Wendy Gorton - 50 Hikes with Kids New England

A young adventurer hikes through fall leaves

WENDY GORTON

Timber Press Portland, Oregon

To my mother, Ginny, whose practical
support is the backbone of all my
adventures and whose trust in independence
grew the adventurer in me.

ADVENTURES IN
Connecticut

ADVENTURES IN
Rhode Island

ADVENTURES IN
Massachusetts

ADVENTURES IN
Vermont

ADVENTURES IN
New Hampshire

ADVENTURES IN
Maine

New Englanda collection of six proud states filled with breathtaking views and adventures matched only by the delicious food and rich history youll find in your travels. With 15 million people packed into just under 72,000 square miles, the region on paper might not suggest an abundance of wilderness, but as youll see and probably already know, a rugged, character-shaping terrain waits in small patches and wide swaths all over this historic region. As it has been since before our country began, New Englands landscape is defined by its glacial legacy, rolling monadnocks (isolated rocky mountains left standing tall when the glaciers eroded away the surrounding land), exposed granite ledges, kettle ponds (deep bodies of water created by chunks of melting glacier), and erratic boulders (dropped like giant breadcrumbs by glaciers in retreat). Unique rock formations and water features combine with one-of-a-kind plant and animal species and the local pride in observing nature through all four seasons to make hiking in New England a special experience for families.

This guide aims to provide kids of all ages a curated selection of some of the most varied and interesting destinations in New England while reassuring busy adults about what exactly to expect from any given trail, the features they will see when they arrive, and the logistics that can make or break an outdoor excursion with kids. I hope you get a sense of the love steeped in these pageslove for the outdoors, love for adventure, love for planning and preparation, and love for family and community. My family members were co-adventurers on every hike, tackling bathroom mishaps, downed trees, and even multiple hikes a day to test and compare, since choosing which adventures to include was no easy task. The number of kid-friendly hikes in New England is staggering, but I developed a firm Kid Filter, one that includes awesome features, simple driving and turnkey instructions on the trail so youre not second-guessing yourselves, honest-to-goodness dirt on the bottom of your shoes rather than pavement, and no interpretive signs, all aimed at giving you a more adventurous and hike-like experience rather than a sterile stroll.

Rocky, rooty, flat, smooth, up, or downno matter the trail, adventure beckons on the other side

Many of us have seen the copious amounts of research about the benefits of getting kids outdoors more and interacting with the world in an open-ended way. As you romp with your own crew through the outdoors, just keep in mind that while the scavenger hunt items called out on each hike might help you to add excitement or teachable moments, finding them all should not be the main goal of your outing. I wrote this guide to help you get outside, spend time with your family, and have fun.

In 2006, smack in the middle of my second year of teaching fourth graders, I became a PolarTREC GoNorth! teacher explorer. I packed up with a top-notch, experienced adventure crew, and we set out to spend two weeks dog sledding, interviewing locals about climate change, and collecting snow-pack data. My number-one goal was to interpret the experience for my students back in my classroom and students from around the world who wanted to feel a piece of real-life adventure. Every night, our dogs rushed us through the snow to the next research hut in the middle of Finland. Once inside, we peeled off our layers, cooked dinner from our meal rations, used our maps to plan the next day, and got a good nights sleep. Then as now, I studied each days route with the eyes of a childfinding the nooks that delighted me, asking myself big questions, documenting things that interested me but that I couldnt identify on the spot, and researching answers. A decade and a half later, Im thrilled to be creating mini-adventures for New England families, helping them to become their own intrepid adventurers.

The driving question behind this book is how we can design experiences that inspire wonder in our children. That is the question to keep in mind as you use this book, too. If we can provide a fun environment and the initial sparks of curiosity, we canas educators, caregivers, aunties and uncles, grandparents, and parentshelp children discover and explore the world around them, creating a generation of resilient, curious kids who appreciate natural beauty even from the youngest of ages. This guide aims to give adults some tools to help ignite questions on the trail, to teach kids that its great to stop and look at things instead of just rushing from point A to point B, and to begin to introduce a broader understanding of just how many unique places surround us in New England. By simply venturing out and interacting with kids along the trail, we are building the skills they need to learn how to question things they see around themeverywhereand to look for answers.

Peter Gray, a Boston College research professor and expert on childrens play, encourages parents to include other kids on adventures. When you go on a hike or a trip, think about inviting other families or joining group hikes. Kids need other kids. This frees you, the adult, as well as your child, so you can interact with other adults. They can go ahead safely on the trail, and you dont have to go and amuse them because they are learning and playing with their peers. Dont try to cover too much groundstop and let them play wherever they are.

Natures bounty offers limitless creativity

Kids lead more structured lives today than ever before in history. I think youll be pleasantly surprised when you see how much they enjoy simply being set loose in wide-open spaces. I hope this guide will help you foster curiosity and a love of nature in the kids in your life and that it helps to raise our next generation of naturalists by putting the guidebook in their hands. Many of the adventures in this book provide a taste of treks kids may embark on as college students or adultsimagine them tackling a list like the one at 4000footers.com . New England has a proud tradition of marking trail maps with red pen each time you complete a hike. I encourage you to grab your own pen and mark your achievements in guidebooks and maps as your family grows up. Experiencing the wonders all around us creates lifelong habits of seeking out adventure, appreciating the gifts nature gives us every day, and caring about keeping our natural resources clean, beautiful, and accessible for future generations. All the scaffolds youll need to plan even more of your own adventures are here.