Preparing kids for backpacking – Creating an outdoors lover

How young is too young to take a kid backpacking? I’ve been on the forums long enough to see many a question like this and many an answer. There are probably two big fears for parents, the first one is safety and the second is making sure they enjoy it. Recently, I wrote two posts on a father daughter backpacking trip I did with my almost 5 year old (here and here) and an anonymous commenter suggested I write up something on the preparation that I did.

“It seems like you were very organized (I guess you have to be if you are taking a kid). Maybe you should do a post on how you prepared her beforehand for the trip. Like rules and things to keep her safe. Did she have a whistle? Did she know what to do if there was an emergency (like she got lost, or you fell and got knocked out)? etc. I think a lot of people who are nervous about taking their kids out into the woods would find a post like that useful!”

I don’t know if I was that organized, but I’ll at least show what we did.

The Hype – Give them something to look forward to

What makes a kid want to walk a long distance (for them)? The same reason we want to. No, not weight loss, the experience! It started well over a year ago as we showed her photos of the backpacking trip we did with her when she was one and another one I did with some friends more recently. She got to see the tents, the bugs, the lakes, the rivers, the food, the fishing and all the small animals. We tried to make it alive for her. Once she had the fun stuff ingrained in her, we would ask if she wanted to go backpacking. That was the most important part. The hype. If she hadn’t have wanted to go after that we wouldn’t have. But, since she did want it, we started the next stage.

Safety first – Preparing for the worst

After she started showing interest in backpacking we started teaching and showing her how to stay safe in the woods. This included practical tips as well as bear and animal safety.

First off, I want to say that I planned the trip with at least two adults. Originally it was to be with my father and myself and in the end we had a group of 12 people or so. That way there was always redundancy in case of emergency.

The most obvious and important thing to teach her was what to do around bears. We would be hiking in the Pacific Northwest, so both black bears and grizzlies would be a good possibility. Amongst other things, we showed her an excerpt of a video by Ray Mears (Extreme Survival Rocky Mountains, available at www.raymears.com) which addresses bear safety. To help concrete the “what to dos” we would ask her questions so she could “teach us” what to do around bears. She knew not to run and not to climb trees and she knew to keep her food far away from her tent. If things turned bad she knew to make herself look big, throw her pack and if necessary how to use bear spray. (If you’re interested in more detail feel free to look at the following articles here 1 and here 2) or play the following video.

There were other things, like knife safety which we felt was important. Simple tips like cutting away from yourself and more important for her, NOT to cut towards anyone or walk in front of anyone that is cutting. Kids are always interested in what’s going on and you don’t want anything to go wrong with knives in a wilderness situation. Of course, this wasn’t too hard to teach as I make a habit of whittling things for the kids with them around.

General health and safety was ingrained through the preparation period, from the importance of boiling or filtering water, keeping dry, especially before night fall and layering (it turned out this was important as it got down below freezing at night.)

Finally she knew that if you got lost she was to stay where she was, find a close tree/rock and sit there. She knew to blow her whistle in emergencies and shout for help.

Responsibility – Treating your kids as big kids


To make it fun we made sure my daughter felt like she was contributing and was responsible. Her responsibilities were choosing clothes, giving her some new gear for the trip and of course, carrying her own snacks.

We started by asking her what she wanted to bring with her. We gave her guidelines (1 pair of warm PJs, 1 rain jacket, 1 sweater, 1 vest, 2 pairs of pants, warm sleep socks, 1 toy/blanket. We double checked and gave recommendations, but she got to make the decisions. In addition, she got to carry on the hike her 7 in 1 whistle and snacks. If you can, it’s really good to give them their own water supply.

Keeping fit

We tried to get out with her once a week or more to walk around town, ride her bike and go for day trips at parks, etc. She loved playing “camping” by carrying around her small kids school pack full (5lbs) of her things, and it helped show me what she was capable of. I tried to be aware of distances and how tired she felt. It’s one thing to hike 5 km in a day (which she could) but doing that multiple days ended up tiring her out. We did 2 day hikes one day after the other a few weeks before the trip and it ended up tiring her out (2 km and then 7 km) so I changed my plans of a 7km hike in with a day of rest before a 7km hike out to a 3.5 km hike in, a day rest and then a 3.5 km hike out. I had to be flexible to make sure she enjoyed it.

We started a short hike the second day which we decided to abandon part way as she was clearly tired. We stopped there, had lunch and then headed back to the tent for an afternoon nap. I really had to read her well and see what was just fussing about boredom and what was tiredness.

Making her comfortable


It had to be all about her. I carried in 2 camp chairs, as I knew we would be spending a lot of time at camp.She got to bring her special blanket for security and slept in her nice, warm 20 degree bag and wear her own LED headlamp. I also carried some of her favorite foods (porridge for breakfast with dried fruit in it, rice crackers and goats cheese for lunch and for the first night sushi). For snacks we had a large supply of homemade beef “turkey” as she called it, gluten free “candy bars” and other nut bars. It’s all about making her feel secure in a strange environment.

Trail Distractions


We know our kids can play all day in the back yard without getting tired, and yet, if you try to tackle even half that distance on a trail or road it becomes impossible after the first 5 minutes. That means I had to distract her. The first distraction was letting her use her own hiking poles. Then we pointed out flowers and small animals, lakes and rivers and even a waterfall. We took breaks where necessary, but not when she complained. Complaining is often a sign of boredom and so we would focus on something else. While hiking, her job was to find the trail markers (piles of rocks, painted triangles or colored tape on the trees). We tried not to focus too much on how long it will take as she would get overly focused on the destination and miss the journey.

That said, when we did take breaks, she got to choose what snack she wanted. Usually, when we stopped for a break, she was so chuffed at getting to decide what snack she wanted that she started right on going as soon as it was open! Breaks were rarely more than a minute, unless it was to look at the ground squirrels, flowers or view.

Conclusion

I read a lot of useful advice on a lot of different forums, but in the end I had to take into account my daughter.  That’s probably the greatest advice I have to making the trip successful. Get to know your kids and see if they would like to go hiking. Go on day trips as a family and see how they do and what they enjoy about it. Finally, make it about her. I know I wanted to go all the way to that next lake on the 2nd day, but she was clearly tuckered out, so we turned around. The first impression is a lasting one and how much THEY enjoy it will be the determining factor in whether it happens again.