A Walk in the Woods

Nature is a beautiful thing. Being outdoors is a beautiful thing. Being able to walk outdoors smell, touch and hear nature is the best. My love for nature began before I can even remember. I was always a child who was outside; that being said, my mother preferred us to be outside. She worked very hard to have our home look spotless so I think she was afraid of what might happen if her darling children were inside all day. Luckily for her I didn't complain;except on those hot summer days when it was in the high 90's. I specifically remember one such day when a friend was over for a play and we knocked on the back porch door to ask my mom if we could come in as were roasting (my mom was smart, she kept the door locked!). My mother told us to hold on one second and she came back with a tray with iced lemonade and glasses, handed it to me and shut the door. I was soooo embarrassed! Now that I am a parent, I kind see where she was coming from. I usually was playing in the dirt and can understand why she might not want two grubby kids traipsing in her nicely cleaned house.

As an adult, I continue to love and respect nature. I really hope that Lachlan will feel the same way too. I remember asking my grandfather one day when I was about eight years old if a tree could be sad; especially when it was to be cut down. He told me he didn't know but that the Native Americans believe that everything has a spirit: a tree, a rock and even the creek that flowed through his backyard. With that knowledge, I began to look at things differently and began to wonder about and question the mysteries of nature more and more. These are things that I hope that Lachlan will understand and appreciate as well; whether they become his beliefs or not. I hope that he will develop a respect for nature as the Native Americans have and like so many other tribal cultures. To foster this, what could be better than a walk in nature itself? As a family, we try to take as many nature hikes as we can. Before I met my husband, I spent most of my free weekends finding a trail to run, a mountain to climb and a mud-puddle to mountain bike through in North Georgia. Fortunately my husband developed a love for most of those things too and we were both keen to buy our first baby hiking carrier after Lachlan was born. We have a shelf  full of books with hiking trails across our area and the country and we always look forward to the opportunity to try them out. With our hectic schedules, and with only one day a week to spend together as a family, we generally stick to local, short hikes which last an hour or two. If we have a bit more time we'll commit to a day hike. Our overnight hikes are on the back burner at the moment and don't look like they'll be rearing their head anytime soon with bub number two on the way; but we'll take what we can get.

A few weeks ago, Lachlan woke up from his afternoon nap to a beautiful day. Hubby and I had gotten all our housework done so we figured we'd make the most of the weather and find a short trail to      hike; this is when those hiking books come in handy because they have descriptions, distances and skill levels for the hikes so it makes planning quick and easy which is always helpful for busy parents. We decided to drive a few suburbs away to check out one of the state parks. When we arrived we loaded Lachlan into his hiking carrier and set off on the trail which was to be an easy grade, 1 hour hike. There were plenty of wild flowers in bloom and an assortment of trees to explore. We even found a few animal habitats and made up stories of what creatures dwelled inside. Lachlan was particularly fascinated with the trees. There were smooth gums, rough cedars and flaky paper barks. At one point during the hike, Lachlan found a particular variety of gum tree which was shedding its bark. He happened to pull at a piece of bark and was very surprised to find that he had removed it from the tree. His daddy continued to walk down the trail and Lachlan began pointing very determinedly for him to stop at the next tree. Lachlan held the piece of bark to the tree and tried to stick it on but it wouldn't stay. He looked bewildered with a puzzling face that said, 'how am I going to fix this?' The tree he was trying to give a makeover to was a cedar. I told him, "that bark doesn't belong to that tree." I held his bark strip next to it so he could see the difference. I spoke about the way the two looked and felt differently. "Perhaps we can find the tree that matches your bark." And with that a new game had just begun. It was as if Lachlan had put on his Sherlock Holmes detective hat; I'd never seen a kid so ready for the case. Before you could say, "thank-you my dear Watson," he was off pointing to the next tree.

As you can imagine there are A LOT of trees on a nature trail. Especially a nature trail through a forest. We stopped at a lot of trees, I wasn't sure if we would ever get back to the car before dark as our easy grade, 1 hour trail was turning into a 2 hour trail with a tough case to crack. Of course Lachlan had to pull the bark off of the one tree that was to be no where in sight again. After many trials and errors, we finally approached a large stump for a tree that looked like it had been chopped down. Luckily it had been cut quite high so Lachlan was able to see it from his daddy's back. Ky-Anh bent down a bit so Lachlan could try it for size. Right away Lachlan knew that this was the mother tree we had been searching for. He stuck the piece of bark in the little hollowed hole on the top of the tree as if that was where it was meant to be kept all along--a special little holder for a special piece of bark. He was quite pleased and without any more questioning was ready to continue on his journey. "That's that!" he seemed to say, "Case closed, so carry on, good chap!"

So as you can see the great outdoors can offer lots of excitement to a toddler and that is just one little idea that  emerged from a short hike. Think of all the possibilities; leaf matching, bird watching, identifying feathers, insects and other flora or fauna. This is when a resource book with your local flora and fauna comes in hand. You can collect leaves and feathers for example, take them home and try to match them in your books. Older children love to do this as it is exciting for them and you can encourage them to keep a journal of what they see. If they are not yet writing, they can draw pictures or symbols instead. Toddlers will love to look at the objects through a magnified glass and touch the various textures.

I'll conclude this blog with a few suggestions for planning a hike. First make sure that you have a comfy carrier for your child. If it is a short hike, say an hour or less a carrier such as an ErgoCarrier should do the trick. Anything longer than that and with more than a moderate grade you might want to consider borrowing or purchasing an appropriate hiking pack with a frame which offers more lumbar support. There is nothing worse than being uncomfortable on a hike or feeling that way they next day. It might discourage you from going again and that would be a shame. We are all different so do some research regarding the carrier that suits your needs and always try it out first with your child in it before you buy. Shops shouldn't mind this, in fact they should encourage it. A good quality pack will have instructions on how to adjust the straps to distribute the weight more comfortably for you such as when you are climbing up or descending from a hill. Always ask the sales assistant to show you how if you aren't sure. If you aren't a keen hiker, then see if you can borrow a carrier from a friend or rent one from an outdoor shop for the day or weekend. They can be quite expensive to buy and it would be a waste if you were only to use it a few times. Also don't forget to take a camera, snacks and water for you and bub and a nappy and wipes just in case. Many framed baby carriers come with a portable change mat stored in the compartment space under bub where you can keep all the munchies and H2O. I should also mention to wear hats to keep ticks at bay. Long sleeves and pants are also encouraged when walking through the woods, though on hot days isn't always the most comfy. Alternatively find a good bug repellent to keep the mosquitoes away. There are a few all natural ones that work well, if you are like me and don't like harsher chemicals on the skin.

So I'll end on that note. Hope you are having great weather in your neck of the woods so you can have some happy hiking!