[at-l] Re: how far will your little ones walk?

[sloetoe@xxxxxxxxx (Sloetoe)]

--- autumn <mama@mamarsupial.com> wrote:
> for those with toddlers (or those who's toddlers are now
> grown, but who at least hiked with them when they were wee)...
### Roger.

> how far will your tots walk? i was impressed when dd walked
> the last 1/4 mile into our camp site last friday night. well,
yesterday, we walked to the neighborhood library
> and back. round trip, its about 1.5 miles...and she walked the
> whole trip, holding onto my finger. just wondering if this is
normal, or if she should be able to go farther at this age, or
if i should be counting my blessings that she'd walk that far at
such a young age.
### In 21st century America? Yes, you should be amazed. But how
much of that is because parents wimp out and set *that* for an
example.... I think that plays a large part of it. Let's pause
for a minute and consider that *everyone* on this list is a bit
"nutz" -- at least according to contemporary social norms. Never
mind the XtremeSportz craze in popular culture -- for the most
part we sit. (Well, excepting the members of this {and similar}
list{s}.)
### That said, remember that walkers settled this country. Not
horse riders like you see on TV, or wagon train riders like you
see in the movies, but walkers -- and most of them were
barefoot. Horses, shoe leather, and passable shoes were luxuries
for those who settled this country -- Mayflower Moving did not
exist, and nobody but the very elderly and very young rode in
the wagon, and they likely got out when the going got rough for
the pulling horses/mules/oxen.
### *That* said, here's what I've observed with my kids:
2.5 years: 5 miles on easy, pretty, graded, downhill trail in
the Smokys. They carried nothing, and hung on our fingers, and
had carriers available. (This was after a completely disasterous
hike up the previous evening, in which they hiked a good 2 miles
at least. 5.2 miles up, 11.0 miles down -- the first 5+ steep
(the kids napped in the carriers), the second 5+ not (they kids
wanted DOWN.)

3.0 years: 3+ miles uphill on AT in Smokys on day 1, 9 miles,
mostly downhill, on day 2. Interestingly, Day 2 was no harder
for the boys than day 1 (in fact, I'd say it was easier -- we
had the option of adding the 6 miles to the Mt. Cammerer fire
tower and did so -- the boys took a two hour nap inside). Day2
started about 9am and finished about 9pm (as did all of us).
Boys carried tiny little backpacks ($5. from BigLots -- stylish
mini-packs for cosmetics, etc.) with water bottle, whistle,
snack, toy, (and then rocks, feathers, sticks, etc....)

3.5 years: 10.2 miles on not particularly easy trail on
Thanksgiving. Started about 10:30am, finished about 6-ish
(somewhat after full dark). We hooted and hollered all day long,
and towards the very end, I spun around and took a picture of
the boys that had such joy on their faces, it became our Xmas
picture for that year.

4.25 years: Hiked the 37? miles of the AT from Davenport Gap
(Smokys) to Hot Springs, North Carolina. "Real" AT (not the
Smokys "interstate"). We did this in 4 days (I think) with
6,10,5,13,3 mile days. The boys hiked Mom&Dad into the ground.
Boys carried all their own gear except bivy/bag/pad, in the
mini-packs described above, now fortified with neoprene and a
sternum strap.

6.25 years: Did the northern 90 miles of the Long Trail -- TOUGH
stuff. Was counting on 10 miles a day -- got 5 miles the first
day and was happy for that! (Except for the Mahoosuc Range on
the AT, I have never seen a tougher piece of trail. Knocked my
socks off.) Mostly rained for 2 weeks, averaged ~7 miles per
day. Boys carried everything except group food, in Tough
Traveler "Camper" packs going 10-12 pounds (dependent on water).

6.50 years: Breezed the NE Smokys' AT (about 37 miles) over
Labor Day weekend. In the pouring rain. AGAIN. (But this was no
LT!)
http://members.aol.com/pog2004/hatt2000.html

7.25 years: Finished LT (180 miles, this time northbound),
averaging exactly 10 miles per day. Perfect weather, 10 miles
per day average, trail "average" for first 109 miles (till the
AT turned east into New Hampshire), then much more rugged as the
LT continued 70 miles north. (Still not like that northern
chunk, though. Wow.) Still 10-12 pounds in Tough Traveler
"Camper".
http://www.newsushi.net/lt-journal4.html

8.25 years: Hiked AT from LT (Killington/Sherburne) to Pinkham
Notch -- about 150 miles, including 60 in the very rugged White
Mtns. Very incredibly debilatatingly hot, humid, yet drought
conditions. (We SWAM at Lakes of the Clouds -- which looked like
Club Med at the time.) AT Throughhikers, with 1700 miles on 'em,
were wilting. And we kept pace with the majority for 2+ weeks,
averaging about 10 mpd again (and happy to make that!).

(((WOW. I'd say these are examples for the Bragging Rights
corner, but you know, when you actually set them down and look
them over (and know there's lots more not here), it's pretty
intimidating. Did I really *do* that with my kids? Yes. It's a
fact. OK, but *how*? Paying strict attention to sleep, naps,
food, rest stops, experimenting AND FAILING and debriefing and
learning. LEARNING. AND HOPEFULLY, WITH AN eLIST LIKE THIS ONE,
SHARING. (Thanks emma!))))

OK, so, to answer your query about mileage and such? Noting the
"9 miles at age 3" thing, my boys and I have done 3x their age
each birthday weekend until this year -- I'm injured. That was
24+ miles last year, as a one day deal. TOTAL REST is assumed
for the next day -- the royal treatment for hugely worthy
runners/hikers/walkers -- videos, breakfast of choice in bed,
anything they want.

For repeated day hikes, I would cap things at 2x age, assuming
they're not carrying much weight, either. (This would also be a
"rule" if you were inserting a day hike into a non-hiking family
vacation -- don't bust up a trail on Tuesday and expect the kids
-- or you -- to have fun antique hunting on Wednesday. If you
want to insure "legs" for Wednesday, you can't go over 2x age on
Tuesday, no matter what.)

For backpacking, I would not go much over 1.5x age without a
close examination of the kids, the trail, and the weight the
kids carry. (Not if you want to insure a good time.)

In closing,

1) keep in mind that my kids have been *raised* on their feet,
so to speak. Respiratory efforts have been encouraged on every
scale, so "adventures" in walking are part/parcel of growing up.
Myself? I did my first backpacking trip when I was 13, and I was
conVINCED I was going to die, and slowly, and painfully. So:

2) BRING CHILDREN TO MILEAGE SLOWLY, and recognize that even
future ATThroughhikers and ultra-marathoners may believe death
hath no slower or more painful path then the one on which they
start their backpacking. For us, the child carriers were
perfect: "Up Mommy! Up Daddy!" when they were tired, "Down
Mommy! Down Daddy!" when they wanted to walk.

3) Then later, establish parameters. We did "Mommy/Daddy hikes"
where traversing some piece of land was the goal, and "LittleBoy
hikes" where every tree, twig, knothole, log, rock, bud, bug,
feather, dead bird, etc, was detected, inspected, disected, and
neglected for the next one. Stones thrown into water will trump
just about anything else feature-wise short of a
ToysRus-on-trail; recognize that fact early and you're way ahead
of the game. Parameters include how far you're going to walk,
how fast, how much you can stop, who *says* when to stop,
when/what you eat, when/what you drink, etc.

4) Parameters also include REWARDS. You might reward your dog --
why would you not also reward your kids? I used to pay my kids
$0.25 for each piece of litter they'd pick up from a trailhead
-- kept them busy while I'm doing last minute chores, and sets a
proper example of leaving the woods better'n what you found, as
well as pays them for work. One day (a birthday 3timesAge
hike?), it became $0.25 cents per mile hiked. I thought that
fair. Then when we came back from the 90 mile LT trip, they
mentioned that 25 cent thing,
and I said "Ohhhh no, guys, there'd be no 25 cents for what *we*
did. 25 cents was for Indiana! What we did was MUCH bigger than
that!"
[They're bug-eyed at this point -- I'm starting to get across to
them just how royally big a hike they just completed.]
They said "Like how much bigger?"
and I said [gulp] "$1.00."
"PER MILE?!?!?"
"Yes."
"Well, that's ..... "
[pause while 7 year old twins attempt to compute 90miles times 1
dollar]
"Ninety dollars."
[Pandemonium breaks loose.]
I then established with them that that $90 would go into a fund
to buy next year's boots, rain gear, socks, etc. to insure
comfort, but that there would be some left over that would *not*
be reserved. They thought this was all very cool.

Break 'em in slow. Make it a way of life. Include lots of
SmallPerson hikes. Include lots of milkshakes. M&Ms = miles.
Live your love; walk your talk.
Sloetoe

=====
Spatior! Nitor! Nitor! Tempero!
   Pro Pondera Et Meliora.

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