"The Camper's Companion"

THE PACE OF TRAVEL

As with the importance of time, the pace of travel is going to be at the mercy of your children.  Pace is a self-imposed structure that children want nothing to do with on a long-range basis.  It's an alien concept to them and pushing it only makes them unhappy or rebellious.  No child's pace is ever going to match yours, so you might as well forget the issue.  Children are naturally energetic and capable of a tremendous output when it comes to outdoor activities.  Your problem won't be their capabilities, but keeping them from getting distracted. 

Stimulated adventuring children can find a great deal to keep them interested, most of which interferes with pace setting.  I can remember hikes we have had, each one's pace determined by what activity the children were involved in at the time.  There was the one where they played elves and swept the trail for us the whole way with make-believe brooms.  On another they built stick signs at every turn on the trail indicating which way to go.  There have been times when they wanted to collect leaves of every type or look for special stones.  This is a child's idea of a pace of travel, the kind that adapts to each moment.

On a larger scale, a whole trip operates this way.  If they find a place they like, why move on to the next?  They'd rather linger and enjoy what they've already found.  Work out a compromise.  Abandon your sense of a structured pace for a more sporadic one, one that keeps you moving, but allows children time to enjoy things along the way.  Unless you have a bus to catch or a train to meet, be as relaxed as you can.  In a world where time has come to be regarded as a vital part of daily life, adventuring is one of the few times you can ignore it.  Children naturally live in the present; we could do well to emulate them.  With children it's not the pace of travel that counts so much as the quality.