Outdoor Inspiration for June

Posted inOutdoor Inspiration
As a new month begins, we are beginning a new feature to highlight the best writing and most useful tips written by outdoor parents over the past month and also a few other outdoor parenting related articles. Hopefully this inspires you to plan your next outdoor adventures, reflect on what you were able to accomplish over the past month, or what you learned and would do differently. Enjoy! Thru-Hiking the JMT with a Baby Is an Exercise in Patience—and Endurance | Backpacker by Marketa DaleyNature Summer Camp for Kids | Mountain Mom and Tots by Mountain Mom. If your kids…

Interview: Karl Klemmick (Skier, snowboarder, backpacker, canoist, climber, biker)

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For our second interview we are excited to share Karl's experience as an outdoor dad. We have known him and his family for a few years. They are part of a group of families we go on group camping trips with a few times a year, until they moved back to Colorado. I have always been impressed with how they find the time to get into the mountains so often while they both worked full time jobs and also with the impressive hiking stamina of their daughter. Name: Karl Klemmick Location: Boulder, Co, USA Family Activities: Mostly downhill skiing, snowboarding, hiking, backpacking, camping,…

Interview: Emily F. (Climber and Backpacker)

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We are so excited to introduce our first interview of an Outdoor Parent! We are hoping to do about two of these each month and use this information to improve our information pages. If you're interested in being interviewed, please contact us. Name: Emily F. Location: Bay Area, California, USA Family Activities: Hiking, camping, backpacking, climbing ​Kids: 6 and 2 years old Work Schedule: ​Both parents are full time with some flexibility. I have large chunks of time off because I'm a teacher. Steve is self-employed in event production so can set his schedule somewhat.​ ​Transitioning to parenthood: What outdoor activities did…

First Aid Planning

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This week we have an update to our General Advice section: first aid planning. This list is based on my experience and my wilderness medicine training that I take every 2-3 years and I updated it based on the course I just took in January.  As always, we love hearing feedback from readers so we can make this page as helpful as possible. First aid planning is more than just building a good first aid kit. Our recommendation is for at least one and preferably both parents to take first aid and wilderness medical training to match what you would…

New parent survival guide

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How am I ever going to keep climbing / backpacking / skiing / camping / biking after I have kids? I can’t push myself as hard as I used to or go as far as I used to now that I’m pregnant! It will never be fun again! My friends / coworkers were right, I’ll never do anything outdoors again! Life is over!Obviously most of that is not true, exploring the outdoors with kids is amazing. It is just a lot different - sometimes much harder and sometimes way better. Here are some tips on adjusting to being an outdoor…

Bike commuting with kids

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In a perfect world for most outdoor families our kids walk or bike (or ski) to school each day. We don’t want to strap them into cars for the short journey to school, or we want to bike commute ourselves. This is great when the weather is perfect and the sun is out, but then there’s the rest of the year. And many of us (ourselves included) are part of a two working parent family, so the kids are in after-school programs or all-day daycare/preschool and have to be picked up when it's dark out. ​What are the best ways…

Bike touring with kids

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Bike touring can be a really fun way to explore new places with kids, including small kids. Our biggest concern was to find a place with bike paths or roads that we felt were safe enough to take kids on for longer distances. Ideally we wanted a place where we could go camping as well. ​ Since we were visiting family in Europe, we decided to try bike camping in France, which is famous for bike camping on the canals. We spent 10 days bike camping in Brittany, with a 3 year old and a 6 year old and all four…

How to keep your kid moving down the trail

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The biggest challenge to hiking or backpacking with kids is keeping them moving. It's so important, because we all need to be able to count on completing our hikes before dark or making it to our campsites in time for dinner. Here are the tips we have compiled over the years of hiking with our kids and with our friends:Get the right pacing and timing of breaks: Take enough breaks:  Try to time breaks to milestones based on distance or time Plan for longer breaks to play/play cards every certain time/distance But don’t take too many breaks - experiment to find…

How to go backpacking with small kids

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​Backpacking with small children can try your patience, but keep getting out there because each year gets easier! We started with our kids when they were able to hike a mile or two. This meant that for us we had a “gap year” in our family backpacking journey, between when we couldn’t carry them any more and when they could walk on their own. Here are our tips to make it work:What can your kid carry: (Note: these are rough suggestions, adapt them to your kid’s size and ability levels and consider starting with less stuff when they’re older if…

How to take your baby backpacking

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​Taking your baby on a backpacking trip is a great introduction to outdoor parenting. We took our daughter on her first backpacking trip when she was about 9 months old. It was only one night and just a two mile hike but we loved being able to give her the experience of being in the backcountry with us from an early age. Here are some of our tips on how to make it happen: Recommended age/weight for these trips: Your baby should be small/light enough that you can carry him/her in a baby backpack and ideally with an extra 5…