Gene Johnson's almost year-old daughter, Mimi, checks out some moss on a rock during a recent family hike up to Rattlesnake Ledge.
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IF YOU GO
Weeks Falls: From Seattle, head east on Interstate 90, take exit 38, and turn right. Drive 0.8 miles and turn left into the park entrance. Round trip: 0.5 miles. Elevation gain: none.
Twin Falls: From Seattle, take I-90 east to exit 34. Turn right on 468th Avenue S.E. and go 0.5 miles, and just before you come to a bridge, turn left on S.E. 159th Street and drive 0.5 miles to the trailhead parking lot. Round trip up to the bridge and back: 3.2 miles. Elevation gain: 500 feet. NOTE: There are benches and a nice viewpoint of the twin falls about three-quarters of a mile into the hike, a good turn-around point for small children. This is a popular hike, so expect lots of company, especially on weekends.
Rattlesnake Ledge: From Seattle, take I-90 east to exit 32. Turn right, follow the road 2.7 miles; the parking lot is on the right. Follow the path. The lake is on the left; the trailhead is on the right. Round trip: 4 miles. Elevation gain: about 1,160 feet.
The Washington Trails Association is leading several guided hikes in the Rattlesnake Lake Recreation area on Saturday, June 19, as part of TrailsFest, a free one-day, all-ages outdoors festival. It’s also offering a clinic to teach parents the basics of hiking with kids. For more information, go to www.trailsfest.org.
Other Family-Friendly Hikes with the WTA
Hamilton Mountain Trail to Hardy Falls – The Wonders of Water: Sept. 13 at Beacon Rock State Park in the Columbia River Gorge. Round trip: 3 miles. Elevation gain: 600 feet. Wear a raincoat in case the mist from the alcove of the Pool of Winds gets you wet. You’ll take in spectacular views of the gorge and see the early colors of fall as you follow the trail up to Rodney and Hardy Falls.
Lord Hill Regional Park – Where the Wild Things Are: Oct. 14 off Highway 2 in Snohomish County along the Snohomish River near Monroe. Round trip: 4 miles. Elevation gain: 400 feet. Fall is a fun time to explore the outdoors in search of wildlife as the temperatures start to drop. Keep an eye out for signs of beaver activity along the wetland ponds and springs. Listen and watch for songbirds flitting around the park, and be on the lookout for chipmunks and other critters that scurry throughout the forest to prepare for winter.
All of the WTA’s “Families Go Hiking” outings begin at 10 a.m. at the trailhead. These hikes are designed for families who are new to hiking. Space is limited. RSVP at www.wta.org or 206-625-1367.
Tips for Hiking with Kids
The Washington State Trails Association offers helpful suggestions for hiking with children, including:
• Modify your goals: You may not reach the end of the trail. You may not even hike a mile! Be prepared to adjust your hike to the enjoyment and comfort level of children. • Pack patience and flexibility: If you see a frog dart across the trail, be prepared to stop and wait to watch for that frog to dart across the trail again. Use teachable moments to explore the natural world. • Know what features are ahead: For starter day hikes, choose short trails that do not have much elevation gain, but do have features like lakes, ponds, or waterfalls along the way. Children are fascinated with water. • Dress for success: Check weather conditions before you head out the door. Children get cold more easily than adults, especially if they get wet. Be ready with an extra change of warm clothes. • Look for discoveries: Bring a magnifying glass and kid-friendly field guide. • Teach kids to be good observers: Look for signs of wildlife – feathers on the ground, claw scratches on tree trunks, animal tracks, bird holes in dead trees, fur along the trail, slugs, water striders on lakes, sand dollars along the beach, frogs in a pond. • Remember children’s sense of time. Have patience when they stop to ask questions about wildlife and plants. • Let kids set the pace: Their legs are short and it takes three of their steps for every one of yours. Call for rest stops before they ask for a break and praise them for how well they’re doing.
Other Tips and Tricks
• Create a checklist of essentials to use over and over again: First-aid kit, sunscreen, bug spray, snacks, stuffed animal, extra clothes, special walking stick, etc. • Energy stops – As in, “when we get to the big tree ahead we’ll need to have an energy stop.” Snacks provide great motivation to keep kids moving on trail. • Hike with a friend – as kids get older, they would rather spend time with friends than with their family. Allow your child to invite a friend along. They can share a fun experience and entertain each other. • Keep kids occupied – count how many … we see. Look for something rough. Touch for something fuzzy. Find something purple. • Rotate leaders – When hiking with more than one child, make sure that everyone gets to be a leader and set the pace.
First Aid
Check to make sure your first-aid kit is kid-friendly. Some insect repellants and sunscreens in first-aid kits are too harsh for children’s skin. Supplement your kit with these items for kids: • Children’s sunscreen • Children’s Tylenol and/or ibuprofen (ask your physician for sample packs) • Liquid antihistamine • A lot of adhesive bandages • Calamine lotion for bug bites • Tweezers to remove splinters, ticks and needles • Anti-bacterial wipes • Moleskin for blisters • EpiPen if your child has allergies
Suggested Reading
Best Hikes with Kids: Western Washington & the Cascades, by Joan Burton
A Tale of Two Hikes: Hitting the Trail with Tiny Tots
By Elizabeth M. Gillespie and Gene Johnson
Five months after my daughter was born, my husband gave me a baby hiking backpack, one that we promised each other we’d use often to give Sylvia an early appreciation for the outdoors. But during her first summer and fall, our busy work schedules and a relentless string of colds Sylvia brought home from day care kept most of our outings limited to short neighborhood strolls.
So it was with equal parts eagerness and guilt that I hauled the near mint-condition backpack up from the basement one recent Saturday night to prepare for our first hike in almost a year. I pouted nostalgically as I spotted a pair of diapers that she’d long since outgrown tucked inside a pouch. I set them aside, replaced them with a few of her size 4s, a sippy cup full of water and a few of her favorite snacks – goldfish crackers, a cereal bar and a rice cake.
After making a couple of PB&Js and some trail mix for my husband and me, I quickly read over a hiking-with-kids tip sheet from the Washington State Trails Association, spotted Twin Falls on its list of recommended hikes, then did a quick Internet search to refresh my memory on the directions.
We slept in later than planned the next day, forcing Plan B: Head out after Sylvia’s late-morning snack, let her nap during the nearly hour-long drive to North Bend, and read the paper until she wakes up.
Of course, she woke up right as we were pulling into the parking lot near the trail head, having slept only half as much as she usually does. We went ahead anyway, figuring she’d do fine as long as we kept moving. It was cloudy and cool, and there was only one other car in the lot. “Sweet,” I thought. “We’ll have the trail to ourselves.”
A few minutes into the hike, we stopped to read a sign that explained how the hemlocks, alders and other trees surrounding us would fall when they reached the end of their life cycle then help “recycle” the forest by providing a home for bugs that birds eat. “Interesting,” I thought. “I don’t remember seeing this last time.”
With views of the Snoqualmie River’s south fork peeking through the trees, I pointed to the water and said, “River, Sylvia. That’s a river.”
“Ribba!” she echoed.
We’d barely gotten started when we came across another sign, showing that we’d almost reached the end of the trail. We weren’t at Twin Falls, where I’d had a nice three-mile hike with my husband and brother a few years back. We were halfway into a half-mile loop out to and back from Weeks Falls, a lovely, yet notably less impressive sight than Twin Falls.
We shook our heads, wondering how we could’ve made such a rookie mistake as not making sure that we were going where we thought we were going. On our way back, we followed a couple of sets of stairs down to the river bank, determined to get as much out of the “hike” as we could. Sylvia and our pug, Pepper, were enjoying the outing, and at least in Sylvia’s case, it probably worked out for the best that it didn’t take more than a half hour.
By the time we got back to the car, she was getting pretty fussy. We ran into a couple of other families who also had been hoping for more of a hike than they got out of this trail – one couple with a toddler who was ready to go home, another with a 13-year-old boy who was ready to head to Twin Falls as soon as Dad found it on his GPS locator.
Before we called it a day, I knocked on the door of the Olallie State Park ranger’s house near the parking lot entrance, hoping that someone could help me figure out what turn I’d missed. No one answered, so we hit the road. Just shy of the Interstate 5 on-ramp, I looked behind us, and there it was: a sign that pointed to Twin Falls, which I probably missed as I fielded a cell phone call from our friend Gene – who was calling to tell us about the hike he’d taken with his wife, Rainee, and their daughter Mimi the day before.
•••
On Saturday morning, Rainee and I decided it was a lovely day to take Mimi hiking. The plan seemed easy enough: We would feed her breakfast and eat, and as Rainee dressed her, I would gather our outdoor gear and skim through the instructions on the Sherpani backpack my brother and sister gave us.
By the time Mimi was ready for her morning nap, we’d be hopping in the car for the 45-minute drive to Rattlesnake Ridge, which, when combined with a 15-minute stop at the North Bend Safeway’s deli for one of their turkey-with-olive-tapenade sandwiches, would give her an hour to sleep.
She’d awake cheery and playful, full of wide-eyed wonderment at the birds and leaves and trees and, especially, the many dogs out on the trail. In fact, I was so confident in our plan that I tried to sell Rainee a longer hike – perhaps Mount Si, or continuing on one of the other trails that connect to Rattlesnake Ridge. “Small steps,” Rainee replied. “Let’s not try to do too much.”
It turned out to be wise counsel, for as we crossed Lake Washington and the Cascade foothills drew nearer, Mimi was showing no sign of napping. She finally conked out about 15 miles from North Bend, only to wake up as soon as we stopped at Safeway.
Nevertheless, things were looking up as I loaded Mimi into the backpack and swayed around to get the feel of her weight. She laughed and giggled and seemed to like it at first, looking around as her mom and I pointed out trees and birds, to which she would issue a standard pronouncement: "Duck!"
About a mile into our four-mile trek, though, some crankiness began to emerge. At first she was easily distracted from her fussing: I would twirl a golden-green maple leaf over my shoulder, eventually give it to her, and she would wave it around before inevitably trying to eat it. But Mimi showed no interest in mimicking the many other infants we saw snoozing in their packs, and before long the fussing turned to wailing.
We stopped, lifted her out and held her until she calmed down. Raising her in the pack to improve her view didn’t help. We stopped again, unsure of the wisdom of forging on. A few steps uphill, a few steps back down toward the car, and in our ambivalence we found a stroke of luck: A woman we had passed earlier with her shy, fluffy border collie was making her way up the trail.
Mimi was predictably fascinated with the dog, and the woman assured us we were near the top of the ridge. We slowed to keep pace with the collie – we had given up on the backpack at this point, and Rainee carried Mimi as I did double-duty with the backpacks. By the time we hit the top Mimi was in a good enough mood to blow kisses, unprompted, to two young women who smiled at her.
It being a nice spring day, the ridge was crowded. We picked a small spot for lunch just a few feet from the edge of a precipice -- close enough that when Rainee knocked over her newly procured, BPA-free water bottle from REI, it rolled and bounced swiftly into the abyss. Needless to say we kept Mimi in our laps or sitting on the ground between our legs as we ate. She played with a stick and enjoyed some ravioli, peas, and hunks of bread from our sandwiches. But when we packed up and prepared to head downhill, she was having none of it.
She screamed from the moment we dropped her into the backpack, and my efforts to get her to sleep – singing softly and swaying rhythmically as I walked down the trail – were seriously overmatched. We wound up carrying her most of the way back, looking for – and usually finding – forgiveness in the faces of those marching uphill. It's one thing to be the parent of a screaming child on an airplane, and another to be the parent of a child shattering the peacefulness of someone's afternoon escape from the city.
Toward the bottom we gave up on trying to get her to sleep in favor of simply keeping her distracted, with decent results. If there was a lesson for us here, it was that even though she usually doesn't have any trouble falling asleep in the car, we'll probably wait until after her morning nap to head out next time.
Elizabeth Murtaugh Gillespie is managing editor of Seattle’s Child. Gene Johnson is a reporter in the Seattle bureau of The Associated Press.
