These boots are made for walkin’

Thursday was our Eco-hike. It mainly is a long hike where you are out on trail for about 6 hours. There is usually a theme to it. This time we were looking for signs of spring. We also look for animal signs, learn how to recognize the different type of trees, and at some point, get off the trail.

We headed off toward Beaver Meadow. We made sure not to walk on the cross-country ski track. We stopped periodically to look at the differences between Red, White and Jack pines. Playing games along the way is also a part of the fun.

Thicket is a game of hide and seek played on these Eco-hikes. The thicket master yells “Thicket” and everyone else drops their stuff and runs to hide. The catch is that you have to be able to see the thicket master from your hiding spot. The thicket master counts to 60 before s/he starts looking for everyone. When s/he sees you, you come out of hiding. After s/he can’t see anyone else, s/he holds up a few fingers and says “round 2″. Everyone has to re-hide at least a few yards closer. The process is repeated for round 3. When s/he can’t find anyone else s/he signals for the remaining players to run back and tell which numbers were held up. The first person back is the new thicket master.

When we played, I basically fell into my hiding spot. It’s kind of hard to hide when wearing a red jacket. It’s a fun game and the kids really get into it. We also do some other things to keep warm. We all learned the smurf dance. It involves moving all of your limbs and getting the blood flowing.

When we got to Beaver Meadow and went off trail we were actually walking through a bog. The snow was thigh deep. It would’ve been much easier had we brought snow shoes. Oh well… We learned something, I guess. One of our signs of spring is that the ice is melting. Under the insulating layer of the snow we had a couple of kids who went through a bit of ice. Since this is a bog, it wasn’t a big deal. We made our way back to the camp to change out the wet boots and socks.

It was about lunch time, so we ended up having our lunch in the ski room. That worked just fine. We were warm. From there we decided which direction was next. We went over to Molly’s cliffs to do the otter slides. It’s basically where you can slide in your snow-pants down a steep hill. The kids love it!

We had snow cones in our sierra cups and did hat matches (wrestling in the snow) and just enjoyed being outside in the warm sun and cool crisp air.

It wasn’t the most eventful eco-hike I’ve taken. But it was a lesson in adapting to your circumstances and enjoying being outside even when it’s cold. Dressing properly, keeping active and appreciating the outdoors is what it’s all about.