The Joys of Outdoors from a Kid’s Point of View
At the end of May msnbc.com posted an article asking At National Parks, Where Are All the Young People? One of the reasons for the declining attendance in the article was that young people have a lot of distractions. I wish I could say that a lot of these distractions are playing organized sports with their friends. Unfortunately, when I ask my students every Monday what they did over the weekend many answer that they were playing some sort of video game. Or watching something on TV. While my students would have to travel upwards of two hours to get to the nearest National Park there are excellent town and state parks within 15 minutes of where they live. To help combat some of this TV and video game obsession we have enlisted 12 year old Bailey to share some of her experiences in the outdoors. In the fall Bailey got 3rd place for girls at the Merrell Down and Dirty National Mud Run in NYC but more recently she took to a local state park for National Trails Day.
EMS Kid reporter Bailey the Blogger
The ONLY thing that got me out of bed was when I heard my mom say, “We will get donuts on the way.” It had been raining but I am never one to turn down some Dunkin Donuts. I said ok, got my waterproof Tevas and hit the road with my mom, her friend, and my friend Em. We arrived through the puddle filled tunnel at Bluff Point and pulled up sighting 4 little swan ducklings and their snow white parents. We took several pictures of the beautiful creatures, then we were ready to hike on National Trails Day. 
My mom and her friend were testing out their new waterproof shoes and soon I decided to join them in the puddles. When I noticed that this was the place we went paddle boarding the other day I got even more excited! I realized that this was probably going to be a fun day walking along the shore rather than sitting at home watching SpongeBob.
At the trail head we had a view gazing off at the ocean and smelling the fresh sea breeze. Walking along enjoying nature I ran ahead and saw a sign that said “to all equestrian riders please stay on course” I got sooooo excited knowing that horseback riders are here because of my love for horses. I immediately started asking my mom if I could ride here sometime. Farther down we stopped at a path to the beach and explored the shore. We scrambled up massive rocks and found crabs.
I didn’t get wet from the rain at all because of my waterproof system three EMS rain jacket! I did ending up walking too far into the water and soon my shoes filled up. My SmartWool socks were now clogged with water and it was quite an odd feeling squishing around. We stopped for a break and shared Lemonade Honey Stingers and Chocolate Mint Cliff Bars. I also took some gulps of water from my CamelBak hydration pack that mom and I took turns carrying. Too soon it was time to start walking back. On our way Em and I spotted kayakers on the water, this made me smile. There is so much to do here, I wish we had more time to spend climbing the rocks and looking for crabs.
I encourage all kids to turn the TV and video games off, explore the wild things in nature, and be an EMS kid! Trust me you’ll love it once you get out there!
Nice writing, Bailey! Hopefully some kids will read this and remember that getting out in nature rocks.
Hi Bailey!!
Nicely done and written cutie Bailey!! It appears you had a great time hiking!! Much more fun that watching sponge bob for SURE!!!
Great article.