A last-ditch effort to cram in a little mother-son bonding before the freshman college drop-off means a camping trip and kayaking.
48 Hours at Aspen Highlands
March 11, 2019 by 2 Comments
Every time I’ve skied at Aspen Highlands, it’s always been about hiking and skiing Highland Bowl. This time around, I discovered another, gentler side of the mountain. (And then… I hiked the Bowl.)
Zen and the Art of Sea Glass Collecting
July 6, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Combing a pebbled-covered beach is a little like raking a Zen rock garden. I’ve discovered a new form of meditation: searching for sea glass. I’ve never been able to meditate in the traditional sense. I’ve tried. But my mind soon wanders and starts to churn on all of life’s crud: […]
Adventure Racing for Kids
August 29, 2013 by Leave a Comment
From mud pits and ziplines to mountain biking and rappelling down a cliff face, this year’s kids’ adventure race at Vail boosted self esteem and suppressed the usual bellyaching. Here’s something I love about kids adventure racing: Kids bike, run, and climb—and I mean hard—for nearly two hours and they […]
Keen Vail Kids Adventure Race
September 20, 2012 by 7 Comments
Adventure racing requires teamwork. What happens when serial squabblers (kids, that is) compete? My children bicker incessantly over the most inane things. Who goes first at piano lessons. Who gets the blue water bottle. They argue over cupcakes, radio stations, pizza slices, hunks of watermelon, stuffies, lacrosse pads, and ski […]
Island Camping in Maine: Part II
August 1, 2012 by 28 Comments
High Adventure on Isle au Haut Click here to read Part I It wasn’t total deprivation. We did have a bag of those enormous oversized marshmallows, dark chocolate chips, and graham crackers. The kids roasted the marshmallows over a roaring fire and stuffed themselves with s’mores. After dinner we climbed […]
Island Camping in Maine: Part I
August 1, 2012 by 2 Comments
High Adventure on Isle au Haut In my twenties, my hiking shoes were a well-worn pair of Timberland work boots. I’d trekked in them from the Uintas to the Black Hills to the Gunks. They’ left a trail of knobby prints around the Annapurna circuit in Nepal and through the […]
Nature Detectives on Wheels
June 22, 2012 by Leave a Comment
This summer, after a decade-long hiatus from mountain biking—and when I say mountain biking, I mean the blood-on-your-knees, dirt-in-your-teeth variety—I was thrilled to find myself navigating roots and rocks and whoop-de-doos on a dirt trail with my two boys, ages 8 and 11. Until this point, my kids hadn’t done […]
Nature Detectives Kids Club
June 6, 2012 by 3 Comments
The first rule of hiking with kids is this: Never say “hike.” It’s a four-letter word. So earlier this week, when I took the kids on a hike to Walden Ponds, I told them we were going on an adventure. An outdoor nature treasure hunt. Arghhhhh! They were gung ho. […]
Camp Gear on Daybreak
January 30, 2012 by 2 Comments
So this morning, I was waiting in the lobby with two shopping carts of camping gear to do a segment on CW2’s Daybreak morning TV show in Denver, and the receptionist asked me to just hold up a minute. They were going to send another guest up first. Just happened […]
