There are some timeless or just irresistibly fun outdoor experiences that every family should have together. As a child, our fridge door always bore a to-do list of adventures pinned beneath a patriotic Oh, Canada! travel magnet. The list changed with the calendar and seemed to grow rather than shrink as each season wore on. inspiration can come from many places— library books, magazines, recommendations from friends, and especially your own daydreams—but we’ve taken the legwork out and come-up with this summer’s top 10 list. Every one of these experiences will become a treasured family memory and plant the seed for many more adventures.
With Kids Aged 3-5
Make a Sandcastle
Only a few simple tools and a little encouragement are needed to construct one of these ephemeral architectural masterpieces. In- structions: Find a good building site near the water’s edge where the sand is moist for easy packing, but be wary of destructive rogue waves. Start packing molds—you’ll need a couple small plastic shovels and rampart, tur- ret and all-purpose pails. Scrounge the beach for realistic finishing touches—bark draw- bridges, pinecone trees, twig portcullis and seashell walkways. Sandcastles are wonderful to build anywhere, but for a truly inspiring setting, nothing beats the endless red sand beaches of Prince edward Island.
With Kids Aged 6-8
Hug a Really Big Tree
The West Coast’s moist and mild climate create the ultimate natural nursery for arboreal giants. No child is immune to the awe-inspiring grandeur of a grove of 270-foot-tall California redwoods in redwoods National Park or the 800-year-old Douglas fir in vancouver Island’s Cathedral Grove. redwoods can grow to girths of 25 metres (81 feet)—better bring the cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents for this group hug!
Make Wild Berry Campfire Crisp (and Eat it)
This is a fun activity for the campsite or backyard that finishes with a delicious reward. To make campfire crisp, you just need a pot set, oats, brown sugar, margarine and, of course, berries. Blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, huckleberries, strawberries, cloudberries, cranberries, salmonberries—Canada is well endowed when it comes to these tiny fruits. latitude, elevation and month will determine what flavour of crisp you make; just pick whatever is plentiful. In the pot, heat berries with a bit of water and sugar until soft. Fry oats and sugar with margarine until golden brown and serve over the berries. Dig in.
With Kids Aged 9-11
Stargaze
Learning the constellations isn’t just memorizing geometric patterns in the night sky; it’s discovering tales of love, loyalty, avarice and revenge—important parables that have been passed down from the ancient Greeks. Get a kid-friendly guide like the Peterson First Guide to Astronomy (Houghton Mifflin, 2006) and find the easy constellations: Ursa Major and Minor—the long-tailed bears, Orion—the great hunter, Cassiopeia—the boastful and punished queen and Pegasus—the winged horse. Pick a moonless night to stargaze from your own backyard. Or head to the north shore of Lake Superior for some of the darkest skies in Ontario.
Plant a Vegetable Garden
This summer-long project can transform a 6-foot by 12-foot backyard plot into a fresh eats buffet. Before you start planting, research what veggies grow well in your climate and soil type, and then let every family member choose a crop. Pumpkins, carrots, peas, corn and potatoes are hardy choices that your kids will actually want to eat.
Talk to Birds
Learning to identify birds by their songs is actually much easier than it sounds. Pick up a good field guide that describes the birds’ voices with helpful mnemonics that make calls easy to remember. For example, a red-winged blackbird’s call resembles “eat my CHEEEzies”, a barred owl asks “who cooks for you, who cooks for y’all?” and the lovely white-throated sparrow sings “dear sweet Canada-Canada-Canada.” Actually talking back to birds is a little more difficult than merely listening. For practicing at home, you can’t beat the hardcover Bird Songs (Chronicle Books, 2006), which plays audio recordings of 250 North American birds through an integrated speaker.
With Teens Aged 12-14
Bicycle in a National Park
Riding on park roads and pathways is encouraged and some parks, like Tennessee’s Great Smoky Mountains, even have scheduled road closures so cyclists can peddle traffic-free. Iconic American parks like yosemite and Grand Canyon are especially bike-friendly as park officials try to manage summertime traffic jams. A ride on the paved, 19-kilometre Valley Trail beneath Yosemite’s granite sentinels, or snaking along the narrow, 13-kilometre South rim Trail above the Grand Canyon are two-wheeled adventures not soon forgotten.
Go on a Coast-to-Coast Roadtrip
A family roadtrip doesn’t have to mimic Chevy Chase’s Clark Griswold dragging rusty, Audrey and patient wife ellen across thousands of miles of dusty backroads in a sagging, wood-paneled station wagon. rather than this ill-advised approach, letting your family in on the planning helps create enthusiasm and valuable knowledge of geography, map reading, prioritizing and creating an agenda. For the full roadtrip experience, go without backseat entertainment systems or handheld gaming devices. And remember, you don’t have to do it all in one go.
Summit a Mountain
Find the highest peak in your area that can be safely climbed in a day with a pair of short legs and size six Merrells. When planning your hike, keep in mind that every 250 metres of elevation gain adds an hour to your hiking time. Whether it’s a real mountain or just a molehill, there’s a great sense of achievement in reaching the summit. Straightforward scrambles across Canada include Newfoundland’s 806-metre Gros Morne Mountain; Montreal, Quebec’s 414-metre Mont St. Hilaire and Jasper, Alberta’s 2,766-metre Pyramid Mountain.
For Kids of All Ages
Take a Weekend (or Longer) Canoe Trip
Sure, a daytrip is less work, but you’ll need to spend at least a full night out together to experience the true wild soul of canoe tripping. Choose a trip with conservative daily distances so you have plenty of time to swim, fish, hike and explore. Give each child his or her own small barrel or canoe pack to bring along can’t-live-without toys, companions, games and clothes. In the heart of Canada’s canoe country, Algonquin and Killarney provincial parks are famous, but less popular areas like Temagami and Quebec’s la vérendrye and Papineau labelle reserves are every bit as beautiful and less crowded midsummer.
This article first appeared in the Summer 2010 issue of Canoeroots Magazine. For more great content, subscribe to Canoeroots’ print and digital editions here.
