- Joined
- Aug 22, 2005
- Messages
- 174
As a pre-mothers day gift to my wife I told her I'd take the kids out of the house and give her a couple of hours to herself. 
I've been meaning to take the kids out on a hike and this was the perfect chance. My son is 9 and my daughter is 6.
We packed a picnic lunch and I filled up the kid's Hydration packs and we headed out to Garin Regional park about 5 miles from the house in the
California Bay Area hills. We had a really enjoyable time hiking through the woods together, and I took advantage of the time to talk with them about woods safety since we are going to be doing a decent amount of camping this year, and they are starting to get old enough to wander a bit on their own up at their grandparents cabin up in the Sierra's where we spend a good deal of time. I explained to then the importance of staying together. That if they become lost they should stay in place if possible and blow their whistle's in sets of 3 and wait. I talked about the importance of water and making sure that they drink, and of staying warm.
I'm going to get each child a basic kit which will contain, a whistle, a HeatSheet, a frontier filter straw, and a LED lightstick. I'll have to think if I'm missing anything. Don't want to load it down much, since if it too much, they won't carry it and if they don't carry it, it's useless.
We also talked about what they should do if anything happens to me while we are hiking, basically a variation on the above, blow whistle and stay in place. I think it was a good start, but it's going to need to be repeated to them a couple of times to really drive home the points.
After lunch I explained about knife safety, and worked with my son on the safe technique for opening and closing a small lock-blade. The good thing is that he seemed to already have a good understanding the dangers associated with improper usage or failing to use a knife safely.
In addition to getting to spend time together, my kids also got to see, a grazing cow (about 10 feet off the path, made me a touch nervous, but he behaved himself.), a lizard eating another lizard (so that he looked like a lizard with 2 heads since one was poking out of his mouth), 2 young deer, various birds and an incredible scenic panoramic view of the Bay Area from the ridgeline.
My allergies took the rest of the day to let me know they were not so happy about my hike, but it was worth it. Something nasty and fluffy is in the air and once gone should make my hikes much less eye watering.
Sorry no pics this time since I didn't think to grab the camera. But I'm hoping this is the first of many hikes this season.
Sean
I've been meaning to take the kids out on a hike and this was the perfect chance. My son is 9 and my daughter is 6.
We packed a picnic lunch and I filled up the kid's Hydration packs and we headed out to Garin Regional park about 5 miles from the house in the
California Bay Area hills. We had a really enjoyable time hiking through the woods together, and I took advantage of the time to talk with them about woods safety since we are going to be doing a decent amount of camping this year, and they are starting to get old enough to wander a bit on their own up at their grandparents cabin up in the Sierra's where we spend a good deal of time. I explained to then the importance of staying together. That if they become lost they should stay in place if possible and blow their whistle's in sets of 3 and wait. I talked about the importance of water and making sure that they drink, and of staying warm.
I'm going to get each child a basic kit which will contain, a whistle, a HeatSheet, a frontier filter straw, and a LED lightstick. I'll have to think if I'm missing anything. Don't want to load it down much, since if it too much, they won't carry it and if they don't carry it, it's useless.
We also talked about what they should do if anything happens to me while we are hiking, basically a variation on the above, blow whistle and stay in place. I think it was a good start, but it's going to need to be repeated to them a couple of times to really drive home the points.
After lunch I explained about knife safety, and worked with my son on the safe technique for opening and closing a small lock-blade. The good thing is that he seemed to already have a good understanding the dangers associated with improper usage or failing to use a knife safely.
In addition to getting to spend time together, my kids also got to see, a grazing cow (about 10 feet off the path, made me a touch nervous, but he behaved himself.), a lizard eating another lizard (so that he looked like a lizard with 2 heads since one was poking out of his mouth), 2 young deer, various birds and an incredible scenic panoramic view of the Bay Area from the ridgeline.
My allergies took the rest of the day to let me know they were not so happy about my hike, but it was worth it. Something nasty and fluffy is in the air and once gone should make my hikes much less eye watering.
Sorry no pics this time since I didn't think to grab the camera. But I'm hoping this is the first of many hikes this season.
Sean
