Kids are great!

[masshysteria]

Kids are great!

Last Wednesday, my son Tommy (who's 12) and I got up at 4:00 AM,and drove for 5 hours to the Coreys trailhead. I thought he would sleep for most of the ride, but he didn't, he was too excited about climbing Seymour Mnt.. He's already climbed Giant, Haystack, and Colden.
After a quick stop at the Mountaineer to buy him short gaiters, we drove through Lake Placid. He was amazed at the ski jump and the Price Chopper with the log siding. After just recently watching the movie,"The Miracle", I showed him where the actual game took place. He was amazed, you would think we had just driven through Beverly Hills or something!
Of course now he wants to come back and ride the bobsled at Mnt. Hovenburg, take the elevator to the top of the ski jump, and play miniature golf at the little course in Lake Placid.
It was 11:00 before we started hiking up the Blueberry Trail. The five miles to the Ward Brook leanto took till 1:30, but he was still just as gung-ho about climbing Seymour. The bottom of the herd path wasn't bad at all, but when we got to the slide area, that changed real quick. The mud, the slippery rocks, the fallen trees, the MUD! I thought for sure he would ask to turn around, but he didn't. Just the occasional;" how much farther?"
When we reached the top of the northeast ridge, he thought we were at the summit. But then he ran into that wall we've all hit, the dreaded false summit. We could see the true summit through the trees, so he pushed on another 10 minutes until reaching the top. He spent the 45 minutes while I rested on the top, taking pictures, asking what this is and that is, where did we start from, etc..
It was 5:00 by the time we started down, and 6:30 when we reached WBLT. Being a 2 1/2 hr walk back to the truck, it would be 9:00 by then and dark. But then we had to set the tent up at the campsites near Stony Creek, make dinner, which wouldn't be till almost 10:30. His pace started to slow down.
So I told him that we would drive into Tupper Lake, find a MacDonalds or Burger King and have dinner there. Man, did the pace pick up then!
So here I am driving through TL, looking for a burger joint. Nothin'! So I proceeded to Long Lake, where I guaranteed him we would find something. Well, Long lake doesn't have anything like that. The gentleman at Stewarts laughed when I asked him if there was a MacDonalds in LL. He then informed me that there was a MacD's in Tupper Lake, but I probably didn't go by it. Great! So we ate day-old hotdogs from Stewarts at 11:00 at night, and guzzled down a quart of chocolate milk each.
Tommy was covered in mud and he was beat. So we ended up sleeping in the truck at the NP trailhead on 28N in Newcomb.
I got up the next morning knowing for sure that my son would NEVER want to hike another ADK mountain in his life! I had ruined him! But lo and behold, he told me that he had the best time yesterday, and that the most favorite part of the day was climbing through the muddy steepness of the Seymour slide. Go figure. We were going to climb Couchsacraga that day, but we decided not to. His feet hurt because his boots were getting a little small for him, so we decided to head home. Kids grow too quick! Not just physically either.
I am so proud of my son! He showed me a toughness of mind and body that it takes to climb some of these hills. Like he told me, "I just climbed a mountain that most people wouldn't even try, and some people can't!" That makes him very special in my book! But heck, he was already special, he's my son, and I love him so very much!

 

[Boots]

What a cool post.... I started to hike just last year and my son started as soon as he got here for the summer from his mothers in Wisconsin....flat land. He is the best hiking companion. He has championed on when that is what we wanted and a few weeks ago we hiked for a few hours in hot weather and I was beat. I said what do you think of heading down and finding a swimming hole and he was just as pleased with that. I'm just sorry that I didn't start sooner. I just hope he catches the fever cause it is such a healthy thing. Have as much fun as you can with your kids, not so much because they grow soooooo fast but more because these are the things they will carry forever. Boots

 

[mavs00]

Tom

amen

Sounds like he caught the fever. Well Done.

 

[Michelle]

What a fun time! Your son will love the memories for years to come.

I've slowly been taking my 12 y.o. brother on bigger/longer hikes and it is amazing the things that you learn from each other!

On Jefferson last month, he was pointing out Banana slugs (not sure if that is what they are REALLY called) but he told me you could tell what they were because when you touch them....your finger turns yellow, sure enough... he was right!! We kept track of how many we saw throughout the day. I later pointed out the Gray Jay and white throated sparrow to him.

Last week, the most exciting part of our day was reaching Lonesome Lake and watching him and a friend find leaches in the lake...........that turned into a 45 min. project... in the rain, to catch one..............then that one needed a friend! After 45 min, I was ready to jump in the lake and catch the darn thing myself just so we could get out of there! Finally the second leach was caught and I thought "I'm saved" just as my brother slipped on a rock and fell in up to his waist with the leach, but thank goodness it stayed in his water bottle and the hunt was over! They were so proud, showing people we passed on the way down, the mountain we climbed was definately not the highlight of the day. I know he'll have these great memories forever, just like your son will.

 

[Jay H]

Cool story, sounds like you two had a great time. You would enjoy the bobsled at Van Hoevenberg, I wished I actually hung around to do it. I had a half day to hike once up there before I had to leave so I thought I'd hike up Van Hoevenberg since I knew it ended at the bobsled run. Fun short hike! It would be fun for you to do that, you can hike in from the side road off the road that goes to Heart Lake and go up and over Van Hoevenberg.... go for a bobsled run and either hike back via the X-C ski trail connectors or back up over the Mt...

Jay

 

[1ADAM12]

My daughter....

is only 9 months but I cannot wait for her to start walking so I can buy her her first pair of hiking boots

Great Story!

 

[Oldsmores]

Memories

Money can't buy memories like that. It reminded me of several hikes with my kids. My son spent his 8th birthday on our first overnight backpacking trip. I made him a birthday cake with a hostess muffin with a tea candle on it. He still talks about it as his best birthday ever. Or the time we did Algonquin on Thanksgiving weekend. He was 13 and I was sure the driving winds and breaking trail through deep snow would turn him back (I think a small part of me was hoping). He just said, "no, I want to get to the top" and we did. Now he's 21 and working through 14'ers in Colorado.
I also have fond memories of taking my 12 year old daughter and 2 friends up Gothics. Plenty of tears and cajoling to get them up the cables, but when we got back to the car they all wanted to know when we could go hiking again.
Kids ARE great! Enjoy them while you can - they grow up too fast. With luck they'll still want to hike with you as long as you are able...

 

[masshysteria]

Thanks for all the wonderful thoughts. It was a special moment, and I'm so glad that so many others have had the same experience!
Let me tell ya how fast they grow up! My 20 yr. old daughter is going to have a baby, making me a grandfather. I'm looking forward to it, but it's going to take a little getting used to being a granmpa at 46. Is this what they call a mid-life crisis?
Tom

 

[snowshoe]

I just took my 2.5 week old out on her first hike. We went out to Lake Rutherford in High Point SP. On our way back it started to pour out. She did not mind it. She slept the entire way. I will be looking forward to when she can walk and we can then climb peaks together. It is a great having a hiking buddy.

 

[Neil]

I love hiking with my kid, I’ve got 3 kids but one in particular (Dominic) really, really loves hiking. Some people especially kids, don’t get phased out easily. I took my 15 yr. old into Bradley Pond lean-to at 11:00 at night last March thinking the lean-to held 8. It was our first winter trip to the Adirondacks ever. According to the register there were 6 people there. We arrived under wet snow/rain to a full house and ended up laying across the mouth of the lean-to under the overhang wrapped up in our tent fly (I didn’t bother to bring a tent). At times during the night the snow slanted down and got us but it wasn’t all that bad. Dominic took the whole thing as a matter of course as if he’d been doing that sort of thing all his life. The next day we did Couch and Panther and had a ball. Now he wants to become a winter 46er.

 

[bridgeman]

Good Story. Thanks for sharing.

Took this group up Cascade for their first high peak last September. We will be back there this september for another peak.