Solid, dashed or dotted…
How to get kids into hiking

I get asked a lot how I get my kids to hike with me?

Before I answer, maybe I should say that the more appropriate question to ask nowadays would be how I GOT them do so, as in past-tense.

The oldest is now a teenager, and presumably like most teenagers, is more interested in all things screen. We went on a week-long backpacking trip this past summer, which in his own words, he’s now been there, done that, never again….

Regular day hikes are still not out of the picture though I imagine.

Coming back to the question, the short answer is nonetheless: “I never asked”.

We just went.

There’s more to it than that of course, so I thought I would share some of the insights I gained throughout the years.

TIP 1

There is one key tip I stumbled upon, back then, that thinking back to it now, had so much truth to it, that I would like to repeat it here.

I would impress upon anyone wanting their kids to actually like hiking to do the following and that is:

“DO NOT GO FOR THE EASY TRAILS, PICK THE SINGLE TRACKS AND ROCK SCRAMBLES”

This is where the title comes in.

Solid, dashed or dotted lines are used in most hiking maps to indicate hiking trails. Solid lines often indicate the wider more gently graded paths (German: Wege), following, say for example, logging roads.

Dashed lines often indicate the more fun (there, I said it already) single file trails (German: Pfade) and finally the dotted lines are the generally even more strenuous tracks, often found in more Alpine terrain.

Follow the dashed lines whenever you can, or depending on terrain, the dotted lines, even, or especially, with little kids. It’s better, in my opinion, and when it came to my kids (everyone is different) to do a one-hour fun trail, than walk for two hours on a logging road. Kids want to scramble, get dirty, jump and climb. They do not want to slog along a road. Nothing kills enthusiasm faster than that.

My kids learnt to ask me within no time, whether the hike I had planned for them was fun or not. There were two ways they would ask.

“Mam, het is toch wel streepjes of stippeltjes?”, or

“Toch wel klim en klauter hè?”

Translated this means:

“Mom, it’ll be dashes or dots, right?”, or

“It’ll be climb and scramble, won’t it?”.

Clearly this isn’t always possible and there are of course many gorgeous hikes that involve “solid red line” paths, so there are other things you can do to make it fun.

TIP 2

Cue therefor my second tip; Make sure there’s a reward in sight!

Because all of us love to eat well, and because we are lucky enough to spend so much time in the Austrian Alps, this is not a problem. Food is an excellent motivator.

Plan your hike to one or by one of the mountain huts and see how much a plate of Kaiserschmarrn is worth to your kids.

To this day we still always earn our Kaiserschmarrn by either hiking or skiing towards them.

My husband considers this to border on idiocy and finds it perfectly okay to eat his Apfelstrudel at a hut he arrived at by (cable) car, but we feel good earning/ burning our carbs.

We are of course in the privileged position to be able to eat out quite a bit on holidays, but it is just as much fun to pack some awesome goodies and chocolate into a backpack, find a nice spot with a view somewhere at the halfway point, and make that the reward. This is what we do anyway when there is no hut along our trail.

On top of that, how about making the reward an outdoor playground? (See below)

TIP 3

And lastly

Give them a job or a small task if they are so inclined.

We explained our kids how the trails in the Alps are marked in blue (and white) and red (and white) and when they were little they would often just keep themselves busy finding the next blaze, babbling “red-white! ; red-white!” and finding blazes that I would have overlooked myself.

(I know, I know, there are black blazes too, but I found those to be a bit much for 4-year olds…, or myself for that matter).

Our youngest has always been our navigator, he would either carry the GPS and “create a route” or carry the map or guide book. Together we would try to figure out how he could see where to go based on what the map showed. Other times he would be the photographer or botanist, identifying the different plants enroute.

Not every kid will like that or have the patience for it, but the point is, there is probably something your child is interested in that can make things more fun.

According to my older son he generally had more useful things to do than that, such as thinking about how many plates of Kaiserschmarrn he could shove down his pie hole… Mind you these are his words, not mine, but they do underline the importance of the previous tip.

What could this mean when you’re in our beloved Fieberbrunn and want to do a hike to start out with?

Well take the 8 route up to the cable car middle station, but stay away from the road wherever there’s a path available. You will still be on the road for a little bit but much of the path goes through the trees and kids will be able to make their way over tree roots whilst walking on a bed of pine needles, all to get to the double reward of both Streuboeden Alm for drinks and Timok’s Alm, a kids’s nature playground with what must be the bouncing castle with the most gorgeous view… …in the world (cue Jeremy Clarkson’s voice).

Have your Weizenbier in the sun while your kids demonstrate the walk was not enough to rob them of their energy and take the cable car down.

Links:

Information on hiking maps

Color coding of hiking trails on the website of the Austrian Alps Scoiety

Fieberbrunn pages on the website for Tourist Information Kitzbuheler Alpen

The link to the Schleier waterfall hike

Information about the Postalm at the Wolfgangsee