Nurture Hike

Aug 2010 Issue

by Dave Ellis
Our big family vacation this year was spent in Cache Valley, Utah. That place has it all if you are looking for cows and cow-related smells. Aside from farming there are some great hikes and these things called ‘trees’ that I forgot about since moving to the desert twenty years ago. The higher up the mountain you go the more trees there are!
Plus the more likely you’ll be attacked by BYU’s mascot!

During the planning stages of our trip it was decided to have creative (read: cheap) activities to help our family bonding. I would have thought spending nine hours in the car on the way up was enough bonding for anyone, but the wife is trying to make memories here. And boy what memories we made! We got to watch TV in a whole different time zone! Once my wife finally wrestled the remote from us we decided to take a hike.

For those that don’t know, my body is not designed for hiking. This is fifty percent my fault and fifty percent the
dollar menu’s fault. Luckily most of the hike was downhill so I let gravity work its wonders. Kids in tow, we tromped through the woods while admiring the trees, grass, dragonflies, rusted out cars and flowers. These were real woods! After about a mile my three-year-old got tired. That’s a long way to go with those little legs. That’s like me going a quarter of a mile (weight adjusted).

We did get a little lost only after the two youngest burned out and had to be carried uphill (darn you gravity!). Luckily we spotted the golf cart path and worked our way back to the resort. That was enough trailblazing for one day.

Rubbing my tired feet I started to think about my relationship with nature. I think I love the outdoors and then I get there and it’s not like the brochure at all. Most pictures of nature involve perfect lighting, filters and computer photo doctoring. Plus bugs live in nature and they have issues with personal space. Maybe I’m not as much of an outdoorsman as I thought. Maybe nature should stay outside where it belongs and let me continue my cushy indoor life.

On one hand I enjoyed our time at the river banks, even when we spooked a snake and then it spooked us and then a bug flew into my ear. I think it’s the imperfection of nature that gets to me. I like my nature Disney-tized: All grass blades the same height. No bugs, unless it’s a movie about bugs, and forest animals do your bidding like helping you get dressed or making you a sandwich. If I could have that kind of nature I would be singing up in the mountains while twirling around (yes I’m a copycat).

The most import thing is the memories for the kids. I’ve found that my children take whatever memories they have and totally blow them out of proportion, in a good way. I think that’s why we get disappointed when we physically retrace our nostalgia. It never lives up to the original moment. Those Disney moments with mom and dad were perfect, even the bug in dad’s ear.

All said and done my kids won’t remember every detail about the vacation but they will remember how they felt. I hope those feelings get passed down and never lose their potency.