Best winter walks (and more) with children: Boston South

We continue our series of posts on favorite winter outings for families with children, featuring recommendations from AMC chapter trip leaders and staff. We started in the White Mountains and moved south to Boston’s western suburbs. Now we hear from Boston Chapter family trips leader Heather Hodgson DePaola with suggestions for winter outings in Boston’s southern metro area.

Several of DePaola’s favorite walks — the first three listed here — are in land protected by The Trustees of Reservations. In 1890, Boston architect Charles Eliot, who would become an originating force behind Acadia National Park, proposed that a volunteer conservation organization be created to hold land free of taxes for the public to enjoy “just as a Public Library holds books and an Art Museum holds pictures.” The Trustees of Reservations conserve and care for more than 25,000 acres of forest, wetland, and open space around Massachusetts.

Noanet Woodlands, Dover. DePaola and her daughter, Mckinlee consider this nearly 600-acre Trustees of Reservations preserve “home” territory and visit it in all four seasons. It’s a short drive from their home in Dover. DePaola used to bring Mckinlee in a baby backpack to the top of the hill with its spectacular views of the Boston skyline. Now that Mckinlee is walking on her own, they are just as likely to explore the little ponds around the preserve.

Noon Hill, Medfield. The short trail of another Trustees of Reservations preserve, Noon Hill, leads to a gentle summit and sweeping views. The DePaolas especially like the loop trail around Holt Pond.

Rocky Woods, Medfield. Two brooks, many ponds, and wetlands in nearly 500 acres means there’s always something new at Rocky Woods. In the winter, that can mean exploring the many varieties of ice — the lacy edges of frozen ponds, panes of ice on the trail that are fun to stomp, ice pockets tucked away — and then sharing a winter snack at a picnic table.

Blue Hills Ski Area, Canton. This small downhill ski and snowboard area is still very much in operation and makes for a great winter outing all by itself. DePaola also likes the trails maintained by the ski area and nearby Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory, a one-mile uphill walk from the ski area parking lot. Check ahead for tours of the weather station. The observatory is offering kite-flying lessons on President’s Day, February 22.

Elm Bank, Wellesley. The Massachusetts Horticultural Society, fondly known as “Mass Hort,” is the oldest horticultural institution in the United States. The 36-acre hands-on horticulture center offers adults and children the opportunity to experience, enjoy, and learn about plants and the environment. “Weezie’s Winter Story Hour” is held every Friday in February from 10 to 11 a.m. in the Education Building. The Charles River runs along one side of the center, and DePaola and Mckinlee often take “great strolls” along the river, where there are always ducks and other waterfowl, even in winter, and dogs along the trail for Mckinlee to enjoy.

Children’s Museum, Boston. On some days, the best winter outing for DePaola mother and daughter is to walk to the commuter rail stop near their house, take the train in to Boston, and walk to the Children’s Museum. Sometimes, that’s all the weather lets you do — whether it’s raining or snowing outside or whether it’s a tired child who’s having a stormy day...

Next, we will explore winter outings for families in Connecticut, then winter walks with children in the Delaware Valley end this series. I hope you’ll share your best winter walks with us, too.

Learn more
- Read 5 tips from AMC family trip leaders for winter outings.
- 3 “Best Winter Walks” in the White Mountains
- 5 “Best Winter Walks” in Boston’s western suburbs

Photo credits: Heather DePaola

“Great Kids, Great Outdoors” is an AMC Outdoors blog, written by Kristen Laine.

Best winter walks (and more) with children: Boston West

This is the second in a series on best winter walks with children. AMC chapter trip leaders and staff have compiled lists of their favorite winter outings for families. We started in the White Mountains, with suggestions from AMC senior interpretive naturalist Nancy Ritger. Now we move to exploring winter with children in the suburbs around Boston.

Eddy Luttmer “retired” from leading family trips for AMC’s Boston Chapter on the last day of 2009. Now that his children are older — his daughter is 22, his son is 18 — he’s looking forward to following their lead in the outdoors. He drew on his own parenting experience, as well as 14 years of leading family trips, for the following list of winter outings in and around Boston’s western suburbs.

Mt. Misery, Lincoln. This close-in peak off Route 117 jumped immediately to Luttmer’s mind. “It has a nice network of trails,” he says, with great views of the Sudbury River.

Walden State Park, Concord. “Obviously,” Luttmer says, Walden pond and the surrounding woods are a great natural retreat in any season, but for locals, some of the appeal of a winter visit is the absence of crowds. Henry David Thoreau wrote in Walden, “Every winter the liquid and trembling surface of the pond, which was so sensitive to every breath, and reflected every light and shadow, becomes solid to the depth of a foot or a foot and a half, ... and it is not to be distinguished from any level field. Like the marmots in the surrounding hills, it closes its eyelids and becomes dormant for three months or more.” Trails are open for snowshoeing and cross-country skiing, and also for simple rambling.

Cat Rock Park, Weston. The downhill ski area that ran here for two decades starting in the 1950s left open slopes that make for accessible “back-country” skiing and snowshoeing only a few miles from downtown Boston. In spite of the name, the park has become known as a leash-free area for dogs.

Cutler Park, Newton Highlands. In the summer, Luttmer and his children ride fat-tire bikes along the trails of this well-known green space right next to Interstate 95 (take the Kendrick Street exit). When there’s snow in the winter, those same trails make for great cross-country skiing.

Auburndale Park, Newton. Luttmer recommends this park for families with younger children because of its combination of playground, walking paths along the Charles River, and small-scale nature walks.

The next post explores southern Boston. After that, we learn about great places for families to go in the winter in the Delaware Valley and Connecticut. I hope you’ll share your own thoughts and ideas, too.

Learn more
- Read 5 tips from AMC family trip leaders for winter outings.
- 3 "Best Winter Walks” in the White Mountains

Photo credit: Pick-up hockey at Auburndale Park. Newton Conservators.

“Great Kids, Great Outdoors” is an AMC Outdoors blog, written by Kristen Laine.

Winter's Children: 5 tips from AMC family trip leaders

Ever hear these words? I'm cold. Why are we doing this? I lost my mittens!

If you have, you know the special challenges of being outdoors with children in the winter. How do we encourage hesitant children — and perhaps ourselves — to enjoy the cold air, snow, and even the freezing rain? AMC family trip leaders have lots of experience with this question, and some tips to help answer it. (See below for links to specific recommendations for child-friendly winter outings.)

Explore close to home. "We stay a little more local in the winter," says AMC Boston Chapter family trips leader Heather DePaola, who is mother of Mckinlee, age 3. Last winter, DePaola carried her daughter in a backpack, but discovered that she kept taking off her mittens. Instead of the longer hikes that DePaola had imagined, mother and daughter took advantage of trails near their home in Dover, MA, maintained by The Trustees of Reservations. One of their favorite walks goes through the Noanet Woodlands, a 600-acre preserve dotted with little ponds, to the top of a hill with an expansive view of Boston's skyline. "She's a little better about wearing mittens this year," DePaola says, but they will continue exploring local places.

Be flexible. Pick walks or hikes that give options for bailing out or changing course along the way. "We look for short, point-to-point hikes," says Linda Dallas, a member of the Delaware Valley Chapter, "and hikes that we can shorten" by taking different routes back to the car.

Make it an outing. Debra Rich looks for ways to motivate children on the trips she leads for AMC's Connecticut Chapter. "If I just lead them through the woods, they're going to be asking, 'What's the point? Why are we doing this?'" The castle that looks as if it belongs on a Harry Potter movie set in Sleeping Giant State Park in Easton, CT, is a favorite destination of Rich's 8-year-old son, Zachary. John Urick, Delaware Valley Chapter trip leader, notes, "It's always good to stop for ice cream" — even in winter.

Dress for success. "The key to winter hiking is adjusting layers," says Urick. It's hard enough for adults to dress so that they don't overheat or get cold, he notes, and even harder with young kids. "You don't want them to have a miserable experience and not want to do it anymore."

Dallas sometimes "borrows kids" to encourage her 6-year-old daughter, Sadie, on their winter treks. Some of those young friends show up without the basics, like warm boots. She keeps a stash of extra winter clothing for such situations. "I've learned that plastic bread wrappers work almost as well as wool" in keeping cotton-clad feet warm.

Gear — hiking poles, hand warmers, traction devices — can make winter hikes safer, more fun, and motivating, too. And one piece of "gear" that never fails: a thermos of hot chocolate.

Take advantage of the season. The Dallas family prefers to hike the Tekening Trail in Martin's Creek, PA, during the winter months because "all the ticks are dead then." At the same time, they can watch for ducks and other migratory waterfowl on the Delaware River, which winds along one side of the trail. They also make regular winter pilgrimages to Ricketts Glen State Park, in Benton, PA, which is known for its many waterfalls. The park often closes longer trails during the winter, but Dallas has discovered that her family can reach one of the falls by hiking only about 100 yards in from the road. They've taken to calling that special place "Icicle Heaven."

Toward the end of winter, visit maple sugaring operations. Such outings reassure children and parents alike that winter won't last forever — and sugar on snow is a treat that kids will remember long after. Later this month, Rich will lead a "Sugar Maple Hike" in Naugatuck State Park for the Connecticut Chapter. She's planned a 45-minute hike that starts and ends near an operating sugar shack. There will even be an outdoor petting zoo. And of course she'll bring hot chocolate — and maybe marshmallows, too.

Read more "Best Winter Walks with Children" lists from AMC trip leaders over the next week on the "Great Kids, Great Outdoors" blog.


Learn more
- Noanet Woodlands, Dover, MA
- Tekening Trail, Martin's Creek, PA
- Ricketts Glen State Park, Benton, PA
- Sugar Maple Hike, Naugatuck State Park
- You can also view a complete Family Outdoor Resource Guide on AMC's website.

“Great Kids, Great Outdoors” is an AMC Outdoors blog, written by Kristen Laine.

Best winter walks (and more) with children: White Mountains

You’ve packed the warm clothes, the thermos of hot chocolate and snacks, maybe the snowshoes or cross-country skis, and yourselves. You want a winter outing that doesn’t involve lift tickets or the mall. What to do?

AMC chapter trip leaders and staff have compiled lists of their favorite winter outings for families with children. Suggestions range from short walks for children in backpacks or still finding their cold-weather legs to short-but-steep challenges. Some of the outings include activities, too.

We’ll start with the North Country, explore the suburbs around Boston, and discover winter’s beauty in the Delaware Valley and in Connecticut. I hope you’ll share your own favorite winter walks in these and other areas as we go along.

In this first post of the series, Nancy Ritger, senior interpretive naturalist at AMC’s White Mountains headquarters in Gorham, NH, offers a local’s trio of suggestions at three levels of difficulty.

Diana’s Baths in North Conway. An easy walk on level ground brings you to what could be the winter baths of the goddess of the hunt, complete with crystal and ornate designs, all formed from ice. One mile roundtrip. Take the Moat Mountain Trail off West Side Road about 0.3 mile south of the Conway-Bartlett town line.

Saco River Ski Loop, Bartlett. Ritger suggests that novice skiers explore scenic cross-country ski trails along the Saco River maintained by Bear Notch Ski Touring Center in Bartlett. Some of the touring center trails go right into the Village of Bartlett and by the Bear Notch Deli, where hot chocolate is sure to be on the menu.

Square Ledge, Gorham. Families searching for a more challenging outing that doesn’t take all day need only look across the road from the Pinkham Notch Visitor Center. Square Ledge Trail begins at the same trailhead as the Lost Pond Trail. A steep (500-foot elevation gain) but short (one-mile round trip) walk, snowshoe, or ski offers breathtaking views of Pinkham Notch and Mount Washington, especially the dramatic headwall of Huntington Ravine.

Next: Winter outings in the Boston metro area.

Learn more
- Directions to Diana’s Baths.
- Information about Bear Notch Ski Touring Center.
- Directions and trail information for Square Ledge on the AMC website.
- Read 5 tips from AMC family trip leaders for winter outings.

“Great Kids, Great Outdoors” is an AMC Outdoors blog, written by Kristen Laine.

Packing tips for the family ski trip

I wouldn’t normally consider the New York Times a go-to source for information on outdoor recreation, particularly on the nuts and bolts of packing for ski trips. I’ve spent nearly a lifetime on skis — my parents strapped me onto them (and it was straps, back then) as soon as I could walk — and I have time-tested systems that work. But I came away from reading a January 22 article in the Times with several solutions to persistent packing problems.

As in, we get to a ski area, and I’m digging through the rabbit warren of canvas bags, backpacks, and duffel bags in the back of the car, asking such questions as Where’s Virgil’s hat? I thought we packed Ursula’s gloves. (If you’re married, you know that statement functions as a question.) I know we have snowpants, but where are they?

Times sportswriter Bill Pennington offered a trio of tips to solve these problems. The first comes straight out of Parenting 101: Make children responsible for their own gear, at least once they’re of a certain age. Ursula, at 11, has clearly reached that age; at 7, Virgil may be there.

But then Pennington went a step further: Help them be responsible for their own gear by getting them to pack it in individual boot bags or backpacks, separate from their other clothing and off-slope gear. Pennington explained the value of having separate gear bags for each family member: “On the morning of your first day of skiing or riding, not only is there only one place to look for all that stuff, [but] should you have to drive to the mountain from your lodging, everyone takes his bags, carrying everything he needs into the lodge.” It’s a simple tweak of our current system that I can see immediately will smooth many of our trip wrinkles.

For the final tip in his packing trio, Pennington drew on the experience of Diane Mueller, a mother of two who also operates three ski resorts with her husband. For her skiing and snowboarding children, Mueller put together a checklist of everything that needed to go in those individual gear bags — boots, hats, goggles, gloves, helmet, chapstick... The kids had the list, but as Mueller said, “It was up to them to make sure they brought what they knew they would need.”

To that suggestion, I would add a back-pocket tip that might come in handy if you still want to ski while the responsibility lessons take hold. We keep a fabric bin in the back of the car with extra seasonal gear. In the winter the bin contains second-string wool socks, gloves, hats, extra jackets, even a sleeping bag and flashlights. (In the summer, we switch out the wool socks for terrycloth beach towels, swimming suits, tennis shoes, and sunscreen.)

It strikes me that these tips work well for other sports beyond downhill skiing and snowboarding. I wrote up my first gear checklists this morning for cross-country skiing .... and fencing and karate.

Learn more
Read the full New York Times article to learn the connection between instant oatmeal and easy ski weekends, and more.
Read an AMC Outdoors article on packing for winter hiking and camping trips.

Photo caption: What doesn't work.

“Great Kids, Great Outdoors” is an AMC Outdoors blog, written by Kristen Laine.

Nibbling away at the obesity epidemic

We’ve been hearing about the epidemic of childhood obesity for more than a decade. Every few years a new Centers for Disease Control (CDC) survey comes out, showing us how many more of our children are tipping the scales toward long-term health problems. The most recent shocking figure is that one in three American children is overweight or obese.

First Lady Michelle Obama put that figure up front in two recent speeches. On January 20, it topped the list of dire statistics she recited to the U.S. Conference of Mayors; on January 28, the day after the President’s State of the Union address, she quoted it in a speech in Alexandria, VA. Her appearances came in advance of a national campaign against childhood obesity that the First Lady is rolling out this next month. But statistics played a small role in these first speeches. If her language is any indication, Michelle Obama will make this an unusually personal campaign — with direct, simple appeals to families and teachers and community leaders.

She framed the epidemic in personal terms by telling a story, one many parents can relate to: As a working mom, she often turned to easy solutions to feed her children — fast food, take-out, pizza. At a check-up, the family’s pediatrician referenced one of the obesity battle statistics, one that cut close to home. Black teenage girls had the highest rate of childhood obesity — 27.7% — in the most recent CDC surveys. The “wake-up call” from their family doctor, as the First Lady called it, touched off a number of changes in the Obama household.

Each of the changes Obama mentioned in her speech was, by itself, a small one. She instituted a family rule against watching TV during the week. She put more fruit and vegetables on the table. Gave her daughters water instead of sugared drinks for their lunch boxes. Made sure that the family spent more time outside, riding bikes, going to parks.

Simple doesn’t mean simplistic. Research supports the First Lady: Add up such small change, and it can be the difference between health and health problems, between activity and inactivity, between a healthy weight and obesity. Without saying it in so many words, Michelle Obama has acknowledged that alarming statistics alone haven’t been enough to motivate a positive change in our nation’s habits. And this issue cannot be addressed through a single, big solution. That is the message that Michelle Obama hopes to share with other American families in her campaign, that “small changes can lead to big results.”

Her campaign doesn’t officially roll out until next month, but it is expected to focus on increasing opportunities for physical activity and on supporting better nutrition in school and at home, and will rely on local governments, schools, and families to make those small changes happen.

In her January 20 speech to U.S. mayors, a key on-the-ground group in her campaign, Obama highlighted successful, common-sense initiatives from around the country: the mayor of Arlington, Texas, who is a physician, gave children pedometers to encourage them to walk during summer vacation; the mayor of Columbia, Mo., is building walkways and bikeways; in Bowling Green, Ky., the mayor launched a website that encouraged citizens to use local parks and even provided trail maps.

Specific initiatives and proposals will emerge as the campaign unfolds. But in the examples she chose to share with the nation’s mayors, I was struck by how many of the success stories have something to do with kids being outdoors.

I think she’s onto something.


Learn more
• Statistics on childhood obesity from the CDC.
• Reports on Michelle Obama's speech to the U.S. Conference of Mayors and in Alexandria, VA.


“Great Kids, Great Outdoors” is an AMC Outdoors blog, written by Kristen Laine.

Outdoor Kids and Families at the AMC Annual Meeting

The Appalachian Mountain Club will hold its annual meeting on Saturday, January 30, at the Crowne Plaza Boston North Shore (formerly the Sheraton Ferncroft Resort) in Danvers, MA. This event is open to members and non-members — and to AMC’s youngest audience, children.

AMC is offering a special rate for young outdoorsfolk ages 12 and under: $15 for the full event program — the AMC Showcase Expo, workshops, and dinner. Dinner also includes the keynote speaker, adventure writer and photographer Jonathan Waterman, who will be talking about his journeys into Alaska’s Arctic Refuge. The expo opens at 8:30 a.m.; the workshops run in one-hour segments between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. The dinner and keynote begin at 6 p.m. (registration required).

Several workshops are of special interest to outdoors families:

Staying Found. This workshop talks to kids and their parents about the principles of preparation and safe travel in the woods, as well as what kids can do if they get lost. The workshop includes a video and hands-on activities for parents and kids, as well as a demonstration of what every kid should carry into the woods so they can stay Safe and Found.

Adventure Travel with Families. Have you ever thought that you have to give up on adventure when kids join the family? Think again. Bring the kids along to enjoy a presentation about the joys of big travel with the whole family. Leaders will share their experiences and photos of their favorite outdoor adventures with kids ranging in age from toddlers to teens.

Climate Change for Families. Bring the family for an interactive workshop about how climate change is affecting New England’s mountains, waters, and trails, and what you can do at home to reverse the trends. This program includes an overview of climate change and how New England may change over the next 100 years. It also explores what individuals, families, and communities can do to take action on climate change. Appropriate for ages 10 and up.

AMC’s Historical Film Fest. Grab some popcorn, sit back, and enjoy the show, as librarian and archivist Becky Fullerton presents historic films from AMC’s collections. These range from “home movies” of AMC trips to the White Mountains in the 1930s, hikes on Katahdin in the 1940s, and whitewater paddling in the early 1970s. Some are narrated, others are silent, but all have fascinating stories to tell.

Favorite AMC trail games. This participatory workshop especially for kids will be held concurrently with the business meeting, from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m.


Learn more
Registration information, online sign-ups, directions, and more on the AMC website.

“Great Kids, Great Outdoors” is an AMC Outdoors blog, written by Kristen Laine.