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Adventure Treks Can Provide Teenagers with a New Perspective on Their Technology

We are not among the legions that see technology as an evil to be feared.  (We love our I-phones). However, we do believe we should think through the ramifications of how technological changes affect our children before we automatically embrace the next and newest gadgets. To our knowledge no one has yet written a parenting guide for the digital age. We all know the facts: A child today is five times more likely to play a video game than ride a bike.  in 2010 the average 13 year old sent 3700 texts a month and spent 7.5 hours a day (53 hours / week) with some type of digital media. (Pew) By age 21, that same teenager, if a boy, will have played 10,000 hours of video games (compared with 4800 hours needed to obtain his bachelor’s degree).  In 2013 the numbers are certain to be even higher!

7.18 group at waterfall

Backpacking in Panthertown, NC

No one should deny that digital media is  fun! The good news is that despite the obvious distraction of video games, most kids are still doing the same amount of homework (albeit frequently multi-tasking while studying) and still playing plenty of organized sports. It’s the time spent outdoors in nature in the company of friends that is getting displaced. Research shows that this collaborative play outside  is the very activity that boosts kids’ creativity, collaboration and communication skills.

A recent post on our Facebook page by a non-Adventure Treks kid gave us cause for distress.  “I don’t see the point of going outside to hike and look at mountains. I can see everything I want to see on the internet…and that’s what the internet is for!” While this is not a typical kid in 2013, do we need to worry that it could be in 2020?

At Adventure Treks, we get to watch the benefits outdoor experiences bring to digital-age teenagers every day. The cognitive and social benefits of time spent in nature are now well documented.The physical benefits are obvious; others are more subtle. Research shows that children have better brain development, and are both mentally and physically healthier if they play outside frequently. Nature experiences significantly reduce children’s stress, (and we are currently raising the most stressed out generation in history) while enhancing cognitive flexibility, problem-solving ability, self-esteem, and self-discipline. A 2012 British study on the restorative effects of nature demonstrates how time spent in nature can improve both executive function and creativity skills.

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Jumping for Joy in Olympic National Park, WA

Adventure Treks is one of the very few places where teenagers will voluntarily give up their electronics and thank their parents for it! Adventure Treks is a reward, and providing a reward as an alternative to technology is always an easier parenting strategy than simply taking electronics away.

Adventure Treks unplugs us from the electronic umbilical cord.  All communication is face to face and there are numerous opportunities to develop creativity and improve social competence and cohesion.  At Adventure Treks, kids get to practice interpersonal interactions 16 hours a day and they get better at it.  This refinement happens naturally and in a fun and exciting environment. Perhaps the best thing is that they make new friends and learn from great instructor mentors who facilitate the process.

community photo

Evening Meeting on a Wilderness Beach, CA

Another benefit is a more nuanced one, when students actually unplug from electronics, they learn how that feels.  Unlike their parents, many kids have never experienced life before Google, video games or a smart phone. When they experience firsthand the benefits of cultivating the interpersonal skills that their peers may be neglecting, they develop a new framework that helps them keep their technology in perspective.  When electronics are returned at the end of an extended trip outdoors, they are able to observe first- hand the fundamental changes in both behavior and communication styles that comes from leaving a technology free world and reentering a world powered by the smart phone.  While a return to electronics is always thrilling, teens also realize that there were also benefits to a world without technology. They now feel more empowered to make decisions about how they think technology should fit into their own lives. They now know that technology need not be all consuming. They realize they have a choice… And sometimes just giving them that power is all they need.

By John Dockendorf and Steve Baskin

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Tips to Make Hiking Fun for Kids

As the parent of four children, I witness an improvement in family dynamics whenever we are able to spend time outside together as a family.  Whether it’s just playing games or better still going on a family hike or bike ride, we just seem to get along better outside.   Conversations come more easily and we actually seem to listen to each other. Nobody is distracted by a digital screen, a magazine or a ringing phone.  Outside, we play with each other, look out for each other, and share smiles as we witness a brilliant vista or waterfall. Somehow our kids’ complaints about “how much they hate hiking” miraculously disappear by the end of the trip.

 
The cognitive and social benefits of time spent in nature are now well documented.  Children carry less stress; and demonstrate better brain development, better mental health and better physical health when they spend significant time outdoors and in nature.  A 2012 British Study shows how even a few days spent in nature can improve both executive function and creativity skills.

 
Although Adventure Treks is a natural solution to the challenge of getting teenagers outdoors, three great weeks in the summer needs to be reinforced by family outdoor adventures the rest of the year.  At Adventure Treks, we light a fire for a lifetime love of all things outdoors.  Your job is to keep the fire stoked with regular family outdoor activities.

 
We get it. It’s easy to want to get your family outdoors but difficult to actually do it.  Schedules are crazy.  Youth sports and extra -curriculars have become all-consuming.  As video games become even more “exciting,” inspiring kids to go on a family hike becomes more challenging.  And then it always seems just when you have moved the heavens to get everyone commitment-free, the heavens themselves move, the rains set in and plans are postponed… until next month or next year.

 
Besides crazy family schedules there are also access issues, equipment issues and expertise issues.  The good news is that even if you are inexperienced, if you have a child who has participated in Adventure Treks, your child should know enough basic outdoor skills, and have good enough judgment, leadership and risk management  skills to be able to take an active role in planning and leading your next family excursion.   Empower them and let them show off their skills!

 
You do want to make sure your zealous Adventure Treks kid doesn’t plan something a little too epic for all concerned!  So, if you are bringing younger siblings along, I wanted to offer some strategies to make sure the younger siblings have fun, too.  These are all little tricks we use at Adventure Treks and at our summer camp, Camp Pinnacle.

 
•    First begin by understanding that in a world where kids’ frame of reference is the Harry Potter ride at Disney, a casual walk in the woods doesn’t pack the punch that a roller coaster can.  Also remember that few people find walking uphill to be fun.  A successful outing begins with embracing and overcoming the negatives.

•    Let your child bring a friend.  In fact encourage it – It will make all the difference – often the promise of a friend coming turns a potential hike from a big negative to a small positive. This can get a little sketchy when you end up with 7 kids and 1 adult, but I find my kids always behave better and are more eager  to try new things  with friends present.

•    Limit your scope –The epic adventure you have in mind may turn kids off to the outdoors forever.  Most adults have that memory of an outdoor adventure in their youth that ended in near disaster – While this makes for a good story –kids aren’t as resilient as we’re certain we used to be.  If in doubt, always hike less (at least with young kids) rather than more.  Just because you get out infrequently, don’t force your kids to “go big or go home!” Getting back to the car a little early is always better than hiking in the dark. Remember you are investing in the future!

•    Choose a destination when possible where there is something special.  Unless your child is an inspired dendrologist, few kids find rewards from just walking. The incredible view, the striking waterfall, the special swimming hole, an old shelter or a blueberry patch all serve as a reminder that effort and reward are related.  If your scenery is limited have a special treat or game planned for the midpoint and find ways to embellish the neat small things you do see along the way.

•    Bring goody bags – My kids don’t get a lot of candy but we loosen the rules for the woods.  Giving each child a small personal snack bag from which they can eat from and trade from at will works!  It’s also a great emotional intelligence test.  You can predict your kids’ future success simply by seeing who finishes their goody bag before the hike begins and who saves the best treats until the end!

•    Make the most of small opportunities and make use of nature’s play areas.  Especially with young children, save time to play. Hold balance contests on logs, try and jump from rock to rock, cross a stream several times in different ways, and find stumps and natural ramps to jump off.   Kids will often remember the time spent playing more fondly than the hiking.

•    Have an arsenal of riddles, nature quizzes, word games and activities ready to make rest time along the trail fun.  Games are also great filler when conversation runs thin! Never underestimate the power of a scavenger hunt and a little friendly sibling competition to add spark.

•    Whip out a special treat like a fireball when the hiking gets challenging. Distractions are good.  The “heat” of the fireball will help kids “forget” the steepness of the trail!

•    Try to find a beautiful place along the trail, spread your kids out and give them a minute or two for reflective silence. Don’t overdo this or take it too seriously but it’s always nice to begin the habit of reflection in the outdoors. Small habits in youth pay benefits later.

 
I hope you can use some of these ideas to embellish your next family hike – the goal is to make time spent outdoors a family habit and keep it fun enough that they won’t argue too loudly when you want to go again!

 
At Adventure Treks, we want to be your partner in getting your kids outside.  It’s usually easier for us to get kids excited about being outdoors than it is for you.  Adventure Treks supplies the friends and “larger than life” instructor mentors who are eager to share their love for outdoor activities.  Our program has been carefully designed to make outdoor activities exciting and appealing.  We want kids to have fun early in the process, succeed easily and then we can build on their successes.  I know this is a different approach than how we as adults did things as children.  We were frequently told to “suck it up!” But times have changed and children of the digital age live in a different world than we did.  If we are going to keep them outdoors and perhaps inspire the next John Muir or Rachel Carson, we have to bring young people into the outdoors gently.

 
The benefits of getting your kids excited about the outdoors are great. The risks of raising a child who never leaves the family basement shouldn’t be ignored. We believe that the outdoors is a wonderful tool in helping to raise great kids!

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What do Playgrounds, Adventure Treks and Character Have in Common?

I’m serving on an exploratory committee for our municipality, Flat Rock, NC that is studying the feasibility of converting an unsuccessful 55 acre golf course into a public park.  If the park becomes a reality I foresee differences in opinion over what the playground “should” look like. Having already heard public comment in which well-intentioned people worry about children playing in the stream or drowning in a pond and the potential liabilities, I worry our new playground might look like the others in town—uninspiring and boring for any kid over the age of three.

A newly designed climbing structure

Seven years ago we took our then 5, 3 and 2 year olds to New Zealand. We learned playgrounds could be different.  My kids thrilled to 200 meter Flying Foxes (Zip lines), 10 meter slides, and climbing towers.  The Kiwi mindset was that it was better to injure oneself at age six and thus improve judgment than make poor decisions later in life. When we returned to the States and our Consumer Product Safety Standards, my kids lost all enthusiasm for playgrounds.

As more and more kids fail the Presidential Fitness Test and childhood obesity becomes the new normal, the U.S. mindset on playgrounds is beginning to shift. Mariana Brussoni, a developmental psychologist at the University of British Columbia, suggests risky play ultimately keeps children safer by allowing them to learn how to take and manage risk. Dr. Brussoni cites a study that found those given more free-play time in their youth were more likely to participate in sports and contribute to their community as teenagers and went on to earn greater professional success than children allowed little free play.  Ellen Sandseter, an associate professor at Queen Maud University in Norway says “Risky play exposes children to stimuli they may have feared, such as heights. As the child’s coping skills improve, these situations and stimuli may be mastered and no longer feared. It’s important that play environments are as safe as necessary, not as safe as possible,”

Up High and Happy!

It will be my challenge to get people in Flat Rock excited about a different type of playground. Cool new playground designs, mostly emanating from Europe, have the appeal of seeming riskier by allowing participants the real opportunity for a fall.  The consequences of falling are minimized, however, through careful design which reduces the potential of a significant injury.

So what does playground design have to do with Adventure Treks?
Let’s go to the work of Paul Tough in his fabulous book, How Children Learn. “When you talk today to teachers and administrators at high-achieving high schools, their greatest concern is that their students are so overly protected from adversity, in their homes and at school, that they never develop the crucial ability to overcome real setbacks and in the process to develop strength of character. They certainly work hard; they often experience a great deal of pressure and stress; but in reality, their path through the education system is easier and smoother than it was for any previous generation. But if this new research is right, their schools, their families, and their culture may all be doing them a disservice by not giving them more opportunities to struggle. Overcoming adversity is what produces character. And character, even more than IQ, is what leads to real and lasting success.”

Similar to boring playground equipment, we are dumbing down adolescence by over protecting our kids. We may be actually hindering their growth by giving them lives of too much comfort. Our good intentions frequently lead us to rescue our kids from the consequences of their inevitable mistakes.  As a parent, I know I am guilty of not giving my kids enough opportunities to learn through adversity.

Adventure Treks provides an opportunity which lets adolescents step out of their comfort zone and face some real adversity. We ratchet up the perceived risk and let teenagers face natural consequences.  Days are not always easy but as the result of hard work and effort, accomplishment becomes sweeter. After an Adventure Treks summer, character, grit and resilience are strengthened. But similar to the fancy European playground equipment, the Adventure Treks experience is engineered so that the perceived risk is greater than the actual risk. And that makes an Adventure Treks summer easier on us parents.

 

Sources:  The Wall Street Journal, “Playing it Too Safe” by Sumathi Reddy, November 19, 2012
How Children Learn: Grit, Curiosity and the Hidden Power of Character by Paul Tough, 2012

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Happy Halloween

I’m going to use pumpkin carving as a metaphor for how ridiculously high the bar is being set in our global and digitized world.  In my youth, my parents would present me my annual pumpkin a few days before Halloween.  I would take my knife, hack out a couple triangles for eyes and a nose, try to cut a couple of teeth into the mouth, throw in the candle, and there it was – my best effort!   It was all my own work and done in half an hour, or perhaps an hour if I stretched out my carving glory. I had made my contribution to the neighborhood and all the neighborhood pumpkins were equally mediocre. That being said, they all seemed plenty good to us as we roamed the neighborhood in search of tricks and treats. Sound familiar?

Fast forward to 2012: The pumpkins of my youth would be ridiculed—I haven’t seen a triangle nose in years! Much of America is now too busy to even carve their own pumpkins and opt for the hand carved foam pumpkins available on EBay instead.  Other parents fear that with thousands of stencils to download, their ten year old doesn’t stand a chance of carving a pumpkin that will meet the new normal. So they end up carving the pumpkin themselves. I hate to admit it, but I was just about to fall into that category.  My five year old was obsessed with creating a dragon pumpkin. After dozens of Google searches and pages of complicated dragon pumpkin stencils (some of which cost $6.99 to download – Not going to happen!), I had to admit to Charlie – that while I was surely good at something – I was hardly the Picasso of pumpkin carving and we would have to go for something much less ambitious. Tears were shed!

Although we knew our best effort would pale in comparison to all that we had seen on the internet, we decided the only alternative was to create our own pumpkin. It was neither the fanciest, the scariest or the most unique, but it was our pumpkin. No stencils, no dragons, and yet it was certainly scary and worthy enough to adorn our front stoop.  And Charlie even got to use a knife. We did it together and we had fun.  The process was much more rewarding than the result. The neighbors may grimace at our low rent pumpkin, but we had fun because we lowered the bar and enjoyed the experience!

The bottom line is that the high bar for everything is stressing out our kids… and us parents. Our kids wonder if they are going to measure up. And they feel our stress as we wonder too. Sure the stakes in the global economy are so much higher than they used to be, but there are costs to raising our kids to be “exceptional” that aren’t always taken into account. As parents, we have certain images of success in our minds for our kids—sports championships, music recitals, high grades, attending an Ivy League school—and with our high expectations, some kids are becoming more afraid of failure than ever before. High expectations are a good thing.  We want our kids to do well.  Having unrealistic expectations isn’t healthy, nor is raising kids who feel that they aren’t allowed to fail.

And isn’t it possible that we may be setting the wrong goals for our kids? What if we reframed it?

What if we focused less on specific goals and more on one simple question: How as parents do we help our children shine? Put differently, we should worry less about creating goals for our children and more about finding environments where they will experience successes and acceptance.

“A great environment” has three important components. First, it should be a good match to a child’s talents and interests—a place that they show skill and feel a desire to improve their skills.

Second, the “great environment” should provide challenges and opportunities to grow by overcoming these challenges: “confidence comes from competence”.  And resilience comes because of hard work and even more through picking oneself up after failure. That “great environment” is a place where the culture says it’s OK to fail, and provides plenty of support when you do.

The final component of a “great environment” is community and acceptance. This component is often neglected when parents consider activities for their children.  But as I look at my daughters’ soccer team at the end of the season, far more important than the skills they gained and the games won or lost, was the incredible rapport the girls developed and the friendships that extend beyond the field. To me soccer is merely the vehicle for healthy friendships, healthy bodies and a respect for all that comes as a result of hard work. Some of their coaches see it differently, but we are used to that!

Which brings me to Adventure Treks. Ultimately our goal is to create that “great environment” for your child. We typically hear from parents that their son or daughter had a great time at Adventure Treks, made great friends and loved their instructors. They say it was one of the healthiest and happiest times of their lives. They say that their kids loved being in a place that didn’t judge them and loved them for who they were, not who they were “supposed to be.”  Then we hear: “We can’t do A.T. next summer because of summer select lacrosse, or a community service requirement, or the chance to get some college credits or learn a new language… and these opportunities for enrichment just can’t be missed!”

And we respond: While the benefits of a summer outdoors cannot be quantified,  isn’t the opportunity to celebrate more simple things like friends, the wonders of nature and the chance to live in a supportive community ultimately going to yield more long term success and happiness? Isn’t developing resilience, character and communication skills important too?  Is fulfilling a checklist of accomplishments that are often pursued—not for love of the activity, but to measure up to someone’s perceived expectations worth missing out on the magic of A.T.?

Sometimes the simplest pumpkin is the most satisfying. Charlie and I are both glad we chose not to carve that dragon.  It was just too much for us and by carving our own “design,” we were ultimately happier.

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2012 Adventure Treks Memories Video

Thanks to photographic evidence pulled from instructor cameras, we have confirmed a few different things about The Adventure Treks 2012 summer: there was lots of singing, we played hard on everything from mountain bikes to whitewater rafts, danced more than we sang, made lots of new friends, and had a lot of fun.

Hope you enjoy these memories as much as we have and don’t forget to sign up for next summer!  The best early booking discounts expire On Oct 15, 2012. Summer 2013 – our 20th summer is going to be one to remember!

Enjoy the video – there are more to come!

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Fall Update from Adventure Treks

Happy fall!

Although your summer trip ended a while ago – and I’m sure you probably feel you have been back in school for forever, here at Adventure Treks, we haven’t even begun to slow down. it still feels like summer! We only had five days between ending our summer season and beginning our fall programs. Each week from late August through late October, schools arrive for a week of outdoor and or science education. This Fall, we will serve students from six different states and run 15 different programs. This week we will have 26 AT instructors, 2 different schools, 135 students, 14 teachers, and 8 vans all going strong. Plus / Delta is still alive here in the mountains of Western NC!

Schools are beginning to realize that stuff like character, resilience, confidence and leadership are as important as academics for success. These things are simply better facilitated outdoors than in a classroom. Our school programs are not adventurous compared with say a summit on Mt St. Helens, but our programs are downright hard core when compared with a typical day at school. Imagine watching your teachers, rock climb, backpack and whitewater raft!

Last weekend, we held our AT 20th reunion party. Instructors and former students from years past all gathered together for a fun weekend at Camp Pinnacle for outdoor activities, live music, great food and even better stories and conversations. It was great seeing so many people who have made indelible marks on Adventure Treks. Ever sung “Sold to the Lady in the second row…?” That song was first brought to AT by Rowdy Perry in 1999. He is still as funny as ever and about to have his second daughter. We can go on and on about the many characters who have helped define AT– it was great to see so many wonderful folks together again! Our former students and instructors are all doing incredible things. From College professors, to school reform leaders, to non profit heads to Government officials, they are all there making the world a little bit better!

Much is going on at the AT office. Sam Carlson is here making several new videos. Expect to see the brand new AT 2012 memories video next week. Sam always amazes us with his talent and this new video is a lot of fun. Keep checking your email for the world premier release!

Niki has created the 2013 AT summer schedule together. It’s a lot of work putting the details, outfitters and permitting in place. Her hard work pays off and next year’s trips will be even better.

Holly is working on our new website and an updated AT logo and Sandy is working on getting our 2013 paperwork ready and trying to make things easier on parents. D’Mac is running school programs and will begin hiring instructors for next year soon. Many of your favorite instructors have already committed to returning.

We are also hard at work renovating Camp Pinnacle, our summer camp for ages 8 – 14 and home to our AT Blue Ridge trips. Camp Pinnacle had an incredible inaugural summer and we’re excited to now be able to provide AT type magic for younger kids. Our CP counselor team was comprised 100% of former AT students and they rocked! Now somebody can join CP / AT for 11 consecutive years (ages 8 – 18) and have an amazing and different experience each summer.

We are getting excited for summer 2013. Many of your friends have already signed up. Remember if you sign up for summer 2013 before Oct 15 your parents will save $100 off 2012 prices and we will even throw in a very cool AT Capilene shirt for you. We are already getting excited to get back outside for summer 2013. Let us catch up on some sleep first, that won’t happen until November, but we are having too much fun, right now!

Stay in touch, we miss you!

Best, Dock

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Thank You for a Great Adventure Treks 2012 Summer!

Thanks for all you did to make Adventure Treks 2012 special! From The Blue Ridge Mountains to the White Mountains to the Rockies to the Uintas to the Trinity Alps to the Cascades to the Chugach, we sure had a lot of fun together. Have a wonderful Labor Day Weekend and enjoy this short “thank you video!” We hope you will join us for a great summer in 2013! THANK YOU!

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And Then They Were Gone…Thank you for a Great Summer 2012!

The boarding announcement interrupted a great conversation between Caleb, Jesse, Henry and Instructors Tracy, Steph and I.  The students quickly hopped on the plane and just like that… the summer was over… and so was the magic.  The last nine trips ended as strongly as I can remember.  The students formed close and inclusive communities.  I’ll credit seasoned teams of excellent instructors, beautiful weather, wonderful students, low instructor ratios and great activities and scenery.

As our staff converge from around the country at our Portland area base camp, we admit it…we are tired! –But it’s the good kind of tired; exhausted from giving it our all over an extended period of time. We may be tired but we are ecstatic about the results of everyone’s combined efforts.  It was a safe summer. We can say it now – no significant injuries! It was also a summer filled with growth and we feel a lot of great eyes have been opened a little wider.  We hold our students to a high standard, and we can do this because of our low instructor to student ratio.  Role modeling isn’t always easy but long hours spent with great role models at an impressionable time in adolescent development has an impact.

We hope the power of living in a shared community at a self-absorbed time of life in a self-absorbed culture has been slightly life altering. We strive to instill in our students the understanding that they are beholden to a community larger than themselves.  Through the art of living in a community that thrives best when everyone is involved, we see firsthand when the common good of the many can outweigh the desires of the few.  And we also see instances, equally important, when the needs and desires of a few folk are more important than the desires of the many. At Adventure Treks, we begin to understand how life in a community is a great balancing act.  And that you won’t lose your individuality by working for the gain of everyone.  In fact most people gain more joy through contribution to others than they ever could by working solely for themselves.

Most of our students who came to AT for their first year signed up for an exciting trip filled with adventure, challenge and time outdoors. While they got lots of adventure,  most new families don’t realize that the activities are just a small part of the AT experience until their kids returned home.  It’s almost impossible to communicate in our marketing materials what it is Adventure Treks really does.  Hopefully all of our students will come back next year.  When they come back, they won’t be coming back  for the activities as much as for the  “AT Magic.”  At a time when our communal institutions are slowly disintegrating, we want to fill a void and be that “second family,” a really happy place where kids can be proud to be themselves and escape some of the pressures of being a teenager.   They will be coming back to a place where friendships become stronger each year and last long beyond the summer.  Adventure Treks is that special place where you can be “your best self” for an extended period of time, and practice… makes perfect!

It’s been a privilege getting to know your children this summer.  We’ve tried to treat them as our own and we believe we have had an impact. Thank you for your trust and please stay in touch. Though we are eager for a rest,  vacation is still a few months away!  It starts again next week as we begin instructor orientation  for our fall season consisting of outdoor education programs for schools on August 20th.  These programs will run through Halloween.  Our school programs are important but they are not quite  as magical  as summer.

We sure are going to miss our great students. Thank you for being part of Adventure Treks.

Best, Dock

 

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Greetings from 30,000 ft – On Getting Your Kids Outside

The Adventure Treks season is winding down.  I have just said goodbye to the wonderful Colorado kids and am eager to see The Utah students for their final night – then it’s on to Portland, Seattle and back to Portland.  Meanwhile Alaska 2 is saying their goodbyes.  But much is still going on! Cal Challenge is hiking the Lost Coast, the Pacific Northwest is sea kayaking and the Pacific Northwest Experience is climbing Mt. St. Helens. We have met many amazing teenagers this year.  It’s sad to see them depart.

While I was having a debriefing lunch with the instructors from our Colorado trip today, we all started reflecting on the role our parents played in getting us excited about the outdoors.  There were six of us and we all remembered car camping, backpacking and various hikes and paddles with our parents.  Outcomes were not always as hoped and we remembered not always loving the outdoor trips our parents had planned.  But our parent’s efforts stuck and are now appreciated. Today the outdoors is a big part of our lives.  Thanks Moms and Dads!

Getting kids outdoors was something parents did back then. It’s a lot harder now.  No parent is better set up than I to get my kids outdoors, but even for me it’s hard to find the time! The world has changed – While some of the blame goes to the allure of electronic devices more of it has do with the insane pace of modern life. Between overzealous kids sports programs which devour weekends, increasing academic pressure and stressed out parental work weeks (as we all do more with less), it takes careful planning to get my kids outdoors. And we frequently have to cancel other commitments to do it. But it’s worth it. My most memorable family times are the time we spend together outside. And I hope I am building a love of the outdoors and an environmental ethic in my kids.

I am not alone. All the trends show that kids aren’t getting outdoors (unless one calls a mowed playing field outdoors.)  Yet the benefits of getting our kids outside has been proven and the data points grow stronger each year.  Supposedly even just playing in dirt is good for us as recent research shows it boosts immunity and naturally releases serotonin. Research shows that outdoor activities in nature reduces stress, counters ADD, reduces the incidence of depression and may even lead to increased  intelligence. Most importantly, we all know the improvement in perspective a good day out in nature gives us and the wonderful memories, bonding and stories outdoor time spent as a family can bring.

Our Adventure Treks students will spend more time outdoors on a 20-day trip than most people spend “outdoors”  in their lives.  When they return to you a few subtle changes should be noticeable. Your child should be a little calmer, more reflective, more appreciative of small things and have gained greater perspective.  It’s great to take a break from civilization and spend time in nature. As your kids come back home, we hope you will find time throughout the year to help them get outside as much as possible.  It’s a great habit to build on.  We look forward to spending more concentrated time with them outdoors next summer.

I would like to share a quote from a Utah student. The group woke up at 5AM and hiked to a viewpoint of Delicate Arch in Arches National Park. They wrote letters to themselves and had 10 minutes of silence as they watched the sunrise.  Both the silence and the spectacular sunrise had a profound effect – The students will remember that view for the rest of their lives.  As one student put it – “Sunrise at Delicate Arch or my normal day filled with electronics? – NO Brainer! – who needs electronics!”

Best, Dock

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Greetings from 30,000 ft. – Some Thoughts on Reasonable Risk

I’m on another Delta jet today, leaving the Blue Ridge trip and Camp Pinnacle for the Pacific Northwest to debrief with our Leadership Summit instructors (their trips ended yesterday) and help open the Pacific Northwest Adventure and Pacific Northwest Experience 2. I also hope to get some mountain biking or climbing in with Ultimate Northwest 2 students before my next plane ride four days from now.

I would like to thank you and applaud you for letting your teenager take a “reasonable risk” by joining Adventure Treks.  I know it’s more comforting to keep your kids home and that you listened to friends and relatives tell you  that they couldn’t possibly let their kids do something so “risky.” We believe that for first time students, just taking the social risk of attending Adventure Treks and then succeeding beyond expectations, can be a powerful experience. Our goal is to make the reward of being at A.T, far outweigh the risk of coming. We want our students to embrace other opportunities to “put themselves out there” as they accept new challenges later in life.  While, we try to up our safety bar every day at Adventure Treks (after all my three favorite words are safety, safety, and safety) and why we try to eliminate all unnecessary risk, (We are big fans of perceived vs. actual risk.) things don’t always go as we carefully planned.  Even if we bubble wrapped our students and led them on a guided Disneyesque tour, there would still be some risk. We want to give our students a real and authentic experience – something fewer kids have these days in a world of video games, standardized tests and chain stores.  This does mean that sometimes your kids might be cold, wet, tired and uncomfortable, or even get a little lost, but often the things that don’t always go according to plan, can still be safe and create the best memories and life lessons!

In child psychiatrist Dr. Lynn Ponton’s book, The Romance of Risk: Why Teenagers Do What They Do, she asserts that teenagers are “wired” to take risks and that this is a natural part of developing risk assessment skills.  With this in mind, and knowing that nothing can be 100% safe, our challenge at Adventure Treks is to encourage “reasonable risks” and modeling a framework for wise decision making.

Dr. Ponton distinguishes between healthy risks (e.g., trying out for a team, performing music in front of an audience…. and attending programs like Adventure Treks) and unhealthy risks (drinking, driving fast, extreme dieting, promiscuous sexual behavior). Parents should realize that risk-taking is about the teen, not about the parent, says Ponton. “Teenagers engage in risk-taking behaviours to find out who they are, not to rebel or get back at the parent. Engaging in some risky behavior is not only normal, but it’s necessary for teenagers,” says Ponton. “It’s a tool to define, develop and consolidate their identity. Healthy risk-taking is a big part of growth. Teenagers have to learn how to make good decisions and assess their risk in situations. “I don’t see how they could grow up without risk-taking. We’re a country of risk-takers. We have to learn to talk about how we assess risk — and set good examples as parents… and that can be hard.”

There is no doubt that our society is more risk adverse than ever before but eliminating all risks is neither realistic nor ultimately good for our kids. One of my favorite quotes attributed to theologian, William Shedd is “A ship in harbor is safe but that is not what ships are built for.” Rather than eliminating all risk, we prefer to help students identify risks, assess consequences and learn to develop a safe and appropriate course of action when making decisions. When students develop a safety mindset, it makes our job as instructors easier and more rewarding. Our nightly evening meeting at Adventure Treks contains a section called “Safety Checks.”  Here we reflect on the day and look at ways we could have been more safe.  Part of the goal is to make being safe, COOL. (Which runs counter to normal risk loving teenage behavior.) The other goal is to help define a framework for making safe decisions.  We often use the model: Risk = Probability X Consequences.  When making a decision in the backcountry, we need to get the consequences of our actions or the probability of bad things happening as close to zero as we can. If either probability or consequences is close to zero, then we can proceed. We think this model can work as well at home when your child is faced with normal teenage decisions as it does in the backcountry.

In a word where video games let players reboot and start again when they make a mistake, we love getting our students out in the outdoors, where decisions can actually have real consequences.  We hope your children will come back to you more eager to take reasonable risks and a little more versed at making good decisions.  Raising adolescents can be difficult. They are watching everything we adults do. It is our job to constantly model how we make good, reasonable, adult decisions. We’ll try hard to get it right and we hope some of it wears off!

Thanks always for your trust and support.

Best, Dock

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