Fitting the Outside In with Stacey: Intro

Fitting the Outside In with Stacey

Introducing me and my purpose:

An awkward tomboyish thirteen year old girl wearing faded jeans and a yellow sleeved baseball jersey gazed out the kitchen window as she ran the soap covered dishcloth over the dinner plates. She ached to hike the small gap at the base of Timp. How to get there? She didn’t drive. Her parents had too many stresses to take the time. She didn't know if it was safe, or if there were even a trail. How was I ever going to get to hike as much as I wanted?

Fitting the outdoors in, finding a way to make happen, this has been my quest for the past 35 years and I want to share it with everyone possible. Since the day I summitted Timp as a fourteen year old, I knew the secret about getting things done...there was no secret, you just had to do it. One foot in front of the other, not extra talent, no extra physical powers, just one foot in front of the other. ANYONE can do this….and I just did!

I hiked six summits in Utah County the year I turned fourteen, mostly thanks to a family friend who was trying to keep my older brothers out of trouble and serve my parents who had a baby in and out of the hospital for about a year. Things come to us. When we really desire, and need something, it comes, even to an awkward thirteen year old with what the world might consider unrealistic dreams. After hiking those six summits (Timp, Y mountain, Nebo, Cascade, Maple Mountain and Mt. Baldy, in front of Timp as a warm up summit), I decided that I didn’t like summit hiking. I didn’t like feeling exhausted and counting every step I took. I decided I there were plenty of easy, scenic hikes out there and I decided to focus on those. I became a “looper”. From that time until after I had my four kids and started aching for the physical exertion of a summit, I was in search of the nation’s most scenic loop or minimum elevation gain out and back hikes. I wanted the biggest bang for the smallest proverbial “buck.”.

What you can expect from my posts:

Each entry I will have a tip for fitting in a hike or outdoor activity, defying odds with toddlers, teenagers, and lack of babysitters or funds. I will then describe a hike or activity that I have taken in that season, and under what circumstances it worked for me. Most of my hiking has been done in the Western US, primarily in Oregon, Washington and Utah.

Tip:

Today’s tip is hiking with a toddler that for whatever reason, hates trails. Yes, there are those parents who tell you how they just forced their kids to hike and now they are stellar naturalists...that wasn’t me or my children. When I was pregnant with our first child, I swore I would not let a child keep me from hiking where and when I wanted. I was going to take “it” with me and make “it” a nature lover, because, aren’t we all born to love nature? It was a few month’s struggle before I surrendered to the idea that my “baby” was a person. A person with a personality and opinions. He was not an “it.” He was a little human being that cried non stop in is car seat, grudgingly stayed in his baby backpack, and ate yams for three months then decided he hated them. I was going to have to put in some concerted effort in order to support my son in his humanity and to survive my own experience.

My oldest son, Sterling, due to my husband’s wildlife biology research across southern Utah, lived in a baby backpack for the first three summers of his life. By the time he turned four years old he got to the point where he would lay at my feet and cry and plead to not hike another trail.

One time, when I was begging my husband to go somewhere, anywhere, outdoors, because I was in great need of a nature, solitude fix, we drove our Honda Accord, the two hours from Utah County to a river side trail on the San Rafael Swell. Our son would stop every two minutes and pick up a rock, insisting I come look at it and put it in my pocket. He wanted to follow every trail except the one I was on. My patience was wearing thin and I was not getting that “back to nature” fix I so desperately needed. It was that moment I realized I had to surrender my need for solitude and reflection so I could maintain peace with my three year old who was unintentionally doing all in his power to keep me from having the experience I desired.

I decided that if I was going to get my outdoor fix, I was going to have to make some adjustments to our activities. I had to make a distinction; was this outdoor experience for me, or for my family, and plan accordingly. If it was for me, I was going to have to either get a sitter, go alone and let hubby watch the kids; go with friends,or join a hiking club.

If any of you have tried finding friends with toddlers or preschoolers whose husbands and schedule work together at the same time as yours, on a day with weather good enough and daylight long enough and nap times/preschool on the same schedule, to hike together, you well know, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of the needle.

It will be necessary to use every trick you can think of to get what you want, and it will be worth every effort. I joined a Sierra Club hiking group in Oregon that made sure I was fully aware of the fact that my jeans were going to cause me to freeze to death in the harsh Oregon climate. Gore tex was not only recommended, but required, they had a liability to keep me safe...even if we were walking on a paved urban trail on a river running through a city.

I also found a Volkswalk group. An interesting european style walking club that met monthly and walked anywhere possible. One of the walks I attended was on someone’s acreage where the owners had mowed a fifteen foot wide, ten mile trail, just for the event. Participants and true club members wore “miles accumulated” pin charms either on a chains decorating their khaki, quick dry trekking shirts or pinned to their bowl shaped safari hats. Curious, different, but friendly interesting people, safe and outdoors.

Not wanting to turn off my son to outdoor activities, I took to finding outdoor activities that he liked. I observed that he really enjoyed boulder scrambling. The next few outings were to places like the Valley of Fire State Park, and Red Rocks Park, each within a two hour’s drive of where we lived at the time in Las Vegas. I found good hiking loops for me, often circling a manageable amount of relatively safe boulders for a three year old to scramble on.

Incidentally, as my son grew to his teen years, he developed a surprising obsession with mountain biking. I took advantage of his friends’ needs for rides to a mountain trails. I was the favorite mom, packing five to eight bikes on the strap on bike rack, and the same number of boys into our old red minivan, spending the better half of a day or afternoon parked at a trailhead, either watching them do stunts off wooden, boardwalk style drop offs, and worn dirt jumps, hiking, once again, in loops, around their activity.

When we moved from Oregon to Utah my son was fourteen. His style of mountain biking was rare. It seemed everyone in Utah rode a dirt bike with a motor. We had some high quality mother/son bonding time as we researched dirt jumps, skills parks, and “freeride” mountain biking terrain at the local ski resorts. My husband would stay home with the younger children, or grandma or cousins would help with the babysitting; while I would drive Sterling to the resort or park. While he did his rounds on either a dirt jump line or a freeride run from the ski lift, I would often take a scenic lift ride up and hike down a trail, enjoying a leisurely lunch or appetizer at an overpriced apres mountainside cafe, Sterling would check in on his ruggedized cell phone to let me know if he crashed and how he was doing. Every round was “the best day of mountain biking ever!” After much effort and concentration, payoff arrives, my son has developed a love for his style of outdoor experience. I have not failed.