Hiking with kids : It’s okay to take a pause
Hello all,
How are you? Wish you all are enjoying this vacation with kiddos. Once the break ends, we will also enter into school-homework-tests-classes and so on, in a repeat cycle. As for us, we kept our Sunday plans a little easy during this summer due to the scorching heat. And for holidays we had planned an offbeat trip/trek to the Himalayas. You will know about those in upcoming blogs.
As per Jennifer Pharr Davis, “Hiking is not escapism; it’s realism. The people who choose to spend time outdoors are not running away from anything; we are returning to where we belong”. Have you read my blogs about hiking and trekking with kids? If not, do read and let us know about your experiences also. Today I am sharing a few more tips and tricks which might make your hikes more exciting and satisfying.
Make Hikes part of your Vacation
We now plan vacations according to hikes or make hike part of holidays. It can be just a short day hike or multiple hikes. When we went for the Deoriatal-Tungnath trek, we were lucky enough to finish it a day earlier, so we planned an impromptu trip to Rishikesh, where kids did fun activities as we do on holidays. When we went to the USA we did a day hike to Bushkil Falls. This way, kids can learn that hiking is something like a family tradition.
Do Hikes with different terrain
Select hikes with different landscapes. Sometimes pick waterfalls, or you can go to snowy trails. Grasslands or meadows are fun hikes for kids. Sometimes you can select forest trails or one with little boulder climbing. They will be more interested if we pick the type of trail they like. For, eg, if it is a snow hike, we don’t need to convince Shaurya at all. He will watch YouTube videos and plan hike himself.
Stay away from unnecessary NO!
Whenever kids ask something on the trail, my initial reaction is NO. But over a couple of years, one thing I have learnt from Sheel is that he says Yes to almost everything while we hike. Kids want to play in the snow. YES! Kids want to take a dip in the stream. YES!. Kids want to play a short game in water break, YES! Maybe this is the reason they don’t hesitate when we take hiking vacations.
Keep it simple at the end of your hike.
At the end of a good hike, always take a good rest and let the kids be free. Let them do whatever they want to do. You also take some downtime. After an exhausting three days trek to Dayara, Bugyal kids wanted to watch a movie, and we had a great fun movie time at our homestay. So in a way, that’s their reward. After the Tungnath trek and hearing the story of the Tungnath and Kedarnath flood from our guide, they watched the Kedarnath flood documentary on Netflix.
Extend beyond their boundaries a little
If you have planned up to point A, make 10 minutes additional beyond that point. This way, you can expand their boundaries and stretch their abilities. It will boost their confidence also that, yes! they can do a little extra. Our usual phrase is, “Bas five minutes more, and we will see what’s next?”. Mostly they start with a new mindset and go ahead for five more minutes. Satva has started the Tunganth trail with “How much more is left?” from the beginning to reaching first at the top with this five more minutes rule.
We have had to do this recently in our Sissu waterfall hike also. It was a short hike, but Satva was not in the mood to go ahead as the weather was rude, the wind blowing, temperature was around 8-10 °. Maybe because it started drizzling as soon as we began to climbing, or maybe due to the high altitude. So I and Shaurya went ahead. When we reached there and took some pictures, immediately Sheel and Satva came. I asked Sheel, what changed Satva’s mind? He answered, “Five-minute rule..”. And Satva was quick to add that when he will hike with his kids, he will motivate them as sheel motivated him. Oh God! Such small things, but kids catch so much from small gestures.
But you have to know the signs of their total limit. You have to look for those tell-tell signs and understand those.
Interesting endpoint
If feasible, try to find a location with a fascinating endpoint. Endless bugyals or waterfalls where they can take a dip or terrain full of snow where they can play without boundaries.
Be real! Don’t give up but don’t expect much…
It is not an easy task to make them enthusiastic about every hike. It’s not like they will always be happy and bouncing around during the walk. At some point or other, one of them will start getting frustrated and start whining. Those moments can be during the first five minutes of the trek, at the destination or while you are coming back. They will sit and won’t move ahead. There are times when one will start moving ahead after throwing a tantrum than the other will begin his. But at least there will be one point during the entire trial when they are yours with their complete undivided attention. They will laugh with you, they will share their stories ( which can be of the pranks they play with their friends; or there day to day tales ) with you, and they will make their future plans with you. And those moments are your earnings! Earnings to plan next hike.
During our Ratanmahal waterfall trek, Shaurya was not in a mood even when we reached the waterfall. After halfway to our descent, he suddenly returned to his usual self. So give them time, and you also take time.
Don’t stretch for too long
If they are not in the mood and going slow due to boredom, tiredness or whatever may be the reason, let them be. And once they are back to normal, you also do the same. Get over it. Don’t stretch it at that time. But once you are back at home, in your hotel room or at the camping site, talk with them. Discuss what the problem and how you are going to rectify it next time as a team was. But during the hike, be happy and energetic because you are transferring your energies to them.
Make a backup plan
This is the last and the most essential part of this post, and it was the main point of writing this post. Kids are as unpredictable as pahadi weather. One moment there is a bright sunny morning and the other moment, grey clouds gather around for their rainy dance. Mind well, weather apps / Accuweather / Google Weather are there to guide, but we learned that don’t be pissed off if the weather plays spoiled bro . This happened to us during our recent trip. And we have realised this only recently.
If this happens to nearby trails, then you don’t have to worry. Some days are just off for them. But you have a good long drive, you do picnic and come back and try some other day.
But this can also happen when you plan unique hiking vacation for 5 days. We were in Manali this week for our Bhrigu Lake trek, which I had been planning since February through Hippie In Hills. Just a day into our hike, we went to meet Mr Gaurav Thakur of hippie In Hills, and he told us to change trek to Rani Sui Lake ( 1st shock) as weather forecast shows rain with thunderstorms for the next few days and the weather can be harsh at Bhrigu lake and with kids around he does not recommend. We were ready to do that, but as I said kids can be unpredictable (2nd shock ), and sometimes things don’t go as per your choice and your plans. So we had to cancel the entire trek and thanks to Mr Gaurav he arranged entirely different trip to Lahaul valley for us. I will tell about a detailed story of this in next blog. And this once again proves what I have mentioned in a previous blog ‘Go as local as possible’. This was only possible for us because team Hippie in Hills has a base in Manali, so they were able to arrange everything for us in a day!
So the crux of this is have your back up plan ready. It can be challenging to get last-minute reservations in peak season, but at least have a rough idea about what happens if things don’t go as per your plan and what will you do. It’s okay to recognise that this is not your day or a trip for a hike. You can always plan it next time. Enjoy the present moments with them.
As I said, when nature or kids point us to pause, we postpone it and pursue it later and prepare an alternative. But we be persistent.
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That’s it.
– Kajal.
Great learnings from your trail tales. Thanks.and yes extremely MOTIVATING:)
Thank you so much ma’am.
❤️💜love your writing. Experiences👌
Thank u so much shwetaben…
Change seems like a challenge sometimes
I would also like to take my kids to Hike
Do let me know
Thanks a ton. Yes but it is necessary indeed.
Hi kajal
came to know about this through Rachit when he was in india.
Regularly read your posts and am inspired
Would love to be young and motivate my grown ups to follow all this
Thats simply a desire of mine and need of my grown ups
Thank you so much for following and thank you so much for your kind words.
Please ping me whenever u go next time.
That would revamp my memories
Thank you.. sure. Will definitely do.
U all are so good at nature which makes us bielieve that even we can start
Thank you so much…nature is the best nurturer!!
Yes ! Correctly written dr
i also faced the same thing when i did my chaddar trek and was forced to abort due to bad weather ! But not aware of dual plan i simply came back
great that u guys put it on blog what u encounter
Thank you. Yes it was possible because our organiser was same and he was able to make last minutes plans.
We also want to do Chaddar trek one day!! Shaurya is so much fascinated by it.