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when you take your children hiking

B

Bushman5

Joined
Oct 31, 2007
Messages
9,833
when you take your children hiking, PLEASE dress them in bright or hi vis color clothing + hats. The woods is not the place for camo dressed kids until they are more experienced and older. Keep the kids between the adults (adult on point, kids in middle, adult taking up the rear position) when hiking the trail, and instruct them to not run off the trail unless with an adult.

give them a hi viz Fox 40 or similar whistle on a hi vis lanyard, and instruct them if lost or in trouble to STOP, STAY PUT, and blast it three times. 1 blast for YES, 1 for NO. Nice and simple. Tell them about "crying wolf" and that the whistle is emergencies only,and not a toy.

I hesitate to say give them a PSK, they might end up playing with it or losing stuff....thats something you'll have to work out with them yourselves. If you do, keep it VERY basic and spend lots of time with them going over each item in the kit and how and when to use it.

I found with taking kids out that keeping instructions very simple works best.
 
Good points. My 3.5 year old daughter has a whistle for the woods on a neck cord. She knows it's in case she gets lost.
 
thats a great idea.i have a nine year old btother that i have taught alot of skills too and even gave him his own small kit. he is very interested in learning about outdoor skills and i figured it couldnt hurt to teach him things he will need.i have him practice building fires about twice a week and am always teaching him how to handle a knife and use it right. im proud of the little guy,he lit his first firesteel fire the other day!couldnt believe it..but he does have a good whistle in his kit along with a compass,lighter,matches,folding knife,pjcb's,and some bandaids.one day he'll be a more skilled hunter and outdoorsman than me,hopefully not to soon though:D
 
It's a shame this isn't common sense for all people. Children die in my area from drowning every year because the parents don't put flotation devices on them. Some people think parenting is all about intuition, it's not. Education and common sense are two of our most important tools as humans. Urbanized society is so mundane at times, people forget their common sense. It can be aggravating. I don't like an over abundance of laws, and yet it seems the only way to protect people from themselves in these times are ridiculous legal statues ordering them to operate by law instead of common sense. Scripting life by mandate. Ridiculous.
 
I would like to emphasize your point about keeping inexperienced children between adults on a trail. Sometimes very athletic/energetic kids will want to "go ahead but keep in view" or "go ahead and wait for the adults at any intersections". This might work for mature and experienced kids but it doesn't work for many younger ones. After a couple attempts to "keep in view", they often get distracted or just decide it isn't a big deal. Unless I personally know the experience level of the kids, they are required to stay between adults (or closely with the adult, if only one).

DancesWithKnives
 
Great points. My son is still small enough where he rides in a backpack when I'm hiking but I still dress him in brightly colored clothing.

This is one of those things I would think some people don't think about. I hope your post keeps some kids safe!!!
 
Bushman5 said:
there is no tag for Children & Survival
Click to expand...

How about just "surviving kids":D

My son was out camping about 4 months before he was born (my wife was a real trooper!):eek: We've had them out as infants and I fully agree with your points. As they get older (my son is almost 11 years old), they get much more adventuresome! We always practice the safety rules and what to do if you get lost. Now that we have a nice chunk of rural land, he's going to do his first solo this spring when it warms up (I'll be camped near him). I had a kit made for both kids and we practiced what to do. When they were younger, I wouldn't let them out of my sight and high-visibility clothing was critical. I know my son like camouflage (what boy doesn't), but there are a lot of reversible hunter's clothing with the blaze orange on the other side. He can where camo around the house, blaze orange when out backpacking.

Whistles are a must and my daughter had to use here's once. She wasn't lost but twisted her ankle pretty bad when she went down to the creek to get water (about 100 yards from the camp). I have lanyards for both with a whistle and small LED that will also serve as a strobe.

Doing "Lost Drills" is important. We use to run through practices when camping/backpacking where they would find their rock or tree to "latch" onto, use their whistle and get comfortable...using their whistle periodically. We did some more advanced stuff, but they we practiced the basics quite a bit.

Good post Bushman...there are so many stories of kids getting lost in the outdoors; it's definitely a valid topic!

ROCK6
 
I bring it up because a old work buddy of mine was hiking in a local (very wooded) park here today. He rounded the corner and there was a kid about 7 y/o in green camoish colors. Lost. No parents around. My buddy questioned the kid a bit and asked which trail he came up. The kid didn't know: "that one!" "wait, that one" "No that one!" . My buddies wife stayed with the kid at that spot, while he went looking for the parents. Asked a few hikers if they were missing a kid, nope. Finally he found them. Two trails down (branched) and on another trail near the ocean. They were yelling for him but the waves drowned it out. You had to be on the shore near them to hear them.

Anyways he called his wife and told her to bring the boy down to the shore (they know the park well). First thing the parents did was***** out the kid.
 
It's especially important if you are hiking with a family in which the parents are also inexperienced with the outdoors. If their kids get lost, they can panic and take some irrational actions that result in them becoming lost as well. You than have an even more serious search and rescue situation on your hands.

DancesWithKnives
 
My kids have their "going out necklaces". Each ball chain necklace has a Photon light, yellow Fox 40 whistle, and a dogtag with name and our phone numbers on them. The dogtags were bought from one of those machines and each kid got to pick out their own style of tag.

They wear these whenever we do anything away from home from fishing/hunting/hiking, to vacations. They like having the flashlights but have been well behaved with the whistles. Of course occasionally we have to "test" the equipment to make sure it all works. That keeps them from playing with the stuff when they shouldn't.

SDS
 
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