How To Get the Most Mileage on a Family Hike

Kids.  They will be bouncing off the walls at home, running around the yard chasing each other with sticks and climbing up and leaping off anything that looks slightly dangerous.  The Husband and I decide to take them for a walk on the common to burn off some energy but as soon as we get walking, they are begging us to carry them.  They aren't tired, they don't like the view from our shoulders, they are just weasels who make bets on who will be first to make a parent go crazy.  I swear they wake up and discuss strategy then have after action reviews in the evenings before bed!

The Daddy and I have gotten wise to their games and have implemented a few strategies of our own to keep them moving under their own power.  This makes for a fantastic nap or early bedtime when we return home.  It also results in a great appetite at supper. 

STEP ONE:  Let Them Explore

Upon first arriving at the trails let the kids run and explore as much as they want to.  Don't try to get them to make any mileage or even really start the walk/hike, just let them be for the first ten minutes or so.

STEP TWO:  Let Them Take Photos

Once they get all of their initial excited crazies out you can start the walk.  We generally get about a 1/2 to 1 mile before they figure out that they are walking along with us and that they would rather be sitting on our shoulders eating goldfish.  At this point we offer them the use of the camera (we have one of those waterproof/dropproof operations, so no worries there).  With the camera the kids get all excited to explore again, this time documenting their discoveries with photos.

STEP THREE:  Point Out Cool Stuff

Sophia loves loves loves finding and identifying tracks.  Her favorite are horseshoes and dogs prints, but she also can pick out people, children, deer, rabbit, and even birds.  To keep her moving we point out some tracks and then she runs ahead to find more or better ones....and takes photos of them.  This can usually get us another 1/2 to 1 mile if the weather has been a bit wet and there are loads of tracks.

STEP FOUR:  Rocks

Hank loves rocks and wants to gather as many as possible.  He likes to store them in either Daddy or Mama's pockets.  He pauses to get rocks, we slow our pace so he can catch up and put them in our pockets, he walks along looking for more, repeat repeat repeat.

STEP FIVE: Breaks

All those rocks get pretty heavy in our pockets, so we take a nice break to throw them into a puddle.  Everyone loves throwing rocks and making a splash!

STEP SIX:  Races and Ransom The Princess

Sophia likes to declare a race when she is as far ahead as possible.  You can imagine who initiated this one...it wasn't Daisy.  For some reason the kids do not want to walk, but they will run forever and ever!

The other way to work this is when they start getting tired of running, I tell Soph that I will catch the princess and ransom her.  She runs off, I chase her and catch her, laugh like a villain and say, "Daddy will never save you now," throw her over my shoulder and run as fast as I can away from the Daddy.  To be honest, Daddy never really tries all that hard to catch us.  We usually get pretty far ahead and set up ambushes from behind trees and stuff.  This can take us any number of miles and is actually quite fun.  Daddy always pretends to be caught off guard each time we jump out from the trees.   

STEP SEVEN:  Admit Defeat

When the kids are no longer distracted by your tricks, admit defeat, put them on your shoulders, give them goldfish to munch, and declare yourself at the halfway point.  At this time we head back to the car.

This is how we looked pretty much the entire second and third day of the Hadrian's Wall hike!  They can only go so far.  But each time we go out, we get a little faster and go a little further!