Take a Hike

It's Saturday morning, our Lab needs to stretch his legs — and so do my kids. But when I try to rally them for the our usual trip down to the neighbor's field and back, I'm met with about as much enthusiasm as if I'd asked them to watch a blob of Elmer's glue dry.

So this summer, I'm trying a new approach. After a quick online investigation, I drew up a list of about 15 different trails, all 5 to 20 minutes' drive from home.

Then I made an index card for each trail, with the name and location on one side and the trail's most kid-alluring feature on the other (trail ends at great sea-glass collecting beach; Beal's ice cream is on the way home; playground stop halfway; fairy house village to explore, etc.) I put all the cards into a baseball hat, and the kids will take turns each week choosing our Saturday hike.

Variety is the spice of walking as well as life and, at least in my family, it helps to play up the cool features of the place we're going instead of droning on about the health benefits of staying active. Even if there's a bit of grumbling in the car, it fades within minutes of stepping out.

Soon they're happily scrambling up a granite shoulder, hiding behind a fat pine tree until we catch up, or just soaking up the quiet stillness of the woods.

Our area is rich with paved paths and dirt trails of every sort, and I'm always stumbling across more. Chances are, you have more trails nearby than you think. To start building your list, check into the following resources:

• Your city or town hall's health and human services, conservation, or parks and recreation department
• Rails-to-Trails Conservancy – a nonprofit that turns abandoned railroad beds into paths for biking and walking (railtrails.org)
• Local Hikes – lists hikes near metropolitan areas, descriptions from local volunteers (localhikes.com)
• Trail Finder via the American Hiking Society web site – gives partial access to the extensive listings on Trail.com (americanhiking.org/trails)