kids

When you hike, you carry a survival kit that should cover the basic needs for yourself in a survival situation. When you hike with children you carry a bit bigger kit to help you care for your needs and the child’s. But what happens if you get separated from the child? Your best line of defense is a survival kit suited for your child’s needs and abilities.

The basic needs that you’ll need to meet are Shelter, Warmth, Signaling and First Aid. These are real needs for a child. If they have to spend the night hugging a tree until the survival crew gets there, if it gets cold, if she cuts herself or if he needs to signal to a helicopter or emergency crew then they will definitely need to have the means to do so in their kit and as importantly, know how to use them.

But that’s not the only thing you’ll be interested in. Psychology is just as important. To keep them from panicking and getting themselves in a worse situation you’ll want to give them things to keep them occupied. This can be a flashlight to keep the scary things away at night, candies to suck on, toys to play with or what have you. They will need to pass the time, be it 5 minute, one hour, or 1 day.

In the below video you’ll see the kit I put together for my 5 year old daughter and my reasoning for the things I included.

Most if not all of us in the outdoor community are trying to get our kids involved and interested in the outdoors. We’re trying to create an awareness of the wilds and we’ll take any resource that makes that easier. It seems like HarpersTrophy is up with that as it published a book called “Big Tracks, Little Tracks – Following Animal Prints”.

It’s not a super light look at animals either. While it only shows half a dozen or so different animal tracks, it lays down principles on identifying the differences between cat-type tracks and dog-type tracks, throws in a a fox track to mix things up and even shows how to read the tracks to find out what the animals were up to and why. For example, why did the rabbit start running and where did it go?

A little while ago I posted a 2 part write up on the father daughter backpacking trip I did with my 5 year old. I put together 2 videos for the blog and I wanted to share those with you all. To save you time, I’ve included both parts below.

Part 1

Part 2

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.

I guess the nights wouldn’t have been so cold if I wasn’t using my son’s sleeping bag. Don’t get me wrong, it was rated for 40 degrees F, but it wasn’t rated for someone that is 5′ 10″. My head and shoulders stuck out and I ended up assuming the fetal position most of the night. My daughter did well. Her 20 degree F Kelty Kitimat more than did its job for her.

The temperature dipped a few degrees below freezing judging by a pack of baby wipes that was frozen solid well after the sun had risen. Most people were cool in their tents and suffered somewhat, but we all pulled through.

The next day when the other group went off for a long day of hiking we aimed for Big Peter’s lake. I say aimed because after an hour and a bit the previous day’s hike caught up with my daughter and no amount of snack breaks or markers could coax her to continue. We came back for more cheese and crackers and a pleasant afternoon of chatting as we sat in our tent or on our chairs.

When the sky threatened rain, I brought the Golite tarp down to the ground and brought the front down to give us a warmer, drier night. We again pulled through after a nice dinner of freeze dried curried rice with shrimp and green thai rice with fish (both very tasty) followed by more hot cocoa.

We packed up the following morning and made a leisurely trek past the downed aircraft remnants, small snow fields and down the steep hill back to the truck. While my daughter slept in the front seat (and we waited for the crew to come back after some more hiking) I re-attached the canopy to the pickup (the road in had completely detached it from the bed) as best I could and took a look for wildlife and wild edibles.

We celebrated on the way out by stopping in Revelstoke for Subway and by late evening we were back at home, ready for hot showers and a good night sleep.

If you ask my daughter she’ll say she had a good time and that her favorite part was, “all of it”. Hopefully she’s caught the backpacking bug and is ready for even more adventures next summer!

When I was about 13 my dad took me on my first backpacking trip. Now that I have my own kids, I’ve wanted to instill in them a love and enjoyment of the outdoors. That made it very important for me to do it right when I took my almost 5 year old daughter on a backpacking trip this summer. The trail was a little used shortcut into the Monashees Park in BC that starts at a deactivated Logging road and pops you out at Margie Lake.

Margie Lake is usually the end point of a long hike that starts with a 1 hour hike into Spectrum lake, continues 8 km and 52 switchbacks up to Little Peter’s lake, a little further to Big Peter’s lake and then another hour or so to Margie Lake. With this shortcut and a bit more driving, you hike 45 minutes up hill and then 30 to 45 minutes around a lake and then end up at your base camp. A reasonably easy hike, all things considered.

The park has been reasonably active and in the past 5 years has put in an outhouse and bear tree to lessen the impact of hikers (the park doesn’t permit fires in alpine areas). The trail, however, into Margie from the deactivated logging road is not maintained, but not too difficult to follow if you follow the tape and are familiar with map and compass work.

After crossing into the park at the trail head, be expected to traverse a creek, follow a muddy trail uphill and then continue a somewhat steep climb up the valley side. The sound of the rushing creek, complete with waterfalls is a pleasant background noise and the trail itself sweeps by to give several beautiful photo opportunities on the way.

Once the trail levels out, you begin to skirt the lake (watch for a side trail to the left that takes you by the remnants of an old plane crash (it’s easier to find on the way back)). You should be able to see an outhouse (brown building with a white door) across the lake that is close to your camp if you aren’t moving on to the tent platforms at Peter’s lake. After crossing the creeks that flow into the lake you should find a nice area with a beautiful view of Margie lake.

My daughter managed without too much complaining, especially after we started implementing our distraction plan. To keep the trip interesting, my daughter got to choose when to take a snack break and what type of snack to bring. We brought beef Jerky (or Beef Turkey as she chose to call it), rice crispy bars and gluten free cereal bars /she has a sensitivity to gluten and dairy). As a further distraction she had the job of watching for the marker tape and finding the trail. As the trail was still muddy she also watched for the footprints of those in our group that had gone ahead of us. The presence of snow on the trail acted as a good play time as well!

After setting up camp the rest of our crew headed off on the 1.5 hour hike to Peter’s lake while we stayed behind to eat lunch and rest. I had packed to collapsible chairs (something my daughter greatly appreciated) and we sat by the lake eating cheese (goat cheese for my girl) and crackers. I threw my rod in and we managed to pull in sushi… er… trout for our sushi dinner. This time we would cook it. My daughter had a small net that she used to “help” me bring the fish in.

After that, she was ready for a nap and slept until dinner time while I prepped the food. The sushi was a disaster this time (brown sushi rice does not work on the trail), but Abigail had worked up an appetite and happily downed an entire rolls worth. With cocoa and sugar we put together some hot drinks for the nice and we put my penny alcohol stove to good work.
After that we both ducked into our sleeping bags an early (and what would be a long, cold) night.

Most parents want to get outdoors and hiking with their kids, but a common question is how to keep kids entertained on the trail? While most of us end up giving them their own small pack, snacks, water bottle and frequent breaks, REI put together another great tool that is as fun as it is educative.

My kids love learning about animals and the outdoors. We thought we’d teach them a bit about bear safety via books, DVDs and answering their questions. This is what they remembered: