Goldie Silverman, Writer

Rainy Days in Camp, Plan B, and C, and D…..

My son just made reservations for a three-generational camping trip to our favorite Oregon State Park, Jesse M. Honeyman, this summer. It made me think of another trip to Honeyman, many years ago, when it rained and rained. We didn’t go home. We drove into Florence, Oregon, the nearest town, and to Newport, where there was an aquarium with a whale who has since moved on. I don’t remember exactly what we did, beyond seeing the whale and a movie, but after two days the sun came out and we had five good days in the week to spend on the giant sand dunes that make this park so remarkable. The point I’m trying to make is that rain won’t necessarily spoil a camping trip if you plan ahead for that eventuality. Check out the towns within driving distance of your camp to see what amenities they might offer–a museum, a historic site, a fast food shop with an indoor playground. Tourist towns often have features like an arcade with games, electric carts, and so on. O.K. It’s not exactly a camping-outdoors-with-nature experience, but it is an opportunity for kids to have their parents’ undivided attention, and that’s what many students that I interviewed for Camping with Kids said they liked best about camping.

What if you’re camping at an isolated campground, with no town nearby? Then you have to prepare in advance some indoor–excuse me, in tent or in RV–activities to keep the kids occupied. Pack a new age appropriate board game, but don’t bring it out until you need it. Think back to the word games and alphabet games you played back in the days, and teach them to your kids. Sing together. My two-year-old grandchild loves the teapot song, the itsy bitsy spider, the wheels on the bus–we sang them over and over on our camping trip last summer. Bring out coloring books and crayons. Make up a story–create imaginary characters who have adventures. If your kids are old enough for string games, get a book from the library and practice all together making cat’s cradle and other constructions. Don’t forget to pack the string! What else can you think of? Put on your rain gear–you did pack rain gear for everyone, didn’t you?–go for a walk in the rain. Then come back to camp, drink hot chocolate, and write in your journal about the rain.

All of this assumes that your tent is waterproof and/or you have a good rain fly over it. If your tent leaks, then it’s another story. Check into a motel or go home.

Backpacking / Camping and Hiking Equipment / Camping and Hiking Tips / Family — No comments
10
Apr 10

Odor Beaters, Stinky Tents, and Urethane

One big tent, hanging in the garage

We own three tents. In recent years, as backpackers, we have been using only two of them. (See the larger of the two, the red tent behind me in the picture at the About Goldie page, taken at Crystal Lakes in Mt. Rainier National Park.) The third tent, an orange 5′ x9′ nylon camping tent coated with urethane waterproofing, remained rolled up and dry on a shelf in our store room. Last summer we took it out for two nights of car camping with our youngest grandchild. Ugh! The smell was awful, like stale urine! We set the tent up in the backyard in the sun for a few days, which helped a little, but it still stank. Not feeling like investing in a new tent, we took it with us, left all the vents open and spent as little time in it as possible. (Grandchild wouldn’t set foot in it, but stayed in her parents’ tent.) Now the grandchild wants to camp again next summer. Don consulted some sporting goods store clerks who said it is not the urea that smells but mildew under the urea. Don said he is familiar with mildew, and he’s sure the odor is urea. So he went on line, looking for products that get rid of dog and cat urine odors, and asked, “Is your product something that can remove this odor and make our tent livable again?”

Jodi Cole from BioFOG answered that their product SCOE10X will eliminate the urea odor from our tent, but if it is a mildew odor SCOE10X is not formulated to treat mold/mildew odors. The best treatment for that is to use a solvent like denatured alcohol.

Don wrote back. If he decided to treat for urea odor and mildew odor both, which should he do first? And Jody answered, SCOE10X will always need to be used as a pre-treatment to any other product.

So Don ordered the BioFOG product and soaked our big tent in a plastic tub for 45 minutes . Then he hung it up to dry in our garage, where it is still hanging, and might be hanging until we go camping next summer. See the picture. And it doesn’t stink anymore! Yea, Don! Yea, Jodi! Yea, BioFOG! You can find the product at: http://scoe10x.com.

Family / Health / Seattle — No comments
29
Mar 10

My Lovely Young Granddaughter, the Star Wars Scout Trooper

Sarah With Teaser, the Space-y Cat

Beautiful Sarah, Unmasked

At the Top! They Rock!

She did it! My love ly young granddaughter, and members of Garrison Titan, climbed 69 stories, 1311 steps, at the Columbia Tower, Seattle’s tallest building, to participate in THE BIG CLIMB on March 21, 2010. Here’s what she said: “We provided moral support and water to the climbers at the start of the troop, and eventually it was our turn to do the climbing! 1311 steps in just under 45 minutes.”

It was not just for fun. The climbers raised funds for research for Leukemia and Lymphoma. My granddaughter’s group raised over $700. I pledged one dollar per floor.

Backpacking / Camping With Kids / Camping and Hiking Tips / Health — No comments
28
Mar 10

National Parks Week–April 17 to 25

This came to me from the National Park Foundation Newsletter:

“Each year we take time in April to celebrate what we all have inherited as Americans: 84 million acres of the world’s most spectacular scenery, historic landmarks and cultural treasures.

“This National Park Week, we invite you to celebrate your ownership. Visit the parks, volunteer in them, and–most importantly–pass them on to our youngest generation. Bring a young person to one of our nearly 400 national parks. See their eyes light up when you tell them they’re part owners of the spectacular mountains, waterfalls and canyons before them. Entrance fees will be waived at all national parks all through the week – so it’s a great time to get outside and enjoy the parks!

“So, want to get involved? It’s easy. This National Park Week, which also coincides with Earth Day, help guarantee the future of our environment and the legacy of our American history—share a park and shape a life.

“Learn more at www.nationalparkweek.org.”

This is a great opportunity for families to visit the National Parks near their homes without having to pay entrance fees. You’ll learn about the parks so you can plan for future visits, and the parks benefit too–the more people know about them, the more they are protected! The theme for National Parks Week is Share a park, and shape a life. It’s a win-win situation.

Backpacking / Camping With Kids / Camping and Hiking Equipment / Camping and Hiking Tips — No comments
12
Mar 10

A Camping Necessity: Blue (or any other color) Tarp

A blue tarp in place

It won’t take up a lot of room in your camping gear, but a big tarp, a lot of rope, and a couple of extra tent poles can come in handy or possibly save the day on your next camping trip. The tarp in the picture covered our picnic table and the camp kitchen (stove, water jug, ice chest, sealed food containers, dishpan, etc.) that we leave out on the table all day and night. We tied the tarp to trees, shrubs, two tent poles and the back hatch of our car.

A long rope across the center created a peak high enough to stand under while we cooked and cleaned up. As the dew began to fall, we (and all our kitchen gear) stayed dry. If it had started to rain, we would have appreciated our blue tarp even more. At night, when we closed up the car, the tarp came down and covered the picnic table. We weighed it down with two or three full water bottles so it wouldn’t blow away. In the morning, we carefully lifted up the tarp, let the dew run off, and raised it up again.Walking around the campground, we saw lots of blue tarps in use. Some were shading card players and readers in the middle of the afternoon, and some were sheltering active babies in play pens from the intense sun. And they were all blue! Do tarps come in any other color? If so, we didn’t see any.

Africa / Travel — 1 comment
08
Mar 10

More About My Favorite Namibian

Goldie modeling Priscilla's sarong

It was the last morning of our stay in Namibia, the second stop in Overseas Adventure Travel ‘s fabulous five-week tour, Out of Africa. We gathered in the lodge after breakfast for a lecture on women’s lives. Priscilla talked to us about education, marriage, childbirth, work. She called me forward to demonstrate the woman’s traditional garment, a sarong that she could wrap around her waist like a skirt , or drape around her shoulders as a shawl, or wrap around her body as a baby carrier. Her sarong was black and white, with a print of giraffes. Then it was time to leave. The staff of the Lianshulu Bush Lodge sang a farewell, and we boarded the passenger boat that would take us down the Kwando River to our landing in Botswana. At the same time, the staff loaded our bags on a much faster boat, Priscilla at the helm with the giraffe sarong wrapped around her shoulders. Their boat raced ahead of us to get our bags unloaded before we arrived. When we reached the Botswana checkpoint, Priscilla told me that the wind had blown her shawl away, and it was lost in the river. I asked her how much it had cost, and she said $7. I thought at the time, I wish I could buy her a new length of cotton, but of course there was no place to shop on that isolated river bank.

Botswana’s Okavango Delta was our next stop, and then Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe. No place anywhere to buy a new sarong. Our last stop in this first half of the trip was the city of Victoria Falls. We stayed in a real hotel, not a camp, but around the corner was an enormous crafts market. There is little work in Zimbabwe beyond tourism; very hungry people begged us to buy their wood carvings, their beadwork, their baskets, but I was already loaded down with crafts of three countries. Finally I saw what I was looking for: on a raised platform I saw heaps and piles of fabric. As I approached the women unfolded their wares and held them up for me, bright prints in every color you can imagine, but I was firm. “I want giraffes,” I kept repeating, “I want giraffes.” I didn’t hope to find black and white giraffes, I thought any giraffe print would do, but then I saw it! The very same black and white print that Priscilla and I had worn in Namibia. The negotiations began. This kind of back-and-forth bargaining is customary in many countries, but I hate it. Still I know it is expected. The seller started with an exorbitant price, $12. (Zimbabwe’s money system is non-existent. All commerce is done in US dollars or South African rand.) I countered with $4. She came down and I went up. We were at $7 and I thought she would come down to $6, but then I remembered what Priscilla had told me and I decided that $7 was the right price to pay.

Goldie modeling new sarong for Priscilla

The new sarong for Priscilla

Back at the hotel, I had Don take a picture of me modeling the new sarong. I asked our guide, Abiot, if he would take a new sarong to Priscilla if I bought one, and he said he would be going back to Lianshulu Bush Lodge on his next trip and would be happy to take it. “I knew you would say that!” I told him. “I already bought it!” That was on October 30. On December 2 I had an email from Nadja, the other manager of the lodge. “Priscilla has asked me to reply on her behalf. She has just received the letter and Sarong you sent for her with Abiot. Thank you so much for your kind thoughts and she cannot begin to express how much she appreciates it!”

Africa / Travel — No comments
01
Mar 10

My Best Photo from Africa: A Rainbow in Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania

My Best Photo from Africa: Ngorongoro Crater

It was raining when we reached our hotel on the edge of Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania. The crater was full of mist. Everyone in our group went off to their rooms to read, rest, write in their journals or do laundry. Only Don and I remained in the mist on the big deck overlooking the crater. I had never carried a camera on our previous trips, but I was tired of always having to poke Don and say, “Take that one! Take that one!” For this trip I asked for a camera easy to use, and Don chose for me a Nikon coolpix L20. My grandson set it up for easy auto mode, and one of the guides in Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe showed me how to access sixteen other modes, including landscape. That’s how I had it set that afternoon on the edge of the crater, waiting for the mist to clear. Finally we began to see the bottom of the crater, where there was a small pond. The sun came out, and there was this rainbow, cutting through the mist and reflected in the pond. This was my best picture in traveling for five weeks in the fall of 2009 on the Out of Africa trip with Overseas Adventure Travel.

Camping With Kids / Camping and Hiking Tips / Health — No comments
26
Feb 10

Choking Accidents in Children and Risky Foods

Recently I read that the American Academy of Pediatrics wants parents to know that choking is one of the leading causes of injury and death in children, especially those under three years of age, and aspirated food is the most dangerous threat to children’s airways. In the second edition of Backpacking With Babies and Small Children, and in each subsequent edition including the most recent Authors Guild Backinprint.com Edition, I wrote:

“When you plan your menus for your hiking trips, be sure the foods you take are age-appropriate for your family. According to surveys conducted by Johns Hopkins University, the following foods were most often involved in fatal choking episodes in children under age five:

Hot dogs, sausages
Round candy
Peanuts, nuts
Grapes
Hard cookies, biscuits
Meat chunks or slices
Raw carrot slices or sticks
Peanut butter, peanut butter sandwiches
Apple chunks or slices
Popcorn”

In the third edition of Backpacking With Babies and Small Children, I added: “All of these are foods you might take with you when you hike. If you do, be sure your children are seated, not walking around, when they eat them. Cut the food into pieces small enough for your child to handle. Don’t introduce new solids on this list to your infant on a camping trip.” On the same page I wrote: “A child hiking along with a piece of hard candy in her mouth could easily choke on it. A mouthful of any food is a danger while walking, and candy on a stick is particularly perilous.”

Backpacking / Camping With Kids / Camping and Hiking Equipment / Camping and Hiking Tips / On Writing — No comments
12
Feb 10

Backpacking With Babies And Small Children is back in print

Backpacking With Babies And Small Children, which has been out of print for many years, has been re-issued as An Authors Guild Backinprint.com Edition by iUniverse. Look for it from iUniverse, Amazon, or Barnes & Noble. Like Camping With Kids (Wilderness Press), which is still available, Backpacking With Babies contains the wisdom of many, many camping and backpacking families. The phone numbers and URLs may be no longer viable, but the information on How To Backpack and Camp and keep the whole family safe and happy is ageless and universal. The new edition is an exact replica of the third edition, except for the new cover and new photo opposite the title page.

Backpacking With Babies And Small Children was first published in 1975 by Signpost Publications, the book division of Signpost, the news magazine for hikers in the Northwest that later evolved into Washington Trails Association. The idea for the book came from Louise Marshall, the founder of both Signpost and WTA. When that first edition went out of print, the book was taken over by Wilderness Press of Berkeley, CA, which brought out both the second edition (1986, re-printed in ’88, ’91, and ’94) and the third edition (1998). Then it went out of print until rescued as An Authors Guild Backinprint.com Edition.

Backpacking / Camping With Kids / Camping and Hiking Equipment — No comments
08
Feb 10

The Diaper Dilemma: Cloth or Disposable? Part 3

So here you are, readying the family for a camping trip, and you are still undecided: which kind of diapers to pack? Here are the reports of conversations with parents who offered their experience to me when I was researching CAMPING WITH KIDS:

Disposable diapers are less of a hassle, they said. Just toss the big package into the car.

I had to argue with them, and they admitted, it’s true disposables take up lots of space. And how disposable are they? I asked. Leaving them in the trash at a campground is not good camping behavior. Parks these days have limited services; garbage pick-up is sometimes infrequent. It’s not unusual to see stacks of garbage bags outside of overly full garbage containers. And tossing used diapers into the vault of a pit toilet? That’s a real no-no. The diapers won’t biodegrade for years, and meanwhile the pit will fill and will require a replacement in a short time. Same with a chemical porta-potty; diapers in the vault will necessitate more frequent, and costly, emptying. My argument continued: If you’re thinking about burning the diapers in your campfire, think again! Do you really want to release the fumes from a burning diaper into the air of your campsite? What if you plan to cook there? For people who choose to take disposable diapers on a camping trip, the most ecologically sound method of disposal is to pack them up and take them home. Then dispose of them there as you usually do. (And by the way, the same goes for the rest of the garbage.)

Taking them home is what most parents do who take cloth diapers when they camp. A supply for a whole weekend can be crammed into available spaces left between pots and pans, toys, and other camping equipment. A diaper pail with a tight lid, or a double plastic bag with a tight seal, holds the used diapers. (The bag takes up much less space than the pail.) Families that go out for more than a weekend told me that some campgrounds have laundry facilities, or they visit a laundromat in a nearby town when they drive in to replenish groceries. When they unpack at the end of the trip, the used diapers are laundered just as they always are at home.

I was surprised to learn, from a man who told me they always take cloth diapers on camping trips, that they wash diapers in camp! Even camping in our damp Olympic National Park, he said, they washed diapers. They carry only twelve diapers on each trip. They carry a wash basin which they use for bathing the baby, washing dishes, and also washing diapers. They rinse the diapers first, wash them in hot water heated on their propane stove, and then rinse again. Then, this is the neat part, the parents get almost all of the water out of the diaper by standing opposite each other, each holding one end of the diaper, twisting it as tightly as they can. The slightly damp diapers are spread out on shrubs around the campsite or hung up on a clothesline, preferably in sunshine, where they dry very quickly. Even on damp days, my correspondent assured me, the diapers dry under a rain fly.

Goldie Silverman, WriterWritings on Backpacking and Camping With Kids