New book has your picture on its cover

Wish we together today, Kieran, so we could go out and celebrate: Your picture is on the cover on my latest book, "Hikes with Tykes: Games and Activities," which was released yesterday (Friday, July 20, 2012). The picture was taken in April 2011 when you were just barely 4 years old during a hike we took to Vasquez Rocks (which you called the "Kirk Rocks") near Agua Dulce, Calif. There are lots of pictures of our hikes there in my Facebook photo albums.

Anyway, the new book lists all kinds of games and activities parents can so with their children before, during and after a hike. In fact, if you read the book, you'd probably recognize most of the games in them - mainly because we tested almost every one of them in the car and or when out in the wilds!

During the enxt few weeks as I promote the book, your picture probably will appear on lots of different newspapers and on plenty of websites. I'll be sure to save copies of them for you to look at later in life and will note them on this blog for you.

Remember our many hikes together?

I've started writing a new book about hiking trails, Kieran, this time focusing on those in northern Wisconsin and Minnesota. Sure wish you could join me on some of those trails. While not quite as dramatic as the mountains and deserts we've climbed in Southern California, they're still scenic in their own right, and we still can find rock to touch that is more than a half billion years old.

We did some fantastic hikes together in your preschool days, Kieran, walking beneath 15-story high redwoods, scaling mountain peaks almost two miles about sea level, traipsing miles across bone-dry deserts and dried-up ancient lakes. I'm sure you remember some of them, especially the Kirk Rocks (as you called them), which really is Vasquez County Park. Check out my Facebook photo albums to see if any of the pics jog your memory at all.

I've kept topo maps from all of the hikes we've been on together, so if one day you ever wish to do them again for yourself, you'll be able to. I've also got a box of gems, fossils and cool rocks we've collected over the years on our many hikes. When you're on your own, I'll be happy to give them to you. I've got many stories to share with you about them.

Hopefully we'll soon be together again and once again can get back into the wilds. I'll be thinking of you everytime I step on a new trail this summer.