Confessions of an Outdoor Dad

Taken from Blue Ridge Outdoors, written by Jay Hardwig

“I’m hot, sweaty, thirsty, and smelly, but I’m having a great time.”

The pronouncement came from my eight-year-old son as we scrambled up a small summit on the Mountains-to-Sea trail late last summer. It was hardly the deep backwoods: we were a scant mile from the Folk Art Center, a fifteen-minute downhill stroll to flush toilets, station wagons, and soda pop machines. But it struck me with the force of revelation all the same. My boy loved it out here in the woods. He might grow up to run the ridges after all.

I had worried it would not be so. It’s a common concern in this modern age, filled as it is with a long list of pixelated micro-diversions and other agreeable conveniences. You know the usual suspects: the Gameboys, the Leappads, the iPods, the cell phones, the boob tube, the Internet, Club Penguin, Webkinz, ToonTown. How is it possible to raise a true nature’s child in a world of instant entertainment?

Read the rest here.