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February 2008 - Posts
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Here is this weeks roundup. Today we are looking at the recently published WACAP report on pollutants in our western National Parks, getting some tips on outdoor photography, and examining an article that points to an obvious design flaw in most outdoor programs for kids.
Photo of the Week
The photo of the week is titled Winter @ Yosemite National Park and was taken by Karamsingh via Flicker.com.
Polluted Parks
On the NPS website, the Western Airborne Contaminants Assessment Project (WACAP) published results of it's study on pollutants (mercury, DDT, PCBs) in western National Parks.
The project objectives were to:
- Determine if contaminants are present in western national parks
- If present, determine where contaminants are accumulating (geographically and by elevation)
- If present, determine which contaminants pose a potential ecological threat
- Determine which indicators appear to be the most useful to address contamination
- Determine the sources for contaminants measured at the national park sites
The results are not good. You can read the conclusions here
Outdoor Photography
Students of outdoor photography got a treat this week when the folks at Digital Photography School published a tutorial for low light photography and weather and landscape photography. This site always produces great stuff, but the low light photography course hit home for us. Our photos of the eclipse this last week had some room for improvement.
Outdoor Program Design Flaw
Eric Sharp at the Detroit Free Press made the argument in his column that programs aimed at getting kids outdoors are fundamentally flawed. They are doomed for failure because they generally focus on creating a single recreational opportunity for kids and not changing the habits of the adults.
This is critical because the adults provide the access and support required for subsequent recreational opportunities. You can pack the kids in a bus and take them fishing, but without the parental support the children don't have the access to continue.
I think that he is absolutely right. The first step in any outdoor recreation and leisure goal that includes kids involves the parent allocating the required time.
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You have your GPS and you are ready to start geocaching with your kids. You go to Geocaching.com and realize that there are 500000 caches to choose from. Where to begin??? Here are three tips for starting out on the right foot.
Make the First One Easy
My brother in law is the master of teaching children to fish. He takes them to a fishing hole that is loaded with trout and guarantees a catch within five minutes of casting. In doing this, he gives them the opportunity to be successful right away. This builds confidence and a desire to learn more.
Geocaching is no different. If you start with a cache that is too difficult and set the bar too high you create an opportunity for frustration. Save the hard caches for later. For the first cache select one with a low difficulty (1.5 or less) and easy accessible terrain (less than 2).
The low difficulty and terrain will provide an obtainable entry level goal. As an added bonus, large caches usually accumulate larger toys. This creates an opportunity for celebration when you achieve your goal and sets the stage for bigger challenges.
Teach Them to Trade Fair
Before you get to that first cache, have a discussion about trading items of equal value. In our experience, kids are tycoons by nature and trading a three cent trinket for a five dollar pack of AA batteries is an irresistible bargain. Make sure that you establish the like-for-like rules before you find the first cache.
Explain Travelbugs and Geocoins
Travelbugs and Geocoins are trackable items that move from cache to cache in order to achieve a specific goal. The owner of a trackable item will set the goal (circumnavigate the globe, go to ball parks, visit golf courses, etc.) For an example on Geocaching.com, click here.
With kids, you need to explain the concept that trackable items need to be given back before you actually find one. Trackable items are usually the biggest, shiniest, most desirable items you will find in a cache and you don't want to have to break the news that you can't keep them upon discovery.
If you follow these three tips, you'll be fine. Cache on.
More:
The Joy of Geocaching
Adventures of the Ohio State Buckeye Ball
An Interview with Michael Jacobus, Publisher of Geocaching Magazine
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The lunar eclipse, Urban Hiking, Citizen Science, Elk Watching in California, Quotes from Ansel Adams: Here is the roundup of our top 5 favorite outdoor links this week for you to enjoy.
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Lunar Eclipse:
The Lunar Eclipse from Feb 2008, from Sarnia Ontario Canada to the music of Louis Armstrong (Moon River).
City Hiking:
Modern Hiker ran an interesting story and photo about San Antonio's River Walk. We are big fans of San Francisco's Barbary Coast Trail and were happy to add another one (two if you include Boston's Freedom Trail) to the radar.
Citizen Science:
Birdfreak.com continues to publish great articles about how to become involved in citizen science projects that support birding. This is an excellent example of how outdoor recreation can be fused with education, a theme we care deeply about on this blog.
Elk Watching:
In the outdoor section of the San Francisco Chronicle, Tom Stienstra published a list of the best 5 places to watch elk in California:
"The best five places to see elk in Northern California are at Point Reyes National Seashore (two herds), Grizzly Island, Cache Creek Wildlife Area and Prairie Creek Redwoods Sate Park. Two other significant herds are located at Mount Hamilton and the San Antonio Reservoir watershed land (run by the San Francisco Water Department) near Sunol, but public access is either prohibited or very poor where the elk tend to congregate."
Ansel Adams Quotes:
Loyd at Yosemiteblog.com published a list of Ansel Adams quotes, this one is our favorite:
"In wisdom gathered over time I have found that every experience is a form of exploration."
-- Ansel Adams
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Much has been written about hiking with kids, particularly on the subjects of equipment and technique. In fact, one of the best articles on the subject was authored by Penny Schwyn and is posted here. However, an area worthy of more exploration lies in matching the right hike to the capabilities of a child. The method described here will help you choose the appropriate trail for that weekend family hike.
Have you ever been placed in a position where you are asked to do too much too quickly? A personal example was on my first trip skiing. After two trips down the bunny hill and a couple of minutes of instruction on the snowplow technique, I followed some friends up to the intermediate and expert slopes. In doing this, I learned a lesson about taking on unrealistic challenges.
The model above is designed to help parents prevent this type of situation from happening.
When you are introducing hiking as a new outdoor activity it is important to set attainable goals and avoid taking on too much too quickly. By taking the time to select the right hike, you can ensure that the experience is fun, confidence building, and successful.
How to Use This Model
The purpose of this model is to develop an understanding of your Childs capabilities. On the X axis we have represented distance and on the Y axis elevation gain. Together, these two dimensions compose an overall difficulty profile for a trail.*
By plotting the distance vs. elevation gain each time you hike with your child, you will begin to build a profile of your child's comfort zone.
Starting Out
The first time that you take your child on a hike, select a trail that has a low distance and low elevation gain. When you plot distancs vs. elevation gain on the grid, this point should land in the green zone. Even if you are only out for a short amount of time you want to ensure that success can be attained in the introductory period. The goal when you are starting out is to create a scenario with a high probability of success.
Subsequent Hikes
Keep track of your progress. On subsequent hikes, continue to plot the distance and elevation gain on the grid. Share the collective data with your child. You can use this model to set goals, develop skills and/or proficiency over time, and demonstrate improvement with practice.
If You Have a Problem
If a hike is too difficult, the model can also be used to help explain what went wrong. For instance, if the normal hikes that you take fall into a cluster on one area of the grid, and a new hike turns out to be too difficult because it had twice the distance or elevation gain, you can use the grid to demonstrate how it was different from other successful accomplishments. This is very important because by using the model to understand why a problem occurred, you can help prevent a bad experience from eroding confidence or souring the entire activity.
If you would like to use the graph above, simply right click the image and save to file. You can print the image using your favorite desktop publishing software (word, powerpoint, etc.)
For additional Trailmix.Net family hiking tips, click any of the links below:
5 Outdoor Activities That You can Start Today
Scouting A Trail Using Google Earth
Selecting A Hike for the Whole Family: Three Tips
How to Use the Rest Step To Climb Hills with a Child Carrying Pack
Coaching Children using the Concept of the Dip
*Note: For simplicity this graph ignores trail conditions. When hiking with children, you should also pay attention to the composition of the trail which can also be a factor in overall difficulty. For example, a rocky trail is much more difficult to navigate than one composed of packed dirt.
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Here is a list of our favorite family outdoor recreation links for the week. Enjoy!
Photo of the Week: Crater Lake National Park by Paraflyer
National Parks Attendance Drop
In last weeks roundup, this blog discussed the drop in National Park Attendance. Exploring this topic further, US News and World Report published an interview with Richard Louv titled "Why Kids Need a Big Dose of Nature".
Kids in the Outdoors
Connectwithkids.com published a video titled "missing out on outdoor play". It's not very long, but if you enjoyed the Louv interview, you might find this interesting as well.
NPS Website Upgrade:
Modern Hiker reported that the National Parks Service has started updating maps on park websites from the old Adobe PDF format to a flash interface. I always wonder how cool the NPS website could be if they upgraded their technology. Imagine the content a user supported web 2.0 NPS site would generate.... but I digress.
Citizen Science:
The Birdfreak team has been publishing all kinds of information about Citizen Science. What is citizen science? Citizen Science is a term used for a project or ongoing program of scientific work that involves volunteers who perform research related tasks such as observation, measurement, or computation. Learn more by clicking the links below:
Citizen Science - Tri Colored Blackbirds
Citizen Science - Project Feeder Watch
Citizen Science - Magpie Monitors
Members of the Birdfreak team are alumni and current students of Northern Illinois University. Our hearts and prayers go out to all those affected by the heartbreaking events.
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As we announced in the Trail Guide, we are in the process of adding to our outdoor education seminar portfolio.
In the next couple of weeks we will complete production of a seminar about Geocaching with Children and we will begin production of a seminar about Outdoor Safety. As always, Trailmix.Net outdoor education seminars are free to the public and can be downloaded here. Here is a summary of the near term production plan.
Geocaching with Children
This seminar is for parents who are interested in geocaching but don't know how to get started or might be intimidated by the technology and terms required to participate in the sport. In the seminar we explain:
- What you need to do before you go find a cache (obtaining technology, setting up an account, identifying a cache to find)
- How to find a geocache (selecting the first cache for your children, teaching children about fair trade)
- What you do after you find a geocache (logging your geocaches, managing travelbugs and other trackable items).
This seminar is about 70% complete and should be available in the next two weeks.
Outdoor Safety with Children
Our vision for this seminar is to construct a program for parents that will teach outdoor safety best practices with kids. The focus will be on preventative actions, safe practices with children in the backcountry, and what to do if an emergency happens.
Because of the importance of this topic, we are going to use some different development strategies than we have used in the past. One key difference is that we will be reaching out and engaging with experts in the field of outdoor safety using the Trailmix.Net forums.
Look for the project kickoff in early March. If you are interested in contributing you can register here.
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In Friday's weekly roundup, we linked to a study that reported that the world is experiencing a shift away from nature based recreation. Pundits have been proposing causal factors that range from video game abuse to fear of the outdoors to the creation of Google. Here's another one: the decline of the American vacation.
Decline of the American Vacation
I stumbled across a statistic this weekend that should give all working parents pause, only 14 percent of Americans are going to take a two or more week vacation this year. If that seems shocking, here's another one: in 2007, Americans failed to take 483 million vacation days.
Getting a decent dose of adventure these days requires a commodity as rare as a spam-less day: time off. It's vanishing before our eyes in an avalanche of shrinking company vacation policies, longer and more e-tool-besieged workweeks, and the frantic belief we've got too much to do to break away for something as unproductive as the experience of living.
Only 14 percent of Americans will take a vacation of two weeks or more this year. The standard holiday in the U.S. is now down to a long weekend. Read More At National Geographic Adventure.
Chronic Stress
Instances of work related chronic stress are climbing. This is bad news for vacation skippers because chronic stress doubles your risk of condition known as metabolic syndrome (expanding waistline, high blood pressure, and difficulty metabolizing glucose). Another study suggests that chronic stress pushes the risk of heart disease up by 68%
OK, there is no shortage of studies that tell us that chronic stress is bad, what do you do?
Our Solution: Take a vacation to visit a National Park
Over the next few months, this blog is going to start exploring the multitude of free educational opportunities offered by the National Park System, but before we go there it seems prudent to state the obvious: taking vacation time to load up the kids to visit a national park is a healthy thing for parents too because vacation is the cure for burnout (a nagging symptom of chronic stress).
By using the Trailmix.Net solution you can avoid contributing to the vacation wasting statistic, avoid contributing to the chronic stress statistic, and develop healthy recreational habits with your kids that will prepare them to manage stress in a healthy way.
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Here is a list of our favorite Family Outdoor Recreation links for the week of Feburary 4th, 2008. Enjoy!
Favorite Photo: Artists Viewpoint, Yellowstone National Park, by ebroskie1234 via flickr.com.
Scientific Analysis of National Park Visitation Decline:
I think that everybody has suspected this, but we now have conclusive scientific evidence that there is a fundamental shift away from nature based recreation.
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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
After 50 years of steady increase, per capita visits to U.S. National Parks have declined since 1987. To evaluate whether we are seeing a fundamental shift away from people's interest in nature, we tested ... visitation to various types of public lands in the U.S. and National Parks in Japan and Spain, (ii) number of various types of U.S. game licenses issued, (iii) indicators of time spent camping, and (iv) indicators of time spent backpacking or hiking... All four time series are in downtrends, .. suggest that typical declines in per capita nature recreation began between 1981 and 1991, are proceeding at rates of -1.0% to -1.3% per year, and total to date -18% to -25%.
..... In conclusion, all major lines of evidence point to an ongoing and fundamental shift away from nature-based recreation.
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More on National Park Visitation Decline
Scientific American looked at the same data and examined weather or not the declining trend was driven by fear of the outdoors in an article called "Are Americans Afraid of the Outdoors?" It is an interesting article, although the title is a little misleading in that the data suggests that it is an international trend, not just an American one.
Getting Outside With Kids
The Arizona Republic posted an article on ten ideas for playing outside more. We did a similar thing this week too.
Geocaching:
We interviewed Michael Jacobus, publisher of Geocacher Magazine, a new magazine dedicated to the sport of Geocaching.
Citizen Science:
The folks over at Birdfreak.com have a post that can help your kids become scientists by participating in the 2008 Great Backyard Bird Count.
Photo of the Week:
Glen Rainwater posted an awesome shot of 5 mule deer with an almost fall-color backdrop. Excellent shot Glen!
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It is an exciting time in the sport of Geocaching. At the time of this writing there are over 500,000 active caches worldwide and more than 40,000 account holders at Geocaching.com, the central hub of the sport. These are impressive numbers, but what is more impressive is the rate of growth. Before 2000, there were no geocaches.
We discovered geocaching while we were building Trailmix.Net and have grown to love the sport. Last week I noticed a comment that appeared on one of our blog posts from Michael Jacobus. I was delighted for two reasons: a) somebody was reading this blog and b) I recognized the name of the person that left the comment as somebody who is doing something important in the world of Geocaching.
For those of you who don’t know, Michael Jacobus is the publisher of Geocacher Magazine a brand new magazine dedicated to geocaching and the geocaching community. We corresponded by e-mail, and he was kind enough to answer some questions that I had about the magazine, his personal background, and his vision of the future.
I know you are a Geocacher, but what other life experiences compelled you to launch Geocacher Magazine?
I've been in sales and marketing my whole life, so I'm always coming up with ideas, some good, some great, some not-so ... As a father with 2 boys in scouting (I'm one of the scout leaders) I really took notice of how much they enjoyed receiving their individual copies of Boy's Life magazine each month. Since discovering geocaching in 2005, I enjoyed the time outside with my kids and their friends so much, I kept thinking to myself; "How could I find a way to do this every day?" That and the scouting magazine observation (and my meetings with Groundspeak to learn that a printed magazine was NOT part of their future plans) ... and Geocacher Magazine was born
As you weighed the pros and cons of launching the magazine, what factor was the tipping point that caused you to make the decision to commit?
I guess more than anything, my ongoing conversations with a friend and fellow geocacher who had been in the magazine publishing business for over 20 years. He is now the Dean of Journalism at a big university, but he has been down many of the roads I am now traveling and has offered invaluable insight and suggestions. Knowing I had that sort of "Ace in the Hole" and the confidence I have in my own marketing abilities, I would call the "tipping point".
What is your vision of the magazine five years from now?
Wow! I don't spend too much time planning more than a year ahead but I suppose it all depends on how the sport grows and the interest level from advertisers and subscribers. Increasing the size of the magazine (bigger than the current 68 pages) and the frequency (monthly rather than the current bi-monthly schedule) are both possibilities, but we'll really have to wait and see.
We noticed that Geocacher Magazine is a sponsor of Geowoodstock VI. What sort of presence will Geocacher Magazine have at the event?
We are producing the program for the event and will have at the very least a booth space or other "presence" at GWVI but as for specific promotions ... I can't divulge anything more than to say we are sponsoring two very specific things that are going to cause TONS of "buzz" and be lots of fun!
Our family recently subscribed to Geocacher Magazine, when can we expect the first issue?
Should be in the mail this week! As with most publication start-ups (so I'm told) we missed a few deadlines and had a few delays but it’ll be well worth the wait! Thanks for subscribing!
If you would like to learn more about Geocacher Magazine, you can take a peek inside here. Good luck Mike, we wish you the best!
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We are working hard to launch our first product (The Yosemite National Park Scavenger Hunt) but it is still a couple of months away... until then, I thought that I would recap some of the other family outdoor recreation activities that we have explored in the Trailmix.Net blog.
Photo Credit: Majorvol via flickr
Here they are:
Geocaching with Kids
Geocaching has been described as a high tech Easter egg hunt that uses billion dollar military satellites to hide and seek Tupperware in the woods. We have done some empirical studies (365 finds at the time of this writing) and have concluded that this is one of the most fun outdoor activities that parents with children can pursue. Read The Joy of Geocaching for a detailed account of our discovery of this remarkable sport.
Hiking with Kids
Simple and straightforward. Get some shoes, pack some sandwiches and find a trail. Hiking with kids is not only good for the kids but it has a way of slowing down the world for the adults too. If you are stressed out and looking for a relaxing activity that you can enjoy right now with your children, look no further.
Advanced users can scout a trail using Google Earth. And if you are really looking for a cardio challenge you can learn how to use the rest-step to climb hills with a child carrying backpack by clicking this link.
Wildlife Watching with Kids
Here is another activity that you can do with minimal upfront cost. Again, you just need some shoes and a green area. The key to watching wildlife with kids doing your homework before you go. This can be done by purchasing a field guide, visiting the right web pages on the internet, or visiting a library. Remember to keep the wild things wild.
Birding with Kids
Our friends over at Birdfreak.com recently published a guide to birding with kids which is worth a read if you are looking to take up birding. Actually, if you are into birding their blog is worth a visit. I am very new to this sport and pretty much everything that I know I learned from these fine folks. Highly recommended.
Snowshoeing with Kids
We recently posted a list of winter safety tips for enjoying wintertime outdoor recreation with kids. Be sure to give it a onceover before you head out. Also, if you are in the market, we also did a gear review on Atlas Jr. Snowshoes. We didn't receive any kickbacks or reward from the Atlas Snowshoe company for writing this, we genuinely like their products.
So that's it. Five activities that you can start with your children today. Start one up, your kids will love it.
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Are our educational priorities fundamentally flawed? This video suggests that the system of the past might be inadequate to prepare children for the future.
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Back in October we linked to a SF Chronicle article that explored why visitation to National Parks by young people is on a downward trend. The author interviewed a 46-year-old Mill Valley mother of two teenage girls. She suggested that one reason that kids these days don't have the time to get out into nature is because they need to focus on producing good grades so that they can be accepted into college.
In that blog post, I made the argument that studying the natural sciences in an outdoor setting kick starts the imagination. A child learning a subject such as wildlife biology, botany, or history in a national park, state park or wilderness area is actually learning the subject in context. Our Yosemite National Park Scavenger Hunt is based upon this concept... but that is a completely different topic.
The video below is a presentation given by Sir Ken Robinson that takes my argument to the next level. Robinson states that the entire educational system if flawed because it stifles creativity by failing to allow children to explore ideas and concepts outside of its formal, prioritized structure.
While I don't agree with everything that Robinson says, I think that we are essentially saying the same thing: parents and educators are missing opportunities to develop children by prioritizing the structure of formal education over unstructured experiences that allow creativity to flourish.
What do you think?
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Here's this weeks Friday roundup. The Friday roundup is a short list of our favorite stories and blog posts that were published this week.
Louv Wins Award:
Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods (a groundbreaking book about the disconnect between children and the outdoors), wins the 50th annual Audubon award.
Fishers in Olympic NP:
Over at the National Parks Traveler Blog, Kurt Repanshek blogged about the re-introduction of fishers to Olympic National Park. I have spent a fair amount of time in WA and OR and had no idea what a fisher is. If you don't know, you can learn about them here.
Yellowstone Photo:
Gale Rainwater Photography posted a photograph of the upper Yellowstone Falls on the Yellowstone River. The detail and color are amazing.
Winter Safety:
A Trailmix.Net post about winter outdoor safety elicited a surprising response from one reader that caused me to pause and wonder how my communication is being received by other readers of the blog (comments are welcome).
Photography:
Digital Photography School provided some tips on flash compensation in winter sports photography. The photos produced using these techniques are excellent.
Birding:
Birdfreak.com recommended Audubon's new Backyard Birdwatch booklet as an introductory guide for kids 8-15 who are beginning birders (and also as a way to get ready for the Great Backyard Bird Count).
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