Let There Be Light!
Written By Tracy Teare
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Since then it's been a lot easier to mount outdoor adventures. We bought headlamps for the girls, and I plotted short courses suitable for short legs. We take turns as head musher, packing the trail. Instead of intimidating the girls, the darkness seems to draw out questions aboutthe world around them. Where dothe deer — whose tracks they now recognize near the stream — hunker down on these frigid nights? What if they can't break the ice to drink? Why don't we see any bats?
On the way back home, giddy with the treat of being out after dark, Caitlin and Ellie often play tag or hide and seek, or become mini urban planners, making a stump store here, a house under a balsam canopy there.
Headlamps bring out the potential fun in winter darkness regardless of whether you live where there's snow. They don't, however, solve everything. It's still cold outside (we're big fans of fleece neck gaiters), bindings don't always stay put, and what your kids consider a mighty hike will probably strike you as a far cry from exercise. But there's something about those lights that sparks kids' senses and focuses their minds on the natural world in a way that daylight can't. Ellie says, "There are definitely more trees at night." Adds Caitlin, "I feel like a moose stomping around with big feet. They don't usually walk around in the daytime, you know."
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