, and she could not breathe. I learned I could carry an unbalanced 80+ pound pack, though not very far...

Blue rocks wasn't busy... However the the reservoir is under construction and the parking lot there was closed - so the street was incredibly packed. there were three separate boy scout groups spending the weekend. And loads of day hikers and section.... I am in the process of uploading to my gallery. I appreciate you post because people who are unfamiliar with WB will Google or Bing and this thread will bubble to the top in a few days.

[Crotalus]

I think you need to be conscious of your kids abilities. back in 2010 we vacationed in Maine and spent a couple days running around Baxter. We considered hiking up Katahdin, but on the morning we were supposed to go we decided that it might be too much for the kids. We ended up doing some of the loop trails through the park and I am glad we did, it made for a much more enjoyable day and overall trip for them.

[DAJA]

Two little girls in NH are laughing at this thread as they both bagged all 48 of NH 4000 footers by the age of 6. One of them did all 48 in the winter. Don't fall for the coddle stereotypes, kids are capable when we allow them to be.

[English Stu]

I know there are lot of these stories about, but I will add mine. When I was finishing the JMT I passed a Dad going up to Whitney with his unprepared son,aged about seven.This was about 3pm and having just been up there I knew at best they had four hours to do there and back and there was a several inches of snow on Whitney. I passed many going up who had little hope of completing to Whitney.

Up there we were so concerned about one guy who was so slow coming down we offered him a tent, we could double up at a pinch. We saw him go through base camp about one in the morning. He had a room booked at the Dow in Lone Pine he probably got there about time for breakfast. He did make it because we asked SAR if they had been called out.

[BabySue]

Sacagawea-Blazing?

[hikerboy57]

Two little girls in NH are laughing at this thread as they both bagged all 48 of NH 4000 footers by the age of 6. One of them did all 48 in the winter. Don't fall for the coddle stereotypes, kids are capable when we allow them to be.

this sounds incredible. where can i find more information about these two?

[Tinker]

My son did four of the "Four Thousand Footers" in NH in his 4th year of life. (I had to carry him down a few times because he was afraid of falling ).

Yes, kids generally pick up on the "Can do" or "Can't do" attitude of their parents. FWIW, though, I chose mountains of low elevation and easy trails for my son to hike. Unfortunately, he got into video games and the like and doesn't really care to do any hiking on his own, though he will come with me on occasion (his pic. is in my photo selection here on top of Katahdin in '08).

Don't push your kids too much and they will enjoy the experience. Bring lots of treats and make sure they drink lots of liquids, sugared or not. Dehydration is a big problem for kids because of their higher surface area per pound of body weight than adults. Bringing a ball or frisbee is a great distraction (and you can use the frisbee as a mouse baffle ).

[rocketsocks]

On a trip last summer to a cival war reenactment,my wife said our daughter was acting funny and slurring her words.Immedietly I recognized this as dehydration and promptyly got her something to drink.now she was 14 mind you but you still have to watch out even us adults can get it if were not paying attention.

[DAJA]

http://trishandalex.blogspot.ca/

[fiddlehead]

Took my 6 year old and his 9 year old buddy on a short jungle hike here in Thailand a few days ago.
This hike was only about 1/2 mile and fairly level.
Should've been easy.
However, we got attacked by leeches.
Now I spend a lot of time in the jungles here in Thailand but, this was the 1st time I had leech problems.
We each had about 4-6 on us, drawing blood, of course.

Needless to say, the kids don't want to go back.
The whole purpose of the easy hike was to get them immersed in a different Thailand than they are used to and see that the jungle can be beautiful.
Didn't work.
It might take years to get them over their new fear.

But, the alternative just may be that they will be spending their time in front of a TV or computer instead.
So, it's not a too terrible thing (the dads in Berks county hiking with their kids) IMO.