Attention parents: Remember when all it took to head for the mountains was 15 minutes to pack your duffel bag?
Before kids, you threw your tent and cooler in the back of the car, strapped your bike on top, made a quick stop at King Soopers and Applejack Liquors on your way out of town – and you were gone, baby, gone.
And then the kids came along. With each new child, the amount of gear, planning time, cleanup time, cargo space and negotiation skills required for an outing increases logarithmically.
So now your idea of an exciting weekend activity is Saturday at Target, am I right?
You have to take three days off work to prepare for a weekend skiing trip and another three days afterward to recover.
David Secunda saw a market opportunity four years ago among people who came to Colorado for the outdoor lifestyle, then settled down and started a family.
“Since they had kids, their activity level has gone way down,” he said. “It’s about logistics. It’s a lot easier to go to the zoo.”
His company, Boulder-based Avid4Adventure, offers outdoor adventures for families in which the logistical element is taken care of.
This month, Avid4 is running three spring-break trips to Arches National Park, near Moab, Utah, and a sea kayaking trip to Monterey Bay in California. Summer and fall trips are being firmed up.
They do the dirty work
The family trips appeal for the precise reason that somebody else handles the nuts and bolts. They make the plan, buy the groceries, set up and break camp, check and pack all the equipment. At $175 per person for a four-day trip to Utah, including all food and gear, these trips also are a deal.
“People want a trip where they can just show up with the clothing they need, and be ready to go,” Secunda said. While the kids are hiking, climbing, paddling and watching wildlife, parents can play with them, go off on a bike ride or hike of their own, or sit in camp with a book.
“We have a lot of single parents,” Secunda added. “It’s a great option for them.”
Avid4Adventure runs a variety of programs that get children and parents outside: skills classes, summer day camps and sleep-away programs. They will arrange private, custom trips or local climbing and kayaking excursions for your family, school group or work team.
We were introduced to Avid4 when one of our kids participated in its school program, the Outdoor Education Intensive.
For several hours every day for a week, the kids clambered up the 25-foot mobile climbing wall, paddled kayaks around a 30-foot portable pool, studied “Leave No Trace” concepts and steered mountain bikes around a skills course. Parents are invited in the afternoon to play with the kids.
The kids had a blast. The parents had a blast. Seeing the kayak pool and climbing wall set up on the school grounds was worth the price of admission all by itself. For teaching skills that Colorado kids can use their whole lives, as opposed to flag football and badminton, it beat any physical education program I had ever seen, stone cold.
Secunda spent years in outdoor recreation before detouring into the dot-com universe to found PlanetOutdoors.com. Looking out an office window and missing his two daughters while doing venture capital deals, Secunda decided to create a business that would wrap everything he loved into one.
The mission is to introduce kids, and reintroduce adults, to activities that provide “fun and solace in the outdoors,” he said.
Lisa Everitt is a freelance writer who lives in Arvada. Contact her at lisaeveritt@comcast.net
The details
Avid4Adventure, based in Boulder, can be reached at 720-249-2412 or info@avid4.com. Program details at avid4.com.
Spring Break Arches Family Camps are $175 per child or adult. Children age 5 and older are welcome to try climbing, hiking or canyoneering. Dates: March 24-27, March 27-30, or March 31-April 3. Fee includes all food, snacks, camping and outdoor gear. An extra cleaning fee applies if you use Avid4’s sleeping bags.
The Spring Break Monterey Bay Sea Kayaking Family Trip is $495 per child or adult. Children age 7 and older are welcome on sea kayaking activities. Kayaks, wet suits and booties, camping equipment, food and snacks, transportation for activities and an optional airport shuttle are included.
