You can make kids hike, but you can’t make them hikers
If you grew up with family members who pushed (or dragged) you onto the trail, chances are you have strong memories associated with hiking. Epic vistas… swarms of black flies… and your dad’s terrible homemade gorp.
Whether you grow up to see them as personal triumphs or family fiascos, those early adventures can shape your perception of the outdoors for life.
Can parents shape kids into hardcore hikers? And what happens when your best-laid plans go off the map?
Featuring Sarah Lamagna, Nick Capodice, Daisy Curtin, Niles Lashway, Sarah Raiche, Tiffany Raiche, and Phineas Quimby
Writer Sarah Lamagna with her six-year old son Everett at Lonesome Lake in Franconia Notch, NH.
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LINKS
If you liked Sarah Lamagna’s tips on how to hike with children, you’ll find more in her recently published guidebook.
CREDITS
Host: Nate Hegyi
Reported, produced, and mixed by Taylor Quimby
Edited by Rebecca Lavoie
Our staff includes Justine Paradis and Felix Poon.
Executive producer: Taylor Quimby
Rebecca Lavoie is NHPR’s Director of On-Demand Audio
Music by Blue Dot Sessions, The New Fools, and SINY.
Our theme music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.
Outside/In is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio
If you’ve got a question for the Outside/Inbox hotline, give us a call! We’re always looking for rabbit holes to dive down into. Leave us a voicemail at: 1-844-GO-OTTER (844-466-8837). Don’t forget to leave a number so we can call you back.
Audio Transcript
Note: Episodes of Outside/In are made as pieces of audio, and some context and nuance may be lost on the page. Transcripts are generated using a combination of speech recognition software and human transcribers, and may contain errors.
Hey, hey hey. This is Outside/In. I’m Taylor Quimby, in for Nate Hegyi, who was out on vacation when I was working on this episode.
Before he left though, I pulled Nate into the studio and asked him some questions.
Taylor Quimby: When you were growing up, did your parents, like, drag you out on hikes or walks or, like, out into the woods?
Nate Hegyi: No, I wouldn't say dragged.
The reason I’m asking is that my only child is nearing 13 years old.
It’s an age where you can feel your sphere of influence waning.
And I’ve been wondering lately - how much does your family really shape who you grow up to be?
Taylor Quimby: Are they pretty outdoorsy?
Nate Hegyi: Like, this is way too much TMI. But I know for a fact that I was conceived in a van in the mountains. So that kind of tells you everything you need to know. Yeah.
[mux]
Nate’s family hails from British Columbia - and every summer, his folks would ship him off to Vancouver Island to spend time with relatives.
This one time, his uncle took him on a 40-mile hiking trip.
Nate Hegyi: And there was one night we were camping in his van and just out on this logging road, and all of a sudden we hear like rustling in the bushes nearby, and I start panicking and he's like, no, it's a it's a bear. And I start really panicking when he says it's a bear…And I remember I also got a bunch of blisters on that hike. And I had a camera that my dad had borrowed me, that I dropped into a stream, and then I lied about it to him and it wasn't working. I was like, “I don't know why it's not working. I don't know what happened.” That was… a very imprinted in me as being a suffer fest.
Taylor Quimby: I don't know if you're a Calvin and Hobbes fan, um, but like anything like that, his dad is always like, it builds character. Like they go camping and it rains the whole time and it builds character.
Nate Hegyi: Builds character, yeah.
Taylor Quimby: And I'm actually like… not sure. Does it build character or or not? Because some some people they go through that and they're like I'm out.
Nate Hegyi: I think it depends on the character, whether it builds character. You know.
[mux swell and fade]
Taylor Quimby: Do you think your parents fostered your outdoorsyness in you, or do you think that's you?
Nate Hegyi:They did.100%. They and my uncle and my grandparents. I can mark the memories of like, this is awesome and this sucks, but mostly like, this is awesome. You know, even that suffer-fest of a hike with my uncle. It all kind of cemented an awe and an excitement for for getting outdoors. I would say them 100%.
[mux]
But here’s my question. If your family gets 100 percent credit for your love of the outdoors… is it also 100% their fault if you grow up to hate it?
Daisy Curtin: Hiking is like going for a walk, and just like tripping. Every ten minutes.
Tiffany Raiche: She’s like we just gotta turn around… and I was like absolutely not.
Today on Outside/In, we’re exploring stories of people navigating nature AND family dynamics: Can you shape your kids into hardcore hikers?
Sarah Lamagna: I just drove 2.5 hours to this trailhead. We are making it to the end.
And what happens when you’re best-laid plans go off the map?
Nick Capodice: It was actually a really sad story. All my other [bleeped] my pants stories are funny, but it was a really sad time.
[mux swell and fade]
A few years ago, I went through a big hiking phase.
I was newly divorced. Every other weekend was wide open.
So I’d drive up to the mountains and climb, sometimes 10,12 miles in one go.
I discovered that I loved the way my inner monologue faded away on the trail, the way my muscles ached on the drive home.
But hiking with my son back then was a very different story.
They were tiny excursions. Constant stopping. It was like ordering a big desert, and only being allowed to take a bite. My heart rate felt like it never left the parking lot.
So I started to come up with a kind of multi-year road map. A set of principles to shape him into a person who likes hiking the way I like hiking.
And it turns out I’m not the only parent to do this.
Taylor Quimby: Tell me what you had for breakfast.
Sarah Lamagna: I had cinnamon toast, because it’s just what Everret did not eat.
Taylor Quimby: Oh my God, I know, right? It's like you've just become a garbage disposal for your children's leftovers.
Sarah Lamagna: Leftovers, strawberries, a little bit of yogurt, some granola.
So this is Sarah Lamagna. She’s an ecologist turned freelance writer. Her first book is a guide called “Hiking with Kids in New England.”
And if you flip through it, you’ll see it’s peppered with pictures of her and her son Everett, who is now six years old.
Sarah Lamagna: I always told people and myself, maybe I was trying to convince myself at some point that I would never revolve my life around my kid, that my kid would be come a part of our lives. And wow, did that blow up in my face.
Hiking with anybody is a relationship stress test.
But hiking with kids is all the hardest parts of parenting distilled into a single activity.
There are no distractions. You can’t park your kids in front of an iPad.
You still have to manage all of their bodily functions - only without the benefit of a toilet or sink.
And there are all sorts of elements outside your control. Literal elements - rain, cold, wind sun.
And like all parenting, you’re trying to ride the line between not making your kids hate you… and still pushing them to persevere.
Even when you know you’re doing the right thing, it can feel like torture for everyone involved.
[mux]
There are no silver bullet to making it all work. But there are a few tips that Sarah thinks can smooth the process.
Sarah Lamagna: I call them the five shuns the t I o n's. So the first one is transportation.
Feel free to take notes.
Sarah Lamagna: I realize your kid can hike up whatever mountain in crocs. Good for you. My kid cannot
I’m not a shill for the outdoor industry, but I can confirm: good gear makes a difference, especially on kids.
Sarah’s 2nd shun is another safety must. “Insulation.”
Sarah Lamagna: I would put socks on his hands and then put gloves over or mittens over his hands.
Layers, layers, layers, folks.
Sarah Lamagna: Then, third one is distraction.
Taylor Quimby: Distraction is kind of the scavenger hunt model, which is don't assume that the hike itself is a means to an end.
Sarah Lamagna: Is like entertainment for them, it won't be at all. we bring a kid friendly camera….And he could chuck it anywhere he wanted. And it was pretty much indestructible.
Shun #4 is an obvious one.
Sarah Lamagna: Motivation.
Bring candy.
Sarah Lamagna: He's very food driven. He’s like a dog. And so I would say if you make it to a trail blaze before I do, you can have a gummy bear. But the problem with gummy bears, at least for my kid, is that backed him up for like three days afterward. And it was terrible. And so I learned to do M&Ms, which was a little bit better and way cheaper.
And the final shun: is celebration.
[mux fades]
Could be a thermos of hot cider, could be a matchbox car. But the point here is, most young kids don’t care about the view… at all
So give them something else to make sure it feels like a win.
Sarah Lamagna: My kids only six, so he’s still kind of learning. And he could do… the biggest hike he’s been on is six miles, and he did all of that on his own, I didn’t carry him at all.
Taylor Quimby: That’s strong!
Sarah Lamagna: That’s real strong, it wasn’t a huge amount of elevation gain, but it’s these little increments throughout the six, I mean, he’s been hiking since he was six weeks old, that was his first hike. Every time someone says, how do I get hiking with my kids? I just say, start yesterday. Like, that's it's just like planting trees. Like, how do we save the world and we plant trees? Well, we should have planted trees 50 years ago.
[mux]
This all seems to have worked for our kids. They both claim to enjoy hiking. Brag about it even.
But to a lot of parents listening right now, Sarah and I probably sound insufferable.
And that’s because every new parent is conducting a social experiment with a sample size of one.
And the results of that study are very rarely replicable.
[00:14:04-00:14:32] You know, it's not like spicy food. You can't, like, subject them to it at an early age, and then they'll develop a tolerance for it. If they don't like it, they don't like it.
This is my friend and colleague, Nick Capodice.
And you know what? I didn't like hiking as a kid. I really didn't, and I did it all the damn time, like all the time with both my parents on two different continents. So like, I just never had a good time doing it. And I think it was that early subjection to it that maybe turned me off of it in my adulthood.
[mux]
That story in just a minute.
Taylor Quimby: So you you never had a hike where you.. Pushed it a little bit? Because you… Because you wanted something?
Sarah Lamagna: Oh, I definitely have. Yeah.
Welcome back to Outside/In. I’m producer Taylor Quimby, taking over for Nate while he’s on vacation. And today we’re talking about hiking, and family dynamics.
Sarah Lamagna: I mean, you'd like to think that you're selfless the minute you have a child, but no, that has not happened to me yet. I am still very selfish. I just drove 2.5 hours to this trailhead. We are making it to the end.
[mux]
Very rarely, you meet someone who hikes exactly like you. They keep the same pace.They like to talk just as much or as little as you do. And when you find that person, it feeks like the miles practically walk themselves.
But more often than not, hiking is a negotiation of wills. Someone is the pusher, someone is the one being pushed.
Sarah Lamagna: Why are we here? Why am I doing this? When are we going to get to the top? When is this over?
Throw family dynamics into the mix, and a casual walk in the woods can turn into an episode of Lost.
So for the rest of the episode, we’re going to explore what happens when expectations don’t line up…
And we’re starting with my friend Nick.
Nick Capodice: So when I was, uh, about seven years old, my mom and I moved to New Zealand. So she moved to another country for the rest of my life, and I'd only see her, like, once every couple of years or so. And then one big stint when I was 12, I visited her for a year in New Zealand
This was a pretty tough time for Nick. And probably for his Mom, too.
Nick Capodice: We were all kind of like, navigating. Who is this person? Both of us thinking that of the other.
Nick was an indoor kid. He was homesick for the states, and whiling away the hours watching the Adventures of the Gummi Bears on TV. His Mom - more of an adventurer - decides he needs more outdoor time.
Nick Capodice: So after dinner one night, she insisted we go out for a hike. Uh, and, um. And I was like, sure. You know, that sounds like a fine idea.
Now hiking in New Zealand is quite literally, the stuff of fantasy. It’s where they shot the Lord of the Rings. I’ve dreamed of going there myself.
And right inside the city of Wellington, where they lived, is a horseshoe shaped ring of wilderness trails called The Greenbelt.
Nick Capodice: It is glorious, it is glorious. And the Shire is where my where her house was when I was a kid. That's where they filmed all the Shire scenes.
Taylor Quimby: Oh my god.
[mux]
Nick Capodice: And about 20 minutes into the hike, you know, we'd gotten to just sort of the woodsy area, uh, I really, like, really badly, uh, had to go to the bathroom. And to be fair Taylor, this happens to me a lot when I go hiking. I’m kind of known amongst my friends as someone who doesn't have to go the bathroom, and then instantly it’s an emergency.
So I asked my mom. I was like, hey, can we. I got a turn back, you know, I really have to go to the bathroom. And, uh, she utterly refused. She said, no, you know, we're going on this hike and we're going to do it. And I said, okay, because I'm not I'm not really one for conflict.
Now, if you’ve ever pooped in the woods, you know it’s preceded typically by an agonizing silent deliberation. Was there a port-potty in the parking lot? Can I make it down? If I can’t, what am I using for toilet paper?
The anxiety has objectively ruined a hike for me, as an adult.
Now imagine you’re 12.
Nick Capodice: And by the time, uh, everything got. Very serious. We had left the forest and we were back in a neighborhood of of houses and Wellington. Ah. Um, yeah. And there was no stores, there were no bars. There was nowhere I could go and there were no, no trees. Um, and I said, you know, this is an emergency. And I remember her very clearly saying, just just pinch it together, dude. Just pinch it together and keep it together.
And I tried that and it didn't work. And I, you know, I shat my pants terribly, colossally in the middle of the city of Wellington. And, uh, she said, what happened? And I remember saying, well, what do you think, mother? What do you think?
[mux shift]
And I went home, went home and took my clothes off and tried to throw them in the washing machine by myself to sort of hide it from my mom. It was one of the it was actually a really sad story. All my other shitting my pants stories are funny, but it was a really sad time because neither of us wanted this to happen. And it was kind of a wonderful representation of where we were in our relationship.
As you might expect from this story, adult Nick is not a hiker. We’ve been friends for years, but I don’t think we’ve ever been in the woods together.
Nick Capodice: I think the magic is gone for hiking for me. And that's a little sad, but, uh. That's the truth. I think it was that early subjection to it that maybe turned me off of it in my adulthood.
Taylor Quimby: You know, this being said, Nick. You know. Yeah. As as parents. Now, we both also understand the desire to get your kids into the stuff that you love. Partially, you know, to share this thing you love, but also for the selfish reason of wanting to be able to do it. You and I both have like introduced our kids to board games.
Nick Capodice: Oh my goodness, yes.
Taylor Quimby: And you know, sometimes when you're like when you're pushing it, you know.
Nick Capodice: [laughs] Yeah. That literally happened yesterday for me. Yeah I pushed it a little hard. But, uh, you know, I you know what though, I got to say, I got to say it's such a tender balance, Taylor. You know, I think, you know, I've had tremendous success at, uh, getting my one of my kids interested in board games. And I think that is because you gotta not just make them do the thing, but you have to express constantly your love for it and why you love it and why it means so much to you.
And that means the kid will want to do it to sort of make you a little happy. But if they don't like it, they'll let you know. But if you're open about, you know, I love doing this so much, um, then you're going to be a little more likely, I think, to have the kid try it. But you got to listen. If they don't like it, you just can't. Yeah, you can't win them all.
[mux]
Physical injuries. Emotional scars. Any kind of bad experience can turn a young person off to something like hiking.
But for some kids, the dislike of hiking is more fundamental.
Taylor Quimby: Daisy, how much did your mom tell you about why we're chatting?
Daisy: About, um, about my love for hiking?
Taylor Quimby: Yeah. Um, I'm guessing that was kind of sarcastic.
Daisy: Yeah. I don't like hiking. At all.
This is Daisy. She’s thirteen years old, the baby of a big blended family.
I zoomed with her while her Mom Mary Elizabeth sat next to her on the couch. And she had the glazed expression of a youngest child who has seen it all.
Taylor Quimby: What's the first time you remember hiking at all as an activity?
Daisy: Um, probably Acadia National Park. And it was. What's it called? Bumble bee hive?
Mary Elizabeth: The bee hive.
Daisy: The beehive at Acadia. And I just remember I hated it and I was like, yeah, five years old.
Taylor Quimby: And okay, so, so like, you remember it from a pretty young age.
Daisy: Oh, we're hiking family. So it started off really young and I hated it really young.
My sister actually wrote her college essay about her love for hiking. Um, and my whole family, they all love it. So it's actually really hard for me. They're like, why don't you like it? They go on hikes like all summer, into the winter. And they love it.
Taylor Quimby: Can you explain what you don't like about it? Or is it just like a thing that you know?
Daisy: Okay, so you just combined rocking or walking with like, the fear of tripping over roots every three seconds. And most of the time the scene is like, you sit there for like five minutes, you're like, okay, this is cool. And then you walk back down. When you could just like look at a picture or like drive. Most of the trails have a way to drive up the mountain. So it's not really like the fear of getting lost and killed in the middle of the woods.
Like if I wanted to go rock climbing, I could go rock climbing. If I wanted to go for a walk. I’d just go for a walk.
Mary Elizabeth: And that's the funny part about you, Daisy, is she has rock climbed like, a lot like. Like on cliffs. She skis like. So she does all these things on the side of mountains but doesn't like to hike.
Daisy: Yeah, I rock climb. I love sports, I love mountains, I love being outside. Mountains are so beautiful. I hate hiking.
Taylor Quimby: So do you think that even if kids don’t like hiking maybe it’s a good thing for kids to be pushed into these situations, to see if they’re into it? Or do you think you shouldn’t force it if a kids really not into it.
Daisy: I feel like it’s a good thing to make children try new things. You know, like your taste buds change every couple years. Kids interest do that too. So like, once a year I’ll let them force me to go on a hike.
Taylor Quimby: Yeah.
Daisy: Nothing’s changed but sometimes, sometimes things do change. So at least once a year. Or like, you know how they’re like “take a couple bites of your vegetables and then you can be done.” Like that. Let’s just go for a one mile hike, in six months, and then you can be done for the rest of the year. Just one hike.
Taylor Quimby: Daisy, if you if you ever do a 180 and you decide that you love hiking, I want you to try and get back in touch with me and let me know, okay?
Daisy: I will immediately let you know, because I'm pretty sure I'll be so much more shocked than you if that ever happens in my lifetime.
[mux]
Niles Lashway: So some of my first memories were actually hiking, climbing on the rocks along those rapids there. And I was probably like 7 or 8 years old.
Our next story of hiking and family comes from this guy: Niles Lashway. I met him on a Facebook group for people who climb New Hampshire’s highest peaks. People post trail conditions, pictures, argue about crowds and gear.
I posted a message there, asking for family hiking stories - and he sent me back a message that was different than all the others.
Niles Lashway: It was definitely wasn't something I was afraid of. Like I was never afraid of going into the woods, going to n ature, you know, um, which I, you know, has been a challenge for other people of color.
Niles grew up in Virginia. That’s where the rocks and rapids he remembers climbing were.
But before that he and his family traveled all over the world. His parents were diplomats for the State Department.
Back in the 70s, when they first got married, they were posted in Pakistan, and hiked all through the Himalayas.
So they brought Niles up to appreciate the outdoors. And as he got older, it started to become a big part of his personality.
And then one day, he was out with some friends in the Boston area.
Niles Lashway: I think we were doing, like, a Halloween, like, night hike, you know, and this was in one of the more, um, people of color centered, uh, communities areas. And I had this black family thing. Oh, black people don't hike. I remember them specifically saying that, you know, as they're pushing their kid in the stroller like black people don't hike. Um, and that was when it kind of stuck with me.
Niles is an adoptee. He’s black. His parents are white.
Taylor Quimby: Did it, like, make you rethink you know like your childhood? Or, like, how did it affect you.
Niles Lashway: A little bit in terms of like. Yeah, like, oh, like I started thinking about like kind of the reasons why the inequities around it, you know.
For Niles, his parents taught him to love the outdoors. But he’s had to relearn what that actually means as a biracial man.
Especially when he lived in Pennsylvania, and started hiking a lot on and near the Appalachian Trail.
Niles Lashway: And that is when I started to notice the challenges faced by the outdoor community around hiking. You know, the models and all that kind of stuff you see on the advertisements tend to be white. The, um, employees in the outdoor stores tend to be white.
In some of those communities, you would see Confederate flags, you would see bumper stickers like ammo cost money. I don't give warning shots, you know.
And as a person of color in a community where there's very, very few people that look like me. Look, I was petrified of like going down the wrong, taking the wrong turn, or having my car break down and having to ask for directions
Taylor Quimby: it's almost like the isolation that a lot of people are looking for on a hiking experience. Right? I'm trying to, like, get away. You can just take that exact same thing that people are seeking and, like, turn it on its head.
Niles Lashway: Especially when there's people that don't look like you, that don't necessarily know your experiences. And I'm the first to say I grew up in privilege. Like I was not wanting for means, but people still see me as a black man and I would still get looks. I would still get people acting differently around me.
Nowadays, Niles and his wife live in Massachusetts - and he hikes a lot in the White Mountains. He says he sees less confederate flags. With the emphasis on less.
Taylor Quimby: I mean, have you talked to your parents about your experiences? Like, do they understand, uh, this, this perspective that you're putting out or is that hard for them?
Niles Lashway: We had a strained relationship when I was growing up in high school because of the dynamics around, like, identity issues and stuff, I was a very angry teenager. Um, but like, they like all my hiking posts on Facebook. Um, but I don't necessarily know, as, you know, a white family, they can truly get it. Like they can get it on an intellectual level, but I don't know if they can get it on a like. emotional, intellectual level.
Taylor Quimby: Do you do you wish that your parents had talked to you about what it means to be a person of color, uh, on a hiking trail or in the woods, or are you glad that, like, you were, you know, you you were exposed to something without that...
Niles Lashway: Yes and no. Like. Yes. Do I wish they did? Um, yeah. But at the same time, like how do. How would a white family talk to the adoptive black son about being black? You know, especially in the trails, you know, it seemed like an impossible task. Um. But maybe they could have done something to, like, expose me to other people of color. Like, I really didn't know that many black people growing up. But yeah, at the same time, the mountains don’t care the people are that are walking up and down the slope.
Niles says he’s got good memories being outside as a kid. And he still hikes with his parents every now and then. They were supposed to do Monadnock a few years ago, but he sprained his ankle.
He doesn’t have any kids of his own. But he works at a non-profit that does violence prevention, helping gang-involved kids get their high school diplomas.
Niles Lashway: I work with 17 to 25 year olds. Um, and some of them are really excited. Some of them are like, hell, hell no.
I actually have one young adult who just messaged me, the other like last week saying, hey, I really enjoyed hiking, when are we going? And he's not even with the program anymore. He aged out.
Um, most of the people, most of the young people I do work at all. People of color.
Taylor Quimby: So do you feel like you maybe get an opportunity to, like, be representation for folks and be like, listen, hey, black folks, like.
Niles Lashway: Um, yep. I say that pretty regularly, to be honest. Like, yeah, we hike we ski. You know, there may not be many of us, but we it is something we can do.
But you do have to be mindful of these challenges.
[mux]
So I am going to try and squeeze in just one more story. And it’s a reminder that - even when things go wrong - it sometimes all works out in the end.
Sarah Raiche: I looked up hikes that said they were going to be easy. This lied.
This is my son’s aunt, titi Sarah.
Sarah Raiche: … it said it was supposed to be like a simple hike. It was great for kids, whatever. And I was like, sweet.
Tiffany Raiche: You should preface by saying too, it was your second hike after having this baby. You haven't like…
That’s my ex and co-parent, Tiffany.
Phin: Wasn't it like, um, a hundred degrees or something?
Sarah Raiche: Yeah, it got way hot.
That’s our son, 12 year old Phineas.
Tiffany Raiche:But he was doing great, honestly, Phin was phenomenal.
As much as I’ve tried to follow the five shuns, I have made some errors of judgement. I’ve forced things too far when it was time to turn back. I’ve gotten us lost, and had to call Tiffany to come pick us up on some back road, miles from our car.
But the most epic fail story happened on the Welch-Dickey loop, in the Southern White Mountains. Phin was hiking with two dogs.
Phin: Me, Bo, Rezzy.
Tiffany and Titi Sarah each had a baby strapped to their backs.
Phin: Cal. Yeah, Cal.
And things went off the rails pretty quickly.
Tiffany Raiche:So about, uh, maybe, like, halfway up, Sarah was, like, in tears, was laying down on the ground, was like, she couldn't do it. I had, like, the kids, like, hiding in a bush in the shade, just trying to, like, rub her back and encourage her.
Phin: I remember that.
Tiffany Raiche:Cause she was like, we gotta…
Sarah Raiche: I was like I wanna go back.
Tiffany Raiche:… we gotta turn around.. And I was like, absolutely not. We are on this hike. You are gonna do this. You're gonna prove to yourself that you can get through this hard moment. We're going to show the kids that this is possible, and I just remember you looking at me go, “I don’t want to.”
Sarah Raiche: .Yeah. I don't want to. Can we get somebody to helicopter us out?
All the humans had enough water - but they hadn’t factored in the dogs. So they ran out halfway through, with the sun beating down.
Tiffany Raiche: Cause I think we were out of water by that point.
Sarah Raiche: Dude, we were out of water. And you ate watermelon.
Tiffany Raiche:Yeah, I hate watermelon.
Sarah Raiche: And you were like oh my god, fine. And you made the most disgusting face while you ate it. But you ate it because you were like, I'm dying.
Phin: And you HATE watermelon.
And here’s the kicker - Welch-Dickey is called Welch-Dickey because it has TWO peaks. Welch. And Dickey.
Sarah Raiche: I know. I was so upset after the first one to find out that there was a second one. It was not good.
Tiffany Raiche: She was literally in tears. She's like, “we made it!” And I go, this is not it. And that was the second stop in Mental Breakdown.
Sarah Raiche: I was like, “can we really please call a helicopter.”
I’ll spare the rest of the story - needless to say, Sarah was in tears most of the way down. Phin made it to the bottom first with the dogs, and waited in the AC.
But I remember him telling me about what a fiasco it was later that week. And I was worried all my careful planning would come undone.
Taylor Quimby: Did you did it, did it like impact, you know, in your fear…
Phin: No. I still love hiking and I and I still love hiking after that.
Tiffany Raiche: I think we went on a different hike with Aunt Kathy again shortly thereafter because I was like, we're gonna show him that just just because that bad one happened, there wasn't going to be like another mix of some good ones,
Phin: And yeah, we did that.
Tiffany Raiche: And I do remember though, when we went on this hike with Aunt Kathy, you go, do we have enough water?
[mux swell and fade]
Taylor Quimby: Are you at this stage like a lifelong hiker? Do you think like it's a thing that you will always enjoy?
Phin: Yeah, probably. Yeah. I'm. You know, I, uh, we've hiked so much that it's kind of just, like, in my brain. I still love hiking, and I probably will when I grow up and stuff.
Taylor Quimby: It's funny, when I think about it, for all the for all the fear of, like, a traumatic story, the traumatic stories are, like, more fun.
Phin: Yeah, yeah. When you have a traumatic story, you're gonna tell it in depth. But when you have a great hike, you're like, that was a cool hike, nice view.
[laughs]
[mux]
That’s all for today. If you’ve got a story to share, about how your family has shaped your view of hiking - for better or for worse - send a voice memo to outsidein at nhpr dot org and we’ll try to play it on a future episode.
Thanks to all the folks that responded to my questions on Facebook, and especially to Chelsea Hanrahan and Katie Coloneri for taking the time to chat with me.
This episode was produced by me, Taylor Quimby, sitting in the host chair for Nate Hegyi this week.
It was edited by NHPR’s Director of On-Demand Audio, Rebecca Lavoie.
Our staff includes Justine Paradis and Felix Poon.
Music by Blue Dot Sessions.
Outside/In is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio.