083: Lessons from Dad

Show Notes: Episode 083

Today on the First 40 Miles, fathers play such a critical role in helping their children discover and love the outdoors. Today we celebrate and honor Fathers for their role in family adventures! Then, today’s Top 5 List, we spotlight the “Father of Our National Parks”. Next, on Ready for Adventure, we plan a backpacking trip along the Batona Trail in New Jersey. For Today’s Backpack Hack of the Week, we’ll share a hack that is totally gross, but hey, it works. And we’ll wrap up the show with a little trail wisdom from, well, not John Muir. He already got a turn.

Opening



* Conversation with Hiking Dad (Twitter: @dadhikes)

* Getting outside with kids

* Birdwatching, plant identification

* Memories of time at Mount Rainier with Dad



Top 5 Gems from the Father of the National Parks from his book, Our National Parks

From this book comes John Muir’s well-loved and oft-quoted line “Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity”

This is the 100 year Anniversary of our National Parks.

Bear Encounter

Probably best to not ask WWJMD?

“When I discovered him, he was standing in a narrow strip of meadow, and I was concealed behind a tree on the side of it. After studying this appearance as he stood at rest, I rushed toward him to frighten him, that I might study his gait in running. But, contrary to all I had heard about the shyness of bears, he did not run at all; and when I stopped short within a few steps of him, as he held his ground in a fighting attitude, my mistake was monstrously plain. I was then put on my good behavior, and never afterward forgot the right manners of the wilderness.”

Wildness

“None of Nature’s landscapes are ugly so long as they are wild; But the continent’s outer beauty is fast passing away, especially the plant part of it, the most destructible and most universally charming of all.”

Force of Nature

“We see Nature working with enthusiasm like a man, blowing her volcanic forges like a blacksmith blowing his smithy fires, shoving glaciers over the landscapes like a carpenter shoving his planes, clearing, ploughing, harrowing, irrigating, planting, and sowing broadcast like a farmer and gardener, doing rough work and fine work, planting sequoias and pines, rosebushes and daisies; working in gems, filling every crack and hollow with them; distilling fine essences; painting plants and shells, clouds, mountains, all the earth and heavens, like an artist,–ever working toward beauty higher and higher.”

The Sierras

Classic Muir Prose…so enlightening, uplifting, and inspiring

“Benevolent, solemn, fateful, pervaded with divine light, every landscape glows like a countenance hallowed in eternal repose;”

Being Stealth

“The trees,” they say, “are fine, but the empty stillness is deadly; there are no animals to be seen, no birds. We have not heard a song in all the woods.” And no wonder! They go in large parties with mules and horses; they make a great noise; they are dressed in outlandish unnatural colors; every animal shuns them. Even the frightened pines would run away if they could. But Nature-lovers, devout, silent, open-eyed, looking and listening with love, find no lack of inhabitants in these mountain mansions, and they come to them gladly.

Read Our National Parks

Ready for Adventure: Batona Trail

BATONA stands for BAck TO NAture

53.5 Mile trail in New Jersey

What intrigued you about this trail? What was the draw?



* Great for beginners because it’s so flat, yet so long,