While my husband was out of town, the kids and I headed to the mountains (in Shenandoah National Park) by ourselves for some fishing and a stay at Getaway House. We hiked almost 11 miles in 24 hours, fished, sat by the campfire, and only lost our cool for 30 minutes when two of us were hangry.
I would be omitting a huge part of what this trip meant to me if I didn’t mention this. While I am wrangling the kids by myself often, it felt like a huge flex in my own direction to do such a packed trip without my husband, especially after not having been without him for long during the pandemic. It was a trip I felt well-equipped to handle, and something the kids and I had been talking about for months. Tiring as it was, it was so rewarding to share this experience with them.
Pretty safe to assume that with spare time, our family is heading to some water to throw out a line. Our oldest was really hyped to catch some brook trout and cook it up for dinner during our stay at Getaway House.
I’d taken the kids on shorter hikes by myself in Shenandoah, but we wanted to hike to where the trout were, so even though a hike to a stream was 3 miles total, we always ended up hiking farther for better spots. Where we started our two long treks:
We even got an awesome view of a storm before it hit us on the way out after the Limberlost Trail.
Our kids routinely hike 2 miles, with a longer hike (usually around 4 miles, but up to 6) sprinkled in here and there, so conditioning wise, they were prepared. I tracked almost 11 miles over 24 hours. They keep themselves entertained when hikes get a little monotonous by making up random little games. In the photo below, they’re playing some sort of “creature power” game (thanks, Wild Kratts) where they have to act out a certain creature power until a specific waypoint. Whatever works.
The trout were EVERYWHERE in both streams we spent time fishing, but man, they were smart. We found one amazing spot at the top of a small fall. I casted a trout magnet into the fall (we also used a Panther Martin spinner, but no luck as most of the water we fished was so shallow) so it would land in the water naturally, and pulled in a ~10in brookie, and as my daughter was yelling “MOM DID IT!” it shook itself off the hook. We ended up eating hot dogs for dinner. 😑 Our girl was so heartbroken, but after trying again the following day, she decided we had done our best. And we have another reason to go again.
Where we could’ve done better:
- We were out of our normal morning routine and I forgot to eat breakfast because I was so excited. I still made it 6 miles, but my 6yo definitely doubled back to hug me and say “IT’S FINE MOM YOU CAN DO IT,” a few times.
- I expected 3 miles and had lunches packed, but after waking early, our 4yo was really whiny for a bit halfway through, and I had left our snack bag in the car. Luckily I’d packed big lunches and the leftover “snack portion” of the lunches got the kids through fine.
- I’d add a night to our Getaway House stay, and we’d finish our activities earlier so we can just hang out. Again, another reason to return!
What I make sure to do when I’m hitting hikes with the kids solo:
- Have my trail saved on my phone (I love using All Trails).
- Before I leave reliable signal, I send our expected trailhead and route to my husband or a family member/friend. I try to text in the middle (even if it sends later on when it hits signal) and text when I return to signal.
- I try to have a set distance where we’ll discuss if we’re ready to turn back. Where are we with snacks, water, moods?
- I try to choose less popular but still pretty trafficked trails, for safety reasons.
- Anytime we need to switch trails, I have the kids remind me how to get back and what turns we need to take to get back to the trailhead. I also ask them a few times along the way to tell me how they’d get us help if needed.
- Bug protection: Because you know I’m big on bug protection, I wanted to share that I got these hats for the kids from Amazon and then treated them as well as our boots (and some pieces of fabric I cut into bandanas) with permethrin. We got maybe 1 bug bite each in the two days, and no ticks (… that we know of). I also usually tie one of the bandanas to my hiking pack.
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