My husband and I discovered that hiking wasn’t innately fun for all kids when we migrated our daughter, then 2 ½, from the back carrier to the ground.  We imagined as two individuals who loved the outdoors, our daughter would naturally share our passion.  Within the first few steps, our daughter looked at us with loving eyes and said, “uppy.”  She quickly grew impatient as we prodded encouraged her along.  She translated our encouragement and, in her mind, we were now in forced death march mode.  She then laid out on the ground and screamed, “I hate hiking!  I want to go home and watch Dragons!”  These words broke my heart, I envisioned a future of her glued to screens and us as a family, not enjoying the outdoors.  Being a quick-thinking mom, I grabbed a rock, looked at my daughter, and said, “Baby, before we can go home, we need to take this dragon egg back to its nest” pointing towards the summit of our hike.  My daughter dried her tears, and I started building out a map on the ground, explaining how far we were into our hike and how much further we had to go.  After my route brief, my daughter took off ahead of us, leading the way to the summit.  On future hikes, I started making treasure maps as a launchpad for her imagination and to ensure she understood the route.  These maps led to less tears for my daughter and now her younger brother as we explore the Pacific Northwest.