Another Daddy Daughter Hike/Camp UPDATE 11-5-11

[CoffeeGuy]

Great job... looks like you had a great time! One of many to come from the sounds of things.

I like the whistle idea. We will add this to our mini packs.

We got a family zoo membership so we can take multiple trips per month - just hit a couple of the sections each time so it changes things up enough fore both big and little note to get bored. Instead of blasting through - examine each exhibit and learn more in the process.

Make sure you get the kids GOOD footwear! It is not easy but can be done. With a lot of online legwork I was able to find some actual running shoes made small enough instead of just proportioned smaller (the materials are actually adjusted to the lighter weight of a small child). The Saucony "Baby Ride A/C" (LINK) will bend and flex when walking (as adult shoes do) but under the weight of a small child walking - our little guy weighs around 27lbs and gets decent flex out of the his size 6.5M's - the shoes are very supportive and help promote positive foot growth, too.

Another thing was getting mini water bottles with 'disposable' tops. We clean and reuse the 'Bug Juice" bottles from 7-eleven and put a Gerber Spill-proof water spout on top (LINK). They are only 'disposable' in the sense that if one gets lost while hiking/walking I'm not out a lot of money.

It can be hard getting little ones to drink enough water which is why we put a couple drops of Sweet Leaf liquid stevia drops (LINK) into the water bottles. It is a natural sugar alternative. My kids love the lemon-drop and the vanilla-creme.

We stop at the bulk section of the grocery store to make our our 'trail mix' so the kids will actually eat a 'healthier' snack of their choosing on one of the numerous breaks along the way.

As to the question of when to start taking them out on walks... Now is a great time. No, seriously. Pick a walk that will keep their interest in short segments. Dump the stroller and have them walk to and from the car on grocery runs, and normal weekly errand runs. It will take longer getting things done (little legs and all) but they will be healthier as will your relationship. As a family, we recently went on our 1st organized 5k walk. We started out at 8:30am and made it back just before 1:00pm... lots of little breaks and 'flower sniffing'. It turned out that it was a 6k walk... the girls (4-1/2yo & 3yo) made slowed way down near the end - stops were more frequent as were snack breaks - but our little guy (17mo) made it just passed the 5k mark before tossing in the towel. It was a combination of the long walk combined with running into his nap-time which knocked him out just a couple hundred feet passed to 5k marker. Here's a shot of the 5 of us (LINK) about 1/2 way through the event.

Prepare, get out often, slow down and have fun!

[ranger sean]

It is great you are getting her out in nature!!!! For anyone who enjoys reading (honestly, I think every parent in today's day of age should read it), there is a great book on this topic called "Last Child In The Woods" by Richard Louv. I wish more parents would follow your example!!

This is the mentioned book....

http://richardlouv.com/

[xxxDarksidexxx]

my daughter woke me up this morning asking me if i could take her to the park to play. how could i say no...

i took her to a park along the st. lucie river as there is a short trail at this park. after we played for a bit at the play grounds we went for a short hike. the hike was only about 3/4 of a mile.

for christmas she wanted a pair of " noculars " like daddy has. i picked her up a cheap pair from toys r us. they are ok for a kid to learn with, but they also have a compass on them which we played with a little. she used her " noculars " to look at a gopher tortoise. these things are protected, and they were close to being wiped out at one time. for the life of me i dont know why they are still protected as i seem to almost trip over these things every time i hike.





for the longest time i have been wanting to get her her own kids nalgene bottle. i know im a bad daddy for not getting it yet... but now that i see she has more of an intrest in the outdoors, and because she wanted " noculars " i will put a kit together for her that she can take on our hikes.



its hard to see it in the photo, but there were bees all around the hole in this oak tree. there is definitely a hive in there, but didnt get too close, and i didnt want to hang around too long with my daughter.



here is just a pic of the river, and the surrounding woods...



we stopped to look at these holes. my guess is they are probably rat holes / nests. crabs will dig holes like this, but there is usually a pil of mud at the opening...



two new pieces of gear i took are my limited edition ZS nalgene, and a new pair of binoculars i got for christmas from my in-laws. the nalgene kicks ass! my daughter called it a " monster bottle " the binoculars are great too, but i have not been able to get them to a really wide open space yet. i can see out to about 200 - 300 yards with them pretty good though. thats probably about all i will need them for i suppose. the only thing i dont like is the thin string... i may need to modify them a bit in that area.





before we packed up to head home we played a little hide and seek around some trees. ive been showing my daughetr how to use my 2-way radios, and we play with them around the house every now and then. i want her to know how to use them, but her hands are a little too smal lto hold the radio and key it at the same time..... she does pretty good though! we will keep working on this.





CLICK THE IMAGE BELOW TO WATCH THE VIDEO!

[Prepared American]

Awsome, this is a great post. Keep up the good work and memory building with your daughter.

[xxxDarksidexxx]

Awsome, this is a great post. Keep up the good work and memory building with your daughter.

thanks for the comments!

[omega_man]

Dude, I love this post.
I'm looking forward to fulfilling my biological purpose and reproducing my species for this exact reason! I left the Marines to go back to college for the purpose of pursuing a degree in wildlife biology and conservation, and it all begins with teaching. Kudos, sir.
I especially applaud policing the litter where you hike, omega_woman thinks it is crazy that I return from hikes with pockets full of cigarette butts and bud light cans.
Furthermore, excellent pic of the gopher tortoise! They are a vital keystone species of south eastern coastal biomes and deserve our respect and reverence. Here in South Carolina, their abundance is directly related to our long leaf pine forests, which affects our pileated woodpecker and eastern diamondback rattlesnake populations.
Ok, enough science, time to return to the firearms forum...

[Kulprit]

I wanted to add that I loved this thread and I'd love to read more like it.

My son is turning 2 in about a month and I can't wait for spring so I can start getting him out like this too. He loves being outside and plays in our yard for hours already and comes in covered in dirt and all kinds of stuff. I love it. He is a little tech geek like his dad too but I am gonna do my best to make sure a love of the outdoors is in him as well.

I like a lot of the ideas posted in this thread and can't wait to make him a little trail pack. In fact I'll probably start doing it tomorrow with him, lol.

Kudos on being a great Dad. You definitely get back twice and much as you put into it!

[Kulprit]

It is great you are getting her out in nature!!!! For anyone who enjoys reading (honestly, I think every parent in today's day of age should read it), there is a great book on this topic called "Last Child In The Woods" by Richard Louv. I wish more parents would follow your example!!

This is the mentioned book....

http://richardlouv.com/

Thanks for the heads up - just sent the sample to my kindle and will start it next chance I get!

[lonewolf15002000]

Darkside I envy your ability to get out and do the hikes. I'd love to take out my girls and get back to nature with them. But with one ankle that has had surgery already and the other which is injured and awaiting surgery (for nearly 2 years but that is the VA for you ) I can't get out much. Even the act of wearing hiking boots for 4 hours causes pain in the still injured ankle I could only imagine what it would be like if I were to try and hike on uneven surfaces.

You are creating great memories with your daughter that both of you will remember for a long time. Keep it up and keep on posting them, it is great to see and hear what others are doing with their young ones.

[xxxDarksidexxx]

thanks for all the great comments guys!

she has a blast hiking the trails.

the one thing that bothers me, and i stressed this MANY times on this last trip, is that she likes to wander right off the trail and into the woods and bush. i kept telling her, " you need to stay on the trails baby " i explained to her that by walking off the trail she could get hurt or lost. shes only 4 years old now, so i just need to keep a close eye on her at all times, and teach her along the way.

in a couple months the boy will be here, cant wait till hes old enough to get out into the woods.

[phil_in_cs]

Great Job!

[Jim_in_Calgary]

My oldest daughter is just about 4 and we've got an 8 month old as well. Last summer we didn't get out much on account of the new baby.

Love these ideas. I'm going to take my 4 year old up into the mountains with the goal of a short hike, teaching her how to build a little fire with the pay off that we'll brew up a cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows. It'll probably be between -10 and -20C outside, but around here we are used to dressing for that.

As kids we spent tons of time outdoors unsupervised. At a very early age we knew how to find dry wood/kindling in the middle of a rainstorm and turn that into a fire. If we didn't, we couldn't cook the hot dogs our moms packed us for lunch. Not the case for today's kids..at least mine.

Anyhow, for starters, I want my daughter to get comfortable in the out of doors and to know how to start a fire in just about any circumstance. Then I want to move her up to longer hikes with overnights. In the mean time there's tons of geocaching in the mountains close to us, and she can learn to get handy with a GPS, plus topo map and compass, while on an adventure for "treasures". In a few years she can learn about gun safety starting with the same .22 that provided pelts to help my grandfather's family through the great depression.

So much good wholesome activity in the out of doors to do with kids. Please keep these ideas coming!

She's a big fan of Dora too.

[Regular Guy]

I haven't seen this thread. Nice.

[kir]

This thread makes me want to be a daddy. I hope to use your ideas and methods someday soon.

[CipherNameRaVeN]

First of all, mods should move this thread to Family Prep pronto.

Also, this thread is full of win. My daughter is 2 years old. I just started taking her on hikes. She likes it, but does not understand what the hell we are doing yet. Therefore, we don't get to cover a lot of ground yet.
However, this spring will be a lot of fun.

When I did not have children yet, I always dreamed that I will do things like that with them. Now, my dream came true. I take my princess out to the parks all the time.

Darkside, also check out this post I did in Family Prep:
Geocaching is the greatest way to get you kids used to the great outdoors.


I also follow EricinMaryland's post viewtopic.php?f=14&t=52931&start=120
He likes to take his 2 girls on hikes, and some times posts good ideas:

We also brought some crayola markers and let them color rocks when we took a break. Crayola will wash off in the rain so we're not vandalizing anything.

I hope he does not mind me re-posting his photos.

[EricinVirginia]

Nope, I don't mind at all. Anything to help build the thread. On an interesting and somewhat related note, it's freezing cold here and the lake behind the house is frozen. This weekend, we're going to go out with the dog and experiment with the ice in safe areas.

[xxxDarksidexxx]

thanks for all the cool comments guys!

CipherNameRaVeN - i checked out your thread, nice work!

[xxxDarksidexxx]

last night my daughters elementary school had their annual " family camp out " . my school never did anything like that! her school is right next door to our local ecology center, which has one of my favorite hiking trails. they emphasize outdoor activities, and they encourage families to spend time together in the outdoors. the kids also get to help plant flowers and gardens on school property a few times a year. its cool that they mix up regular academics and the outdoors. my wife and i are very happy we were able to get her into this school.

by the time we got there we only had about 45 min. of sunlight, so i quickly set up our tent, blew up the queen size air matress, and had chow. by the way, the queen size air matress smokes my thermarest for comfort! food was cooked by a few of the parents and was burgers,dogs,mac n cheese, baked beans, and chips.

after chow we hung out around by the campfire and roasted up some marshmellows ( the one camp treat i hate ). at about 8:30pm a night hike was started. the hike started at the back of the school property, and went on some of the trails of the ecology center, then ended back at the front of the school property. round trip was about 1 to 1.5 miles. the goal of the trip was to hunt for spiders... not so hard around here!

after a while we went back to our tent for some sleep. we watched a barbi princess movie on the portable DVD player, ah the joys of car camping. overnight temps dipped down into the mid. 50's. not too hot, and not too cold!

i did a quick count of around 40 tents. 98% of those were ozark trail tents inc. mine... walmart tents as far as the eyes could see my friends! there must not be a tent left on the shelves at any of the walmarts in two counties . the one i used ive owned for 16-17 years and it has served me well for car camping. ozark trail tents are what they are, and as long as they help get people out then they are full of win in my book.

i rocked a ZS shirt to spread the word. i actually overheard a handfull of parents talking about prepping after chow and i joined in on the conversation. its good to see " normal " people talking about prepping.

here are some pics from the campout...

my tent has a little orange dot over it.









a few pics from chow, and the campfire, and of me and my future camping / hunting buddies!









we did an early moring hike this AM. nothing crazy just a mile or so.









your guess is as good as mine. perhaps a middle of the night bird rape.

[ShovelBoy]

'Pack pack' ^^ That's ace.

Nice thread, makes me rather broody. Hmm. Hopefully soon there'll be a few ShovelBabies running round, need to find a ShovelBird first

Props to CipherNameRaven with the spetsnaz shovel! They're beasts. Need to sharpen mine better, hopefully these files'll do the trick.

[xxxDarksidexxx]

'Pack pack' ^^ That's ace.

Nice thread, makes me rather broody. Hmm. Hopefully soon there'll be a few ShovelBabies running round, need to find a ShovelBird first

Props to CipherNameRaven with the spetsnaz shovel! They're beasts. Need to sharpen mine better, hopefully these files'll do the trick.

thanks for the comment.

[Sheriff McClelland]

Great thread , made me smile . Time spent with your kids is the best time ... for you and them ! Enjoy every minute . Mine are grown but I have 2 grandaughters 2 & 5 and they live close

[xxxDarksidexxx]

Great thread , made me smile . Time spent with your kids is the best time ... for you and them ! Enjoy every minute . Mine are grown but I have 2 grandaughters 2 & 5 and they live close

thanks for the comment. she is already asking when we will go camping again.

[Woods Walker]

Is she still rolling out with the Dora pack or are those days over? Great photos.

[black71label]

This makes me so excited for my son to get to an age where we can do this.