When you’re camping with kids there’s a lot of effort and patience involved in planning and preparing for the trip. If you don’t prepare well it can be a very tiring and stressful experience.

Aside from the thorough preparation, consideration of the kids’ needs take top priority, leaving little or no room for you and spouse’s. In the end it’s well worth it especially when the kids are having a great time.

Parents seldom get to spend much quality time with their kids so camping with kids can be such a rewarding experience. You won’t mind the extra effort especially if you love your kids so much.

Follow these tips if you want to increase you chances of having a smooth camping trip:

- A good way to help you find out what the kids would need on a camping trip is to ask the kids. For example, do they want to go hiking or fishing or both? Allow them to pack their own things while supervising them along the way.

Treating their opinions with respect gives them that confidence boost they need as they grow up the chance to be involved also teaches them responsibility.

- You don’t need an expensive sleeping bag for kids. A cheap junior sleeping bag is sufficient.

- As a practice run for yourself and the kids try to do some backyard camping before the real trip.

- Make sure you try using your camping gear at home to make sure that they are working perfectly.

- Be sure to teach your kids some safety skills like blowing a whistle when they’re in trouble or how to use a compass.

- At night you can gather round the campfire to sing songs and tell stories.

- Showing the kids the wonders of nature by taking them on hikes will teach them to respect the natural beauty.

- Don’t forget to teach them how to keep themselves safe at the camp. No playing with fire and no swimming in the lake alone are just some of the many rules they have to be familiar about.

- Create games out of camping chores to make them more fun and interesting. For example, engage them in a race for the fastest clean-up.

- Take your kids birdwatching and carry some binoculars so that your kids are interested.

- Remember to take the insect repellent and sunscreen.

- Flashlights and glow sticks are nice companions during the night when your kids’ anxiety grows as night time falls.

- This is perfect for you and the kids to do some star gazing.

- Don’t forget to bring the very important first aid kit for small accidents or mishaps.

- Have some night snacks. Not inside the tent of course. Before you go to sleep, a few chats and chips will surely be a great finale to a great day.

- Bring something for the kids to play with like binoculars or magnifying glass.

- Be sure that you have a camera to capture the unforgetable experience.

Camping with the kids is a cheap vacation alternative especially in these tough economic times. Seeing the kids happy will make the extra effort worthwhile.

Racing through the Sahara desert in temperatures up to 130 degrees took Dr. Douglas Girling six days to finish.

Five months later he headed up to the Arctic Circle for and non-stop 120 mile footrace. A feat not many would dare try. The conditions were harsh and cold. It was so cold that Girling thought he would freeze to death if he ever stopped even to eat and drink.

According to the doctor, he did it because he wanted to see how far he can push himself. Since he was at a very young, Girling had travelled to the US from South Africa where he was born to compete in triathlons. His interest in the physiology behind exercise led him to pursue a career in medicine.

Even after being married for 20 years with two kids, Girling, had continued to run. Last year was when he decided to go for the Sahara race along with his brother, Malcolm, and some friends. They had to run in the blistering heat carrying food and camping gear

The pain was intense but the desert was so beautiful that it was worth it. When Girling finished the race, he had run for 34 hours and 46 minutes. It was a great feeling and his relationship with his brother and companions improved as a result.

Come March, he was running again but this time for the Arctic 6633 Ultra race which took place in Canada’s Yukon and Northwest Territories on the Dempster Highway where the temperature at the time was around -40 degrees. It was so cold that his shoes froze solid soon after he began. The strong winds made matters worse.

He hauled a wheeled sled with a -40 degree down sleeping bag, a bivouac sack, a camping stove and some extra clothes. On his desert run, he had carried a lightweight backpack, alcohol stove, camping mattress, inflatable pillow, foam flip-flops, and lycra gaiter to keep the sand out of his shoes.

It was worse than the desert. He had only run 3 miles when he realized that he had never felt such pain before. His hands froze in seconds the first time he tried to get a water bottle. What a relief it must have been to eat and sleep in the occasional sheltered checkpoints.

It was a test of his will to survive. He ran in a nylon vapor barrier liner over synthetic long underwear plus booties and head coverings. On one occasion, Girling had to stick a plastic tube into his mouth to prevent his face mask from ice build-up.

Despite the pain, he managed to finish up to the third of four checkpoints in 48 hours, 57 minutes including four hours of sleep. Sixteen others gave up, half even before the first checkpoint.

His hunger for adventures had given him a first-hand account on being out in grueling conditions. It was the closest thing to being in a survival situation without getting himself into a lot of trouble.

While Girling hasn’t given up on adventure challenges, he’s had enough of arctic running. It was the toughest race he had even ran. His next target is the jungle race in the Amazon.

With limited gear and a pair of skis, a climber is missing on Mount McKinley and an initial high-altitude aerial search produced no sightings this morning.

Gerald Myers, 41, of Centennial, Colo., is believed to have reached the 20,320-foot summit of North America’s highest peak Wednesday afternoon, according to National Park Service spokeswoman Maureen McLaughlin.

A group of climbers returning from the summit reported seeing Myers on the summit ridge, she said. But he has not returned to the 17,200-foot high camp or to the 14,200-foot camp from which he launched his solo summit attempt early Tuesday morning.

Park rangers think Myers may have elected to descend on a more difficult route other than the popular West Buttress, which he took to the summit ridge and perhaps beyond.

The fact he was carrying skis suggests he may have attempted to descend via the Orient Express or the Messner Couloir — both of which are ski descents, McLaughlin said. Descents on two other possible routes, the West Buttress and the Reserve Gully, can be done on snowshoes, skis or crampons, she said.

“There are many routes to come down and we do not know which one he was targeting,” McLaughlin said.

Myers was traveling light. Though he grabbed his skis from a cache at 17,200 feet on Tuesday morning, rangers believe he carried no sleeping bag, bivouac sack, thermal pad or camp stove. This guy is clearly not following the ten essentials for mountaineering.

He should know better than to go into the Chugach without gear as basic as this. His chances of survival are slim. You should never sacrifice the essentials for the sake of hiking light.

Now he would have to dig himself a shelter in the snow if he wants to stay alive. It is likely that he has injured himself which makes matters worst.

This morning’s search, by an Air National Guard HC-130 Hercules, was limited by high winds and cloud cover. A second search could happen this evening if there’s a break in the weather, McLaughlin said.

This is the third incident, and the first search, on the mountain this season, McLaughlin said. In separate incidents earlier this month, William Hearne of Fairport, N.Y., 61, collapsed on his approach to the 14,200-foot camp and died of apparent natural causes, and a man with pulmonary edema was evacuated from 14,200 feet.

Find Beth Bragg online at adn.com/contact/bbragg or call 257-4309.

Who knows what can happen in the violent world today? Disasters can strike at a blink on an eye.

You need to have your hiking backpack ready in case of disasters that forces you to evacuate quickly. A survival pack should sustain you both in the short term and long term.

A good survival pack should be lightweight and include items like knives, tools, water, seeds, clothes, fire, shelter, light. These items should be able to help you survive in the harshest of conditions.

To carry less, you need to know the likely conditions. A hiking backpack that’s prepared for all the possible conditions are probably the best but they’re likely to be too heavy and bulky. If it was to be carried in a car you wouldn’t to worry about size and weight.

The problem is that things happen when you don’t expect them at a time when you’re not ready. Different experts will have different choices of survival equipment in their backpack. These guys are always trying to be prepared for sudden manmade or natural disaster in a variety of ways for the unexpected. A good survival gear should take up little space and an indefinite shelf life.

Want to know what people who spend a lot of time in the woods carry?

They carry a fixed-blade knife in a sheath strapped to the outside of the pack, and a Leatherman Wave multi-tool inside the pack, along with two very compact Mylar blankets that have a variety of uses like signaling for help, collecting water or as a waterproof lean-to.

These professionals also carry waterproof matches, a disposable lighter, a magnesium bar with striker, a credit-card-sized plastic Fresnel lens, a zip-lock bag filled with mugwort and a two-quart Platypus bladder system or a hydration pack for drinking water.

For clothes are two pairs of underwear and socks, a hat, a fleece skullcap and a pair of lightweight gloves, plus two pairs of sunglasses, two pens, a notepad and a pair of pruning shears. Other useful items include garbage bags, zip-lock bags, freeze-dried meals and some utensils.

Don’t forget the first-aid kit, water purifier, ground tarp, compact binoculars, synthetic and leather cord, roll of electrical tape, wind and weather meter and roll of toilet paper. You may also consider carrying firearms and a lightweight bivvy sack.

The typical cost of a survival pack is around $2,000 but there are economical ways to pack an effective survival pack. A topic we hope to cover soon.