A Trailside Guide: Parents' Guide to Hiking and Camping

by Alice Cary

This complete, practical, and unique guide is guaranteed to do just that, while ensuring that family outings are fun, safe, and memorable.Focusing on infants through pre-teens, it offers reassuring answers to parents' most-asked questions, including: How do I choose a child carrier that won't break my back? How far can a two-year-old hike? When will my kids be ready for backpacking? How can I entertain the kids on a rainy day in camp? What's the best piece of equipment to keep my child from getting lost? Chapters include: Family Adventure Gear, Games & Activities, Campsite Fundamentals, and Health & Safety. Also highlighted are successful strategies for hiking, backpacking, family cycling, canoeing, and car camping, with "Ages & Stages" sections zeroing in on age-specific issues.No responsible parent should hit the trail without consulting this groundbreaking guide.

272 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1997

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. For the poet, see Alice^^Cary.

Reviews

[Renee · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is very dated, which is troublesome just in the case of all the FMI resources (pre internet!!!!! Its full of *gasp* phone numbers!) and the books are all overy 20 years old. However(!), all the general info (food/nutrition, setting up and running a campsite, keeping kids entertained away from home) seems to hold up. Aaand it has some great essential wisdom that I really appreciated, like "don't overplan, outings should be fun not a struggle". My fave was the following simple reminder - "Don't expect too much from children. They're kids, not miniature adults. They're built differently, they work differently, they think differently."
Check it out from the library, give it a good once-over and then go online to someplace like Appalachian Mountain Club or the like for updated resources and links/info.