Our Summer Adventure
Sail to the top, c'est la vie
When we in our family has free time, it is the mountains or the forest that call. We always go […]
When we in our family has free time, it is the mountains or the forest that call. We always go up to the mountains a few times a year. This is something that we have been doing since the children were young. For us, it has been important to give our children an alternative to the intense life that we live in everyday life with constant impressions from, for example, screens, phones and car traffic. The children have now learned to appreciate the stillness, to invent new games, compete for who can dip in a mountain stream or just hike in silence for a while. It is noticeable that for them nowadays it is a natural element to be out on longer excursions including tents and hiking.
However, a challenge during our adventures has always been the type of food that we should take with us. It should partly be to the children’s taste, but also be relatively easy to carry and take up little space.
When we got KIDS’ Tactical Foodpack products home, it was immediately a success. Preventing the kids from opening the colorful packages was a challenge. Of course, they wanted to open these at once, especially when they read that it said “chocolate” on the packaging. The fact that the children knew that in each package there was an extra surprise did not make matters any easier.
This summer we decided to, among other things, climb a mountain peak of 1460 moh with a height difference of 716m and a distance that as a round trip measured 12.2 km. We knew this would be at the limit of what our 6-year-old would be capable of but we decided to give it a try anyway. Something that we have noticed during these years is that the hikes have become easier as the children have been responsible for something during the tour so that they had a task to focus on. With Tactical foodpack KIDS smart design, it became obvious that the children during this tour would be responsible for their own food. We quickly adjusted the shoulder straps on the KIDS’ Tactical foodpack Backpacks so that these could be carried as a backpack by the kids. With a DESERT combo and a RIVER combo on our backs, we started the rather heavy hike up the mountain. After an hour or so of hiking, we took the first break. The kids decided they wanted to start by sharing an Oatmeal with apples. While the children ran and fetched water in a nearby stream, we began to unpack the gas stove. When the water finally started to boil and it was time to pour it into the package, it smelled of apple pie all over the mountain. And I think we all waited a little impatiently for 10 minutes to get a taste. The children thought it tasted like a dessert and we adults only had time to get one bite each before it was over. Since due to quite strong winds it had taken us a while to boil the water for the first meal, we decided, full and happy, to boil some extra water to have for the lunch bags. We poured the hot water into a thermos to be able to prepare a very quick lunch later. The kids chose to open the bag of Pineapple chips and eat these as snacks along the way, success!
When we had walked another hour or so in steep terrain and the motivation began to run out, the children had to open their presents that were in the bags, what happiness! There, a frisbee suddenly unfolded itself and suddenly the previously so tired legs were now running perkyly up the mountain again.
Since we already had hot water for lunch, it only took 10 minutes to get it ready. Lunch consisted of Pasta Bolognese and Mashed potatoes & chicken, both equally popular. After a rest, we then continued the last tough climb up to the top.
Once up at the top, the kids got to celebrate by sharing a Crunchy chocolate muesli to get some energy back. We sat there at the top for a while in silence, just enjoying the view and our amazing performance, we had reached the top.
As snacks on the way down, we nibbled on Apple chips and I think we could have had a whole backpack filled with such, that is how good it was.
KIDS’ Tactical Foodpack ensured that the children were given an important meaningful task during the hike. Since the food was so much appreciated, the children got the energy they needed to cope with such a tough challenge. The children also forgot about their tired legs for long periods of time when they got to play with the toys that were in the bag. And last but not least, the bags were perfect to use as garbage bags when all food was eaten. Because you know well that what you take with you up the mountain, you also take it back with you.
Text by Dimitrij Proskorin