BIKE-PACKING WITH YOUNGSTERS - SOME ADVICE
I now have five years of experience with Bodi (who has recently turned ten years old) doing bike-pack trips. I can safely say we did the best trip we’ve ever done this third week of October. I used my lessons from those earlier trips in order to make this trip one to remember.
I must admit I kinda burned out his older brother Jens on one of our first bike-pack trips five years ago. I plotted an ambitious route containing a fair amount of kilometers on the beach, and the only way we managed to reach home was the promise that he was allowed in the ferris wheel in the distance if he would make it. He did, but didn’t want to bike far anymore for months. The following year we went bike-packing, Jens agreed on joining me and his younger brother on a trip, but only because this was going to be a trip just five kilometers away from home. So we did. And we had fun. You really need a goal for a trip, but that goal doesn't have to be far away.
Lesson learned. Don't overdo it when they are young. For my kids it was about spending time together with dad on the bike, camping out and having fun. The distance wasn't important. At least not when they are young. Jens, who is now twelve and getting stronger, suggested to me the other week to do a trip “Tour Divide style”. I told him dad wasn’t ready for this yet and asked him to go easy on me, haha. Secretly, I am planning this one already :)
That one year we did a bike-packing trip with the three of us, only five kilometer from home, I learned another lesson: a one-on-one trip is better. I too still remember like yesterday that one weekend a year I camped out with my dad without my siblings. One weekend a year, you’ll experience pure harmony. With two or more siblings fighting for attention (or just fighting each other for fun) it won’t work as smoothly as a one-on-one trip.
This year, it was the first time me and the youngest did a two-nights trip. Not only because I had the time to do it, it was also to balance out the week in late November, when I will be away with Jens in Tenerife where he has a baseball tournament. After a two-minute discussion, in which Bodi expressed the ambition to do a difficult mountainbike course, we decided to bike towards Texel, an island in the Dutch Waddenzee, where you'll have a mountainbike course like that. The set-up of our bikes was of course matched to our strength. Bodi just him, a water bottle, a snack-pack attached to his handlebar and his stuffed monkey. In my Tailfin bike bags, I carried the tent, mats and sleeping bags, as well as a very light backpack with spare clothes.
The fact that we went to an island, made up for a ferry trip too. We biked the full 50 kilometers to the ferry on day one. It was the biggest distance we ever biked together and he told me he was so proud of himself, but he had a sore ass too. In anticipation of our night of camping in “the Dutch wild” I made sure the boat arrived in the twilight. After about 10 kilometers we found a quiet spot for our tent and I could prepare our traditional bike-pack dinner - dried pasta bolognese heated up with hot water from the Jetboil. The teamwork setting up the tent, preparing dinner and ‘beds’ was unmatched and after our dessert of a lot of chocolate, I read a long bedtime story before going to bed around 8.30 pm.
Day two was our 'mountainbike day'. So we biked to the course, did a nice lap, but I remembered the 'don't overdo it' rule and I googled not only a swimming pool, but also some seals to watch. On our way back, we even found an empty tennis court, where we could rent some rackets and a ball. Changing activities keeps the fun going and your kid will not be too focussed on the biking, which can be a little monotone. At the swimming pool we decided to book a hotel, because, as Bodi described, his tired bones needed some well deserved rest… Apparently, I had not slept very well because of my snoring. I personally looked forward to a nice dinner at a restaurant after the dried food we had the night before, but Bodi insisted on a simple snack dinner at that hotel room. So we did and after two days of biking, swimming and tennis, the amount of food he ate was impressive. Remember, they eat like wolves on those trips. At 08.30 pm, we were both ready to go to bed and we slept for 11 hours.
Day three was about getting home. We raced the 10 kilometers back to the ferry and we were proud of ourselves again for not missing it. And, with the sweat on my back, I doubted for a minute to bike the whole 50 kilometers back from there to home, but I looked at his face and decided we were going to take the train home. Don’t overdo it, Laurens. Do make sure there is an achievement to accomplish, but keep it fun. This way, they will probably want to go every year and the distance you will cover, will grow organically.
