[pct-l] Hiking with Kids

[giniajim]

Now that's a *great* post.  Strongly in the running for Post Of The Year!  
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Scott Williams 
  To: CHUCK CHELIN 
  Cc: Pct-l at backcountry.net 
  Sent: Wednesday, March 10, 2010 10:38 PM
  Subject: Re: [pct-l] Hiking with Kids


  Hello to the list, and I do love this forum.  Just to add my two cents, I
  remember the arguments over taking my daughter, who was under age two, out
  kayaking for the first time in the Carquinez Straights.  Big winds and
  waves, but warm summer water.  With a baby life jacket sittting between my
  legs she was fine, loving the crashing waves and spray the best of all.
  Nonetheless I was very very careful, and never put her in danger, even
  though lots of folks were sure that I was.  When she was just under 4 she
  lived in the forward hatch of a big double baidarka when we spent 2 weeks in
  the wilderness of the Bowron Lakes in the Caribou Mtns. of BC.  I had built
  a removable rain tent over the hatch which was like a play pen.  She had her
  dollies and a baby paddle so she could stay active and feel a part of the
  effort, and she loved it.

  Her first backpacking was a few years later on our local Skyline to the Sea
  Trail, where she carried her clothes in a kindergarten sized backpack and
  always had her raggedy ann in her hand as she hiked.  It's been a whole
  childhood of similar trips, from the West Coast Trail to the John Muir
  Trail, and lots of kayaking as well, and as important as this may have been
  for her, it was way more important to me.  I wouldn't trade the memories of
  those early trips for anything.  She's off to college now, studying
  environmental science and policy at CAL, and loving it.  She leaves me in
  the dust on the water and on the trail, but she still loves the outdoors,
  and is rooting me on for this seasons PCT.

  Whatever you have to do to keep someone so precious safe, I'm sure you'll
  do, and in return you'll have the experience of a lifetime with you're
  little one.  I wouldn't trade those early trips for the world.

  More power to you both.

  Scott Williams
  _______________________________________________
  Pct-l mailing list
  Pct-l at backcountry.net
  To unsubcribe, or change options visit:
  http://mailman.backcountry.net/mailman/listinfo/pct-l

  List Archives:
  http://mailman.backcountry.net/pipermail/pct-l/