I took this photo while we were hiking last month through Lysterfield Park, near Melbourne. It’s only about a 20-minute drive from our house, so it makes for a great Sunday afternoon wilderness stroll.

I’m particularly gifted at taking group selfies, if I do say so myself. It’s not a skill that pays much, but it does come in handy with a big family. To capture this one, I propped my phone up on a log and used the 10-second timer. Somehow, all the kids were actually looking at the camera and smiling.

Anyway, on this little hike, we saw heaps of kangaroos, a few kookaburras, and even a wallaby. Here’s a video my wife took on her phone after stumbling upon a few kangas:

There’s something about walking outdoors that’s good for the soul. I spend a lot of hours indoors each week, staring at a screen. My kids, well they stare at screens a lot too.

Being outdoors, especially in a place that feels far away from the city, is like a control-alt-delete for the heart and mind. It’s what our ancestors who worked with their hands in the outdoors experienced daily. For most of us in Western culture today, with the exception of @papa-pepper, we must purposefully and artificially recreate an outdoor lifestyle.

The ultimate hiking experience is combining a long and arduous walk with camping, spending a night or two away from phones, screens, and if possible, other people. Most are not willing to carry a heavy bag more than a few kilometers, so finding a remote place only requires some physical effort.

Hiking is no doubt one of the greatest things you can do with the people you love. Here are four reasons why hiking is awesome:

1. Hiking makes memories.

There are few things better for your relationships than making good memories. What is a great relationship if it isn’t a compilation of fun and enjoyable times together?

In the same way, think about your worst relationships. You’ll start to recall the memories of being slighted, disrespected, yelled at, or even hit. Memories make the relationship, for better or worse.

I’m thankful that my dad made a lot of memories with me. He did this purposefully, because his dad never spent much time with him. He did his best to make sure I had a better childhood than he did. We fished, we hunted, we rode horses, we travelled to Caribbean islands, and we scuba dived. Despite all of his faults, he was great at making memories.

One of the reasons I take my kids hiking is to spend quality time with them. I want to etch in their minds memories of spending time with their dad. I never want them to question whether they are loved. I want them to take it for granted.

On one of our most recent hikes, I took my eldest son hiking to Wilson’s Prom National Park for his 13th birthday. We invited some people that were important to him to join us.

Here’s a pic before setting out on this overnight expedition:

One of the things I believe our culture has lost is an initiation ritual of sorts for boys entering manhood. Much like Jews have a bar mitzvah, the purpose of this hike was to plant the memory in my son’s mind that turning 13 is a big step towards manhood. I wanted him to realise that he’s now becoming a man, and so it’s time to start acting more like it.

We walked 12 km to a spot called Little Waterloo Bay.

Here are some photos we took at this amazing place:

It takes about four hours to walk those 12 km from the parking lot to the campsite at Little Waterloo Bay. It’s a beautiful, pristine, and secluded spot, right next to a perfect white sand beach. You might see a handful of other people there if you go on the weekend, but for the most part, it’s just you and the people you want to be with.

Here’s a video I took as we were walking back out the following day:

Nathan will always remember turning 13, and the conversations we had that night around a fire, discussing what it means to be a man in our confused culture.

2. Hiking builds character.

The first time I took my son hiking at Wilsons Prom, he was 10 years old. In fact, that first hike, we did the same 12 km walk to Little Waterloo Bay.

Hiking the first day into the campsite is the easy part. Although there’s a moderate uphill climb toward the end, the first half is mostly flat or downhill. Don’t get me wrong; it’s very tiring because you’re carrying a heavy pack, but for the most part, the journey feels relatively effortless. Even the brief stretches of more gruelling terrain are easily overlooked in light of the excitement of getting to the beach.

But the hike back out the following day is a different matter. You’ve had your fun and there’s little more to look forward to than a stop at the bakery for meat pies on the way home. On top of that, your muscles are still feeling tight from the previous day’s walk.

Since we had walked mostly downhill the day before, it was now time to walk back up those hills to the car. The final few kilometers of this hike are the worst. It’s steep and with a full backpack, it’s brutal.

Imagine making that hill-climb with a ten year old. This was the first time I had done this hike, so not only was I psychologically unprepared for the final uphill climb, but I wasn’t able to prepare Nathan’s mind either.

Our legs were exhausted from the previous day’s hike, plus the previous three hours that day. When you’re a grown man, you push through it. When you’re 10, you just know life sucks and you feel the need to vocalise that fact.

Once the final climb began, my son hit a wall quickly and was ready to give up. Before long, he was literally crying and begging me to stop and rest. It seemed like we were resting about every 10 meters.

At that rate, I knew it would take us hours to hike those final few kilometers. I had to do something.

At first I attempted to motivate him with some encouraging words. I tried everything from “You can do it, don’t give up,” to “Come on champ, think of the character you are building” to “Look at me son, walk now!” Once I realised I was only frustrating him, I decided to try a different approach.

“Son, if you can make it to that tree at the top of the hill just before the bend, we’ll stop and rest for one whole minute.” He found a new motivation through this incremental goal and was able to focus all of his effort on this small achievement and the reward that would follow.

After what seemed like dozens of little one minute rests, we finally made it back to our car. The sense of achievement we both felt was exhilarating. We high fived, then took our packs off and collapsed.

Few things build character like persevering through pain. When you live in a prosperous nation like Australia, you need to manufacture some pain from time to time. Otherwise, your kids can easily grow weak and entitled.

3. Hiking establishes life-long fitness disciplines.

One of our favourite short family hikes is called Thousand Steps. It’s at the foothills of the Dandenong mountain range near Melbourne. To be honest, it’s not really mountains; it’s more like big hills.

Since we’re being honest, it’s not really my kids’ favourite thing to do. In fact, most of them hate it because it’s a fairly grueling climb up, you guessed it, about a thousand steps.

Here’s a photo my wife took at the start of the climb:

Here’s a photo from the top:

My youngest daughter Charis loves this climb. I think what she loves the most is the encouragement I give her all the way up the hill. I tell her how amazing she is for being six years old and not complaining even though her legs are burning.

What I love the most is programming her mind to think it's a normal part of life to regularly push your body physically. Every time we take our kids hiking, we’re adding years to their lives, because in twenty years, exercise will be a normal part of life.

4. Hiking is good for the brain.

There’s a cool Lifehack article that breaks down multiple studies on how hiking can change our brains for the better.

People who live in urban areas tend to have higher levels of mental illness. This study published last year found that hiking in nature decreases depression and negative thoughts. But in this study, people who walked for 90 minutes in nature had reduced activity in the part of the brain associated with mental illness. Those who walked through an urban environment didn’t experience the same benefit.

Another study found that creative problem solving can be improved by spending extended times in nature while being completely disconnected from technology. Participants were immersed in nature for three days hiking and camping, and were prohibited from using technology. After the experience, they increased their performance on problem-solving tasks by 50 percent.

There are other studies mentioned in the article about how aerobic exercise improves memory and cognitive ability, and how getting kids out in nature reduces their ADHD tendencies.

A few days ago, I took my youngest three on a walk along the Yarra River in Warrandyte, just outside Melbourne. This spot is about a 25-minute drive from our house.

Here’s another one of my masterful selfies:

About half way through, I asked them what the highlight had been so far.

It is the simple things.

The conversation is great on these hikes, but what amazes me is the crazy and unique thoughts that come up in their minds once the oxygen starts pumping through their brains. Here’s a video from one such exchange that Alex and I shared:

Of course, no long and arduous walk would be complete without a reward at the end to make it all worth it. Here’s Charis explaining how she arrived at the important decision of which ice cream flavor to choose:

Oh, and in case you were wondering, Ben was the rightful owner of that stick.

What’s been your most memorable hiking experience?

@jasonstaggers