Sunday adventure- no devices

This weekend, my 8 year old daughter surprised me by stepping away from Minecraft, taking my hand, and asking me if I would go explore with her in the woods. I have been trying to get all of us to put our ever-present devices down for months, and I have sorely missed the adventures we used to have more frequently before she discovered games and before my husband and I stared at our phones so often.  I was feeling a little lazy and unfocused, and at first, I balked. I confess that, at times, I am so worn out at the end of the week that I take the path of least resistance.  But, I knew I couldn't let her down, and I put on my hiking clothes and set out with her.  My husband came along, but stayed near the house and focused on trail clearing so that we could have some Mommy/daughter bonding time.

Our home is on 2 acres in a wooded setting. Behind the house, behind our land, are hundreds of uncleared, undeveloped acres.  If you traverse this land out to the main road and cross it, there are probably at least a thousand more acres of woods.  There is a good deal of land in our part of the county that does not perc, and, given we have no city water, the land cannot be developed.  I could probably construct a 5 mile hike that only crosses our small road once, though most of this hike would be bushwhacking.  In fact, I have been disoriented and lost more than a couple of times, once approaching dusk.  I almost cried with relief when I finally saw a road in the distance. This time, given that I had an 8 year old in tow, I stuffed my phone in my pocket.  I figured that the GPS and maps function on my phone would be a safe last resort.  We followed the trail system that my husband and other neighbors have created, and soon stepped off into a deep grove of hardwood trees, followed by piney scrub. My daughter brought along her binoculars, and we occasionally sat on logs and looked for birds.  There were several climbing trees, and we both challenged ourselves by scaling them.  We found small quartz rocks and slipped some into our backpacks.

I asked her, "How would you like to get lost and try to find our way out?" She was thrilled by the prospect of being lost explorers.  I decided to not let her know I had GPS technology tucked away.  We forged on, deeper into the woods, far away from the trail system.  We crossed several streams. Occasionally, I could hear the sound of a car in the distance, but as we pushed further into undeveloped land, these sounds became faint and muffled.

We rested on a fallen log. I slipped a package of cheese crackers into her hand.  Crumbs spilled for the birds.  After another half hour, we reached the end of Hawk Ridge Road.  We crossed the road and entered the woods on the other side.  The trees grew larger, the streams wider, the thorns sharper.  I knew that, eventually, if we walked roughly parallel to the road that approaches our neighborhood, we'd bump into my mother's property in another half mile or so. It must have taken 45 minutes to bushwhack through that half mile, and we both had thorn cuts when we saw her backyard fence in the distance.  We walked through the back gate and let ourselves in.  I called my husband, who had no idea why we had been gone so long, and he drove over to pick us up.  We returned home, made hot chocolate and snacks, and snuggled on the sofa.  She asked me, "Aren't you glad we put our devices down and went on an adventure?"  I gave her a hug and a kiss and put my feet up, as she rested her head on my shoulder.