Shenandoah River Trip Allows Kids to Give in to Nature

Kids love to play in the mud, when encouraged or even just allowed. Perhaps I'm an optimist, but I believe that kids exposed to the outdoors will love the outdoors. If you've watched small children play near rivers or on rocks, you know what I mean. There's something instinctual about it. They love it. And so do I.

This week, I took 6 sixth graders from Harford Friends School on a hike along the C & O Canal Trail and on a canoe trip along the Shenandoah River. The children had never skipped rocks nor swum in a river. But they knew their history, and I could see they were taking it all in firsthand: How river transport gave way to canals, which gave way to railroads, which gave way to highways, which is giving way to the information superhighway--and obesity, ill-health, depression and vitamin D deficiency.

But out there on the river, humanity shone through. The kids took tentative steps toward me as I stood in the middle of a mild rapid. They said: There are rocks here; I know how to swim--in clear water; I just got poked by a stick. Their parent-chaperone plopped into knee-deep current to sit, eat his sandwich and watch. Before long, kids and chaperone alike were leaping into the current, riding the wave train and trying to swim upstream. Way better than a pool? You bet!

--Linda Basilicato

Above: Children play in the mud along the banks of the Susquehanna River. Photo by Brian Horey at www.brianthephotoguy.com