Our First Family Hike

From the moment we became parents, it became almost impossible to free time for traveling. In the past 3 years, our energy was depleted by activities such as changing diapers, preparing food, educating the children and preventing them from killing themselves.

We love hiking, but didn’t hike since our honey moon at China, back in 2016. In the past few weeks, we made the decision – we are going to hit the trail again.

With the 10 months old Aviv (~9 kg), it was a no-brainer. We buy a child carrier and either I or my wife act as the mule. With Yoav (2.8 years old, ~13 kg) there are more options. The first option is another child carrier. I will carry Yoav, Lihi will carry Aviv, and off we go. After some consideration, we understood that we won’t really enjoy hiking with such a big weight on our shoulders. I am a big guy, I might handle it, but for Lihi, this is not an easy feat.

So, we opted in for the second option – I carry Aviv, and Lihi walks with Yoav. It will limit us to short hikes, but it will also make Yoav stronger and allow him to experience hiking through his legs.

Once the second option was selected, I picked up a used Vaude child carrier. Someone offered it for 50 bucks, and I couldn’t pass the opportunity. Yes, it’s heavy, but it’s also pretty comfortable. Maybe I will upgrade to an Osprey child carrier, but for now – this will do it. The point is not to gear up, but to go out.

And this is exactly what we did. We found a small nature reserve with a circular trail of roughly 2.5 km, packed the child carrier with diapers, wipes, baby food, spare clothes, sandwiches, water and a whole more of things you need when you go out with toddlers, threw everything in the car and headed out.

Sounds simple, right? Took us 2.5 hours to get out from the front door…

After 30 minutes drive and another hour of waiting for Yoav and Aviv wake up, I put Aviv on my back, Lihi took Yoav by hand and we were on the trail!

The total time on the trail was about 2 hours – including half an hour stop for eating sandwiches and feeding Aviv with baby formula. But, it was our first family hike, and I am glad we experienced it. Yoav walked the whole distance without complaining, and Aviv just didn’t stop smiling and baby-talking behind my back.

My takeaway from this is that sometimes, you just have to make that first step. It wasn’t a long hike. It wasn’t a trek. It was a two hours family experience, with two toddlers. I am sure that if we do it enough, they will grow up loving hiking, respecting nature and enjoying outdoors.

Hiking family, out.