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WanderingEng  ·  2213 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: March 28, 2018

My early hiking memories were one of two things: either Boy Scouts or parents. If it was Boy Scouts, it was a bunch of 13 year old assholes wearing cotton socks, blue jeans, those tan shirts, and a plastic rain poncho (because somehow it was always raining). I didn't know proper rain gear was an actual thing until years later. And we always car camped, so they were the same bland trails every other car camper walked down. If it was parents, they definitely weren't getting along, not arguing but neither happy with anything in life or in that day. Kids see that attitude as clear as day.

It was fifteen years before I did it on my own terms and found I liked it. I also learned that nothing we did in Boy Scouts was relevant to backpacking.

As an aside, I see in my niece what I think I experienced as a child: parents disappointed with life and a child who tries to make them happier (but can't). I don't know what to do about that.