Review: Best Hikes and Nature Walks with Kids

As I crack my fresh copy of Stephen Hui's latest hiking guide: Best Hikes and Nature Walks with Kids, I'm faced immediately with a few questions:

• Am I a kid at heart or just someone that is developmentally stunted?
• Do I even like kids? (I have none of my own)
  
• Should I write this post with some zany kid-like font?

I definitely do think a bit like a kid. I enjoy whimsy, I'm curious, and I get easily bored if not presented with something novel. I also, however, am becoming a cranky old man. I judge bad parents harshly (but silently), but will say this: parents taking the time to educate kids about nature tend to be the ones I judge less, and the kids that result from that effort... I tend to find more likeable (on average).

I'm going to review this book from the POV of an adult seeing what is in it for me.

Cubs: Me on left. 
How did my legs
even hike?

My parents are/were awesome, but not particularly outdoorsy. I owe much of my own love for the outdoors to the parents of my friends and amazing and dedicated Cub/Scout/Ventures leaders I had. I didn't know that seeds for that love were being planted at the time, but later it became obvious when I returned to many of these very same places we went,.. but as an adult. Many of those places are in Stephen Hui's new book.

At first I thought the content of Hui's latest book was, for me, most like the 109 Walks series. I have "peak bagged" several editions of the "Walks" books as off-season challenges or as injury recovery.  Typically that series covers shorter, and often more accessible hikes including those within city boundaries, and with less elevation gain than typical regional hike books.  "With Kids" is not really that.

I'd put the 109s more in a category of dog walks,.. or somewhere convenient where you "get your steps
in". Being also a McCaree creation, it often felt like the leftovers from the 103 Hikes series that were less alpine and had less wow factor.

"With Kids" focuses on what I call "the gravy".  By that I mean there is a pay-off,.. some little memorable point of interest that would capture a curious mind's attention (or something interesting for us adults that are amateur photographers) Examples: some tide pool, waterfall, or iconic bridge. In other words for Minecraft attention span kids: something to "do" or "look at" besides walking and getting exercise.  As I get older I find myself seeking more gravy for less effort. A few of the destinations in With Kids are very much of that formula: 

Last 109 Walk photo

• Train Wreck falls near Whistler
• Skookumchuk Narrows
• Lynn Canyon

The ones further outside of Vancouver also serve as great stops on a bigger road-trip where doing a 3+ hour hike is just not part of the agenda.

I want to focus a on a few key observations about this book in the context of the author's other books 105 Hikes and Destination Hikes which I've also reviewed:

Format: "With Kids" follows the same general formula of Hui's other books including an overview map, a more meaningful foreword than most hike books from a representative of regional first nations authors, and some colour photos.

I personally think maps are engaging for my child mind and am pleased to see that some are full page.  The colour palette of  the book is nothing beyond Hui's other books but there are more photos overall (not the token 1 per hike), often of kids. For some reason I expected McDonalds style primary colours for kids.

Missing: for me, would be the handy checklist - a favourite item of mine and IMO a great way to motivate further exploration. 

New to the book are "Wild Sights" sections with pictures.  These include full colour photos of fungi, plants, and animals you might encounter in the backwoods. A great addition IMO (though a bingo style checklist might have appealed to me as a child).  There also are "fun fact" sections which seem a bit more kid focused (as opposed to geology for example), but I'll mention more on that below.

Also handy and new is that on the pages facing the opposite of the spine of the book (whatever that is called) you can see the sections colour coded. I always liked that with Dawn Hanna's classic hike anthology.

Final thoughts:

This book is a great book for short format hiking in the region,.. and I'll say it,.. for adults.  Yes it  might be geared for taking children outdoors but the language and level of reading required is clearly aiming intentionally at the parents.  GPS coordinates, history etc. and the tone that I really believe make this author the pre-eminent go to for guidebooks in BC is little deviation from that of his other works.  For me, an adult, that suits me just fine - in need information!  I would recommend this book for people with zero intention of hiking with children as much as those completely focused on it.

What I will say this, my relationship with books as a child was more activity based,.. and that is kind of how I am now.  When I think back to the joy I experienced working through Richard Scary's Rainy Day book or even the ones I had with spy or Star Wars themes, I think they may have made me the peak bagger that I am today - seriously,.. it may have been genesis of that.

I know that Hui had the parents in mind and a tested format to spring from but I do wonder if anyone in the region has considered something aimed a bit more AT the the kids. Little missions to go on perhaps or as my wife suggested, a short suggested teaser that the parent can dangle in front of a reluctant child (like the fun fact sections, but at the start of each section):

"Who wants to see gnome doors embedded into trees?!"
"Yucky banana slugs anyone?"

"Warblers, frogs and bears! Oh my!"

Writing or colouring in an activity book was right up my homebody alley back as a kid,.. maybe could there be a companion book? (You heard it here first!)

All in all Hui has assembled another great book and opportunity to teach kids what nature has to offer rather than the dark side of littering, swimming holes, trail speakers, and coolers that they might discover in a less "guided" format later in life on their own. Buy this for your friends with kids,.. PLEASE. (we have!).

For adults, as we get further away from recent editions of the 109 hikes this book also has value there.  You may have lived in the Lower Mainland for your entire life,.. but I'll bet few of you have explored all of these places and you don't need to be a hard core alpine hiker to do them - this is what you do as part of a day trip in October or March when a 4 hour+ excursion is just not your thing.

Wanderung turns 20!

By my best (educated) guess, Wanderung's first hike was 20 years ago this month (April). 20 years!!!

The first hike was around Buntzen lake mostly comprised of a collection of friends and their random

acquaintances. The second hike was Lynn Peak.. we didn't make it to the first lookout even,.. our uninitiated hiking legs couldn't hack it.

As a founding member that was either fully immersed in the organization from the start, or later just a peripheral player as a low touch board member - 20 years is a major milestone for me personally.

Early Wanderung photo

Yes, the pandemic slashed almost 2 years off of those 2 decades, but for that time, Wanderung has a been a central and consistent thread for what is now 40% of my life.

I've had the opportunity and privilege to hike with thousands of different people using the callout system and estimate my own callouts to number well over 250 (mostly pre-incorporation of the
non-profit). I'm pretty sure, I'm not even the record holder. Since 2002 Wanderung has had at least 5 or 6 "generations" of key organizers keeping the list trips active. These people span from around the globe, across many cultures and ages, and do all sorts of things that I didn't even know were jobs in some cases.

Long ago we gave up counting callouts (likely 3500+). We've stopped trying to track the direct and indirect romances, marriages, Wanderung babies... as they are also now countless. Noone really knows how many long lasting friendships have formed or "off-list" adventure teams have branched outside of

Wandie Awards 2012

the callout system for their outdoor fixes. We do know, however, that these things become all the more likely when people put their devices aside and take a chance to go explore nature and just "sweat" with a bunch of strangers and actually engage.

For me personally, Wanderung can be credited as the reason half the people in my life and various communities,.. are there. Whether by referral or directly meeting them through callouts, my friend and acquaintance network (including my wife!), mostly sprung out of the adventures I've shared with strangers (until they weren't). Vancouver seems like a smaller place as a result as the streets and even my workplace is peppered with people that I know share my hobbies through Wanderung. For this, I am grateful.

20 years is a long time for a low-tech, self-funded organization to stay operating, especially when one of the board mandates is "keep the effort low". I've worked for 4 employers and lived in 5 neighbourhoods in that time - but only belonged to one hiking club.

I don't know how relevant Wanderung will be after the pandemic allows us all to meet again. It is a bit manual and low tech and had been slowing down even before 2020. What it does have, I think will always have appeal: accessibility. It is free and you don't need any particular O/S or app. It is sort of simple (so long as you read and follow the instructions).

More than that, it has attracted people that despite our "work less" mandates, DO work to make it happen. I'd like to personally thank every past, present, and future :

• newsletter publisher and contributor
• board member
• web developer and sys admin
• trip organizer
• driver
• donator
• founder
• party volunteer

Wanderung was not as prolific generating trips as it was because of lurkers, passive observers, passengers or Facebook commenters - it is because of those people above.

If you want as much out of it as some of us have managed to get, like me, become one of them.

Here is to many more years of hiking with strangers (...until they are not).