Colorado Outdoor Bill of Rights for Kids!

Colorado Lt. Governor Barbara O’Brien recently announced the Colorado Outdoor Bill of Rights for kids. Help your children achieve their rights on an Avid4 Adventure Family Camping Trip. Her goal through this initiative is that ALL Colorado kids should have the opportunity to:

1. Camp out under the stars.
2. Follow a trail, ride it or walk it, and be respectful of everyone’s right to use the trail.
3. Play in a creek or river: fish, wade, paddle, or skip a stone.
4. Experience the wonders of Colorado’s four seasons: wildflowers, abundant sunshine, the changing aspen leaves, and fresh powder snow.
5. Visit a working farm or ranch.
6. Enjoy the view from the top of a mountain.
7. Identify Colorado’s official state wildlife and plants in their natural habitat.
8. Explore one of the dozens of local, state, and national parks in Colorado.
9. Play in the dirt and learn about the world from the ground up.
10. Plant a seed for other Colorado kids to enjoy in the future.

Avid4 Adventure is proud to support the Lt. Governor in her mission and encourage all parents, schools, organizations, and communities to help all children achieve their Colorado outdoor rights.

Mountain Biking with your Family

Looking for an activity that your whole family can do together? Mountain biking is a great option. Together, you can ride miles of trails and experience nature in a way you never have before. Many mountain bike trails in and around Boulder County offer amazing scenic viewpoints along the way where you and your family can stop, take in the breathtaking views, and enjoy a well-earned snack. Trails are ever-changing, which will keep the excitement factor high for both you and your kids. If your child cannot get enough with you, check out an Avid4 mountain biking intensive. Or, if your child wants to develop advanced skills in a one-day program, sign up for our brand new Extreme Adventures.

Mountain biking is also a fun, intense, full-body workout. While pedaling works out your heart and lungs, climbing, descending, and riding through rough terrain works out muscles in the legs, core, arms, and chest. For growing children especially, mountain biking is a great way to start an active, exciting, healthy lifestyle that can last a lifetime.

Gear and skills you will need: First, make sure everyone in your family has a mountain bike (with knobby tires) and a helmet. It’s especially important that your bikes are durable enough to handle trails. Any local bike shop should be able to help you ensure this. Other items that are important to have on a ride are enough water (one water pack per person is a good idea), food for when you get hungry, gloves, eye protection, and trail maps. When you get more involved and go on longer bike trails, it is important that you have the proper skills and tools to fix a breakdown. Bike shops around town offer maintenance classes to teach you bike repair fundamentals. Make sure to carry a multi-tool, air pump, spare tube, and patch kit in case of a flat tire or other glitch.

Getting ready and getting on the trail: If you or your children have never ridden off-road before, make sure you’re all comfortable with more bumpy terrain. You can start to do this by riding on grass. Once you’re comfortable with the feeling, try riding on gravel paths (like those at the end of the Boulder Creek Path). When you’re ready, you can then move up doubletrack dirt trails, like those at Marshall Mesa’s Community Ditch Trail. Then, slowly work your way up to easier singletrack dirt trails. Once your whole family is ready and feeling a little adventurous, there is a wide selection of more technical trails throughout Boulder County. Be aware that these trails may include obstacles such as rocks, roots, and tight switchback turns, so make sure everyone’s really ready before you go.

Wherever you go, make sure that mountain bikes are allowed on the trails that you choose. Also, on multi-use trails, make sure everyone in your family stays to the right of the trail, and yields to horses and hikers. Additionally, if you are going downhill, uphill mountain bikers have the right-of-way. For an idea of what trails are in the area, see below. You can also go to www.mtbr.com for listings and reviews of trails throughout the country with their skill levels. Local bike shops also have lots of information about trails and group rides.

Keeping your kids excited: When mountain biking with children, it’s important to start out small and not to push them to hard. Make sure, above all, that they’re having fun. If they are, they’re much more likely to purse the activity and keep going at it. Also, if you know the trail well and you know your kid can handle it, let him/her lead the way for a little bit!

Some local trails:
- Boulder Creek Path/Canyon Trail (paved/gravel)
- Bobolink Trail (mostly gravel)
- Marshall Mesa trail system (doubletrack/singletrack)
- Flatirons Vista (smooth singletrack)
- Betasso Preserve (technical singletrack)
- Heil Ranch (technical singletrack)
- Hall Ranch (technical singletrack)

World-class destinations within striking distance of Boulder include Moab, Fruita, Steamboat Springs, and Crested Butte. Check out an Avid4 Family Trip to any of these premier destinations.

Tsvi Bieler is a great new addition to the team at Avid4 Adventure. He is an avid mountain biker, snowboarder, and all-around outdoor enthusiast.

Hiking with Kids

The most important thing to realize if you want to take your children hiking is… NEVER take your children “hiking.” In a child’s optimistic worldview, the word “hiking” has already developed a depressing, negative connotation. Kids WILL explore, collect, scavenge, investigate, transform, etc. but very few will hike. Not just kids, either… after all, would you rather hike to that peak or transform yourself to the top of the world? Would you rather hike to a waterfall or explore somewhere that no one ever has? Now, I’ll be the first to admit that Front Range children are a different breed than the rest of the world (and I’m reminded nearly every time I climb with Avid 4 boys and girls, check out Avid4 Adventure's Climbing Weekend or Climbing Intensive), but I have hiked with hundreds of children over the last decade with Avid4 Adventure, including many of yours, and I have realized quite a few things: summiting 14ers is not a goal of most school-age children, above tree-line is boring, and heavy packs do more too upset kids than a strict substitute teacher (one of my many roles). So, “hiking” with children should be the ultimate in creating a positive relationship with the outdoors, and it won’t be long before your children are asking you to accompany them on a walk in the woods.
Ten Games to Play on a Secret Mission Into the Wild (language is vital):

1. Find a river, stream, brook, crick, or puddle, and encourage your kids to construct a boat of things from nature. Of course, be mindful of Leave No Trace and choose only things already on the ground.
2. In the spirit of our childhood… lie on your backs, look into the sky, and see what shapes, animals, and scenes you can devise in the clouds.
3. Scurry ahead of your children every few minutes and place silly objects in tough-to-find places… excellent for improving kids’ nature awareness.
4. Bring along paper and some crayons, and have your children make maps of the areas that they are exploring.
5. Invest in a compass and topo map of the area (sorry GPS fans)… it’s amazing the joy children take in shooting bearings and orienting themselves to a map.
6. Devise a scavenger hunt with your child before hitting the trail and see how many things your kids can discover.
7. Have your children pick their favorite animal (or make up a creature) and have them create its habitat out of natural elements.
8. Use a stick to create tracks in the dirt of all of the animals that live in the area that you’re investigating. Pull out a real tracking card to see how close you came to the real prints.
9. Hold a piece of paper up to various tree barks and color over the paper with a brown crayon… it’s amazing that all trees have different prints, just like all people have different fingerprints. If you have access to a stethoscope, listen to the beats of different trees.
10. Since we all have our 1st aid kits handy, stage a few first aid scenarios where your children are the rescue personnel and need to administer and learn basic wilderness medicine.

Most important, when your child is ready to be done… be done! Encouragement is great and setting goals are important, but nothing will make a kid more resistant to wilderness than a parent who does not realize when to turn around. Have a nice exploration!

Kyle Littman is a Camp Director for Avid4 Adventure and currently resides in Boulder, CO. Hiking with kids remains his passion because he truly believes that it is the ultimate way for children to develop a positive relationship with the outdoors. For questions, comments, or more ideas, please email his at kyle@avid4.com.