The organizing philosophy behind some trips is blindingly obvious — a week at the beach, a stay with family, a city teeming with amusements. But there are plenty of less obvious but still unifying themes and methodologies that can capture the interest of the whole family.

Some are even pre-organized for you.

There are an untold number of thematic trails out there, crisscrossing the country. Heritage trails. Scenic trails. Recreational trails. Cultural trails. Hybrid trails. Some traversing the length and breadth of the nation, others only a few counties. Trails covering virtually interest and every theme.

Undoubtedly, you’ve heard of some of them — the Appalachian Trail or Oregon Trail come to mind — but that is just tip of the iceberg. Whatever you fancy, wherever you’re thinking of going, there’s probably a trail for you.Of course, that isn’t to say that you need to follow it precisely, making every stop. Or that you can’t make detours. Frankly, customizing an experience like that is half the fun! Figuring out where to stay an extra day, what totally unrelated adventures to enjoy.

So just what trail allows me to speak from experience on this subject? Well, probably not one of those you’ve heard about. We went from Fort Ticonderoga in upstate New York, down Lake George and across the Berkshire Mountains, to Springfield, Mass., tracing the route that Henry Knox used in 1775 to haul the cannons used to relieve the Siege of Boston. And our four-year-old loved it.

Time to back up, I suppose. Earlier this year, we got Big Brother a book called Henry and the Cannons — picked it up at Mount Vernon, knowing that we would be going straight by the Knox House in our travels through Maine — and it quickly became his favorite. He learned swaths of the text by heart and started asking surprisingly good questions about the tale. Then, one that took us by surprise. While looking at the illustrated rendering of Fort Ticonderoga, “Mama, is it still there? Can we go some day?”

Well, what self-respecting, history-loving parent can ignore that?

Knowing that we had an upcoming wedding in Vermont, we started looking into what it would entail to make a side trip to the tip of Lake Champlain. When it turned out not much, we started planning and pretty quickly came across the existence of a trail tracing the route of the noble train of artillery all the way to Boston. The markers were originally set out in the 1920s, and are helpfully described in a pamphlet by the Hudson River Institute.

With a firm end-point and time for our wanderings, we got down to the fun part, mapping out a route to take us from a family visit in New Hampshire across Vermont and to Ticonderoga, then down Lake George, along the edge of the Hudson River, then across the mountains toward Springfield before turning north to the nuptials in Bennington.

Along the way we scheduled plenty of history — not just the Knox markers, but the Revolutionary War battlefield at Saratoga plus one from the French and Indian War — a smidgen of science and even a day of pure R&R on a lakeside beach.

Not a bad itinerary for a trip suggested by a preschooler.