Backpacks for kids

[vipahman]

I bought a Kelty Grommet for my 4 year old. He carries a WM Highlite, change of clothes, food, water in it. Pack weight 12.5 oz. Total weight 5 lbs. His weight 34 lbs. He hiked up Bear Mtn with it. It costs only $18 and has a 1000 cc capacity.

[tlbj6142]

My girls are now 5.5yo and 8.5yo (2.5yo boy hasn't gone with us yet, but he will). I'm quite the gram weenie so I don't have a problem carrying quite a bit of their gear in my Dad-the-packmule pack (GG Nimbus Ozone). And, I want reduce chances of whining while hiking. So, I have them carry very little (though the 8yo might start carrying her own bag on the next trip).

Here's what they carry in a small $9 book bag I bought from Target.

1. Rain jacket
2. Hat/Gloves
3. Sleeping pad (BMW TorsoLite, I love the small package)
4. Fleece
5. Bowl and cup
6. Small gorp bag
7. Lanyard with whistle (always worn on neck except when sleeping)
8. Personal stuff (small coloring journal, ~8 crayons, thin book[I read it to them before they go to bed], small comfort item, waterproof Uno cards)
9. Sandals
10. Small 8-12oz water bottle.

Obviously, some of the #8 stuff will lessen as they get older, but for now its great to have on rain camp days (which always seem to happen).

I own a Fox 30, which is probably what I'll have the 8yo use on our next trip, when I have her carry her own bag. Besides, I need to slow her down. She almost runs down the trail. You'd think she was a seasoned thru-hiker they way she moves once she warms up.

As someone who has hiked with young children, I will tell you that you need to be prepared to carry all of their gear. It doesn't take much to break some their spirit (long climb followed by a slip and a smashed knee or a tendon issue in their foot (quite common in young children when they walk long distances), etc.). I can easily lash the small book bags to the outside of my pack.

[Just Jeff]

My kids' packs have a haul loop - when I need to carry them, I have a mini-biner to clip the haul loop to the bottom of my shoulder strap. It slides down to where the strap attaches to the pack and hangs by my hips. It's relatively comfortable for short distances, is quick and easy, and doesn't weigh much.

There's a picture at the bottom of this page:
http://www.tothewoods.net/HikingPicturesBigSur.html

[cannonball]

I had my boy out this weekend for his first 10 miler. I thought I would try him out with more weight than usual. Sure enough half mile in were unloading some of his pack into mine Even so I wonder if I am the first to carry 2 tents just so my boy could sleep in his own tent?

[sarbar]

My son Ford is 8. He has been backpacking with me since he was 5 or so. (And hiking since he was born).

From his first trip, he has carried a pack. The first trip was long-he did a 15 mile rt in the Olympic Mts overnight. So I kept his weight down, and pack momma carried most everything. Ha! I think not.

I learned from that. Bucky was gonna carry his personal gear, and learn to do it. Since that trip I have NEVER carried his gear. Not once. I pack his pack like mine-everything is weighed, and I keep charts. We only carry what we need.

Having said that, he carries a Deuter Fox 30 pack. Another great chocie is the Kelty Squall. Both are carried at REI.

Now, those two packs are a bit heavier you might say....but they are both well built. Kids like internals more than externals-they like what they percieve as "cool". That and the internals fit better on skinny kids.

Give a kid a well fitting pack, with excellent pack suspension, and that kid is more likely to want to come backpacking with you! Kids bones need a good suspension. This isn't the time to saddle a kid with an 8 ounce mesh bag or school bag that has 13 lbs of gear in it-maybe you can do that, but they don't have well developed muscles!

Buy the best you can for kids!

Do you sleep on a cushy pad? Well, so should they! Do you wear Smartwool socks? Get them those! Do you wear special boots? Well, they deserve to not wear Walm-Mart cheapies that are plastic! Do you have a good sleeping bag? Well, get them at least a North Face Tigger bag. Down jackets? Yes, if you hike in the off season.

Ford has smaller version of almost every piece of gear I have-from crampons to clothing to snowshoes

Simply put, if you want your little buddies to be your hiking partners, treat them well Last summer Ford exceeded over 30 trips in his life-and did his first X/C hiking trip up at Mt. Rainier NP. Kids can do most of what we do-if we give them a fair shake first.

To me there is nothing better than waking up in the tent with Ford in the morning. That is when life is right.

[sarbar]

PS:
If you want to see an overly spoiled child, see this:
http://s14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...ikergirl/Ford/

Train 'em well enough..and you can go do stuff like this:



Ford is in the middle

[Rainman]

That is some great advice Sarbar.

So far he has a Thermarest Prolite 3S, Wigwam Ultimax hiking socks x2, Base Colour convertible nylon hiking pants, a Columbia Sportswear Grinder II technical t-shirt, Medalist Skinetics Microfiber top and bottom (for sleeping), a Marmot Precip, and HiTec Vantage Low Cross-Training shoes (I cleaned up at REI's spring online sale). He does not like sleeping bags because he does not like to be confined. When we car camp he sleeps with a fleece blanket. We will likely use that. We will sleep in my Tarptent Cloudburst.

The only thing I need now is the pack. I had checked out the Deuter Fox 30 after a previous post. That is my pick for now. I did not know about the Kelty Squall until your post. It is larger and heavier. I will show both of them to him and see what he thinks. The smaller lighter Deuter will most likely hold his gear and a few Star Wars Attacktix. I note your son carries the Deuter Fox and has a Kelty Squall. Which doe he like more?

I had planned to carry most of the food and share my Jetboil. I was going to have him carry only his daytime snacks. Do you think he should carry all of his own food? It will likely depend on the weight. I want to keep it to 12-15 lbs.

Thanks again for the great input.

[sarbar]

Rainman,
With the food/water, I have my son carry his snacks and one bottle of water (or a 1 liter bladder). I carry the main food since it is always in an Ursack. I figure it is fair that way..lol! When we eat, we either split a meal, or we each have whatever we want-but it is always where all I have to do is boil 3 or so cups of water, and pour the water into a freezer bag. So one stove works for us perfectly. I am also a bit paranoid about him usinga stove on his own...lol!

Btw, while I am no fan of Wal-Mart, you can great kids outdoor clothes such as shirts and pants for very little. They carry Starter shirts. For about $4-8 each!

Ford has the Deuter currently, I am getting him the Squall as he is getting much taller these days (he is 8 and is 4 1/2 ft tall already....). I tried the Squall on him, and fitted him. He loves it. I just have to wait a month money wise

[mtnbums2000]

First of all what a great experience and a lifetime of memeories that you and your son will have. I have two kids (13 and 14) and they started backpacking at ages 3 and 4. Those days they only carried small daypacks but they were both screaming for real packs. So the next year we bought them both Kelty Jr. Tioga's which they used for many years.

Two years ago at 11 and 12 we bought Tyler(11) a granite gear vapor trail (small) and a go lite gust (small) for Courtney (12)which shortly after turned 13. My son is now 13 and he is small for his age and he loves his granite gear pack and it only weighs 2 lbs. I'm not sure your sons torso size but if he is bigger than average he may be able to fit into an adult small. Measure his torso and compare the measurements to some small sizes.

The kids loved their external packs but they didn't care to much for the bar that was constantly banging the back of their heads. That was the only complaint that they ever had about their external packs. They both now love their lightweight internals and they both carry an average of 15 lbs on most of our hikes. Which consits of all of their gear, shelter for the two of them and some food depending on how long we are out.

I hope this helps you out some...have fun with your lil one on the trail. My family is going to hike the JMT this August and next year my son and I are hiking the A.T. It's so great to meet other families who love taking their youngsters on hiking trips!

Happy Hiking http://www.trailjournals.com/mtnbums/

[Rainman]

Thanks for the encouragement MtnBums! I started hiking with my kids as soon as they could walk. I have not done any overnight trips yet, partly because my wife was nervous about it. I think she has a bit more faith in my outdoor skills now than she once did.

The other reason we have not done any overnights is because I got some resistance form my son on the longest hike he has taken. In the summer of 2004 we were vacationing at Unicoi State Park in GA. We drove to Anna Ruby Falls and hiked in from the parking lot. I noticed a sign and blazes indicating that there was a trail from the falls back to the state park.

By that time I was already planning my LT trip for 2005 so I told my wife I wanted to take the long way back. James asked to go with me. I warned him that it would be a long way and hard work. My wife took the two girls back to the car (they were three and four at the time) and James and I started down the trail.

He did great for the first couple of miles, but then just sat down in the middle of the trail and refused to move. I carried him some but that soon wore me out. I ended up having to "push" him a bit because it was getting dark. This episode indicated to me that he was not really ready for a long hike.

Of course, now he is two years older and on an overnight I would be more prepared. If he got tired, we could just stop. That is a different situation than having a couple of .5 liter bottles of water and snacks.

I think I have learned quite a bit about long distance hiking since then. Having more confidence for myself gives me more confidence in bringing him along.

Well that's the story. The advice you all have given, plus the Ray Jardine article I read on Backpackinglight.com, has educated me more. I think I will be more prepared for him to come along mostly because I have adjusted my attitude about what I can reasonably expect from him.

Thank you again for all of your comments. Please keep them coming. So far I still like the Deuter Fox 30. I also have found the Kelty Lynx, but I think that is for kids a little older. James is small. I have not measured his torso, although I will before ordering a pack. My guess is he is about 11-13 inches.

See you out there!

[mtnbums2000]

Rainman that story reminds me one of our trips back in 1998 Tyler had just turned 5 and Courtney was 6. Up until then we had limited our trips to under 5 miles a day. We decided to do an overnighter leaving out on a Saturday morning and finishing up Sunday afternoon. We planned on an 8 mile day and finishing up with an easy 4 mile day out to the rode where I would hitch a ride back to our car.

The first day which I was worried about went great w/out a single complaint. We made camp earlier then I expected so we set up camp and played hide-go-seek. My son learned how to use my msr whisperlite(i no longer use...i have an alcohol stove now) and they both picked my head about all of my solo hikes that I had done on the A.T. The night ended great and my wife and I were so happy on how much fun they were having.

So of course all good things must come to an end at some point right? Well the next day started out good we got up around 8 and cooked up some oatmeal and by 9 or so we were on the trail. I forgot to mention that the hike in was mostly level and downhill and on the way out the trip started with an up-hill climb and then we picked up a spur trail which was a graduall climb out to the road. The kids started out with a good pace but Tyler wasn't digging the up-hill and he let us know by stopping in the middle of the trail and screaming I hate this!! I tried to explain to him that we only had to go half as far as we did yesterday but he just turned 5 and that logic didn't make any sense to him at all. Only thing that mattered to him was the present day and that climb in front of him. My daughter on the other hand was doing fine and she wanted to leave Tyler with his mom so we could hike on in peace. So on Courtney and I went...we got to the road and we sat around for about a half an hour or so. Of course as time passed I started to get worried. So we decided to go back and look for Tyler and my wife(tracy). We got about a mile into the trail and we could here them talking...so we thought it would be funny to hide and scare them. As they got closer to us we got excited but then I noticed that Tyler didn't have his backpack on...my first thought's were they he just threw it off the mountain. And then I see Tracy with his pack on the front of her body. It was a funny sight because it was an external pack and the bar was right under her chin. We laughed a bit and I convinced to Tyler to carry his pack the rest of the way out .

Two weeks later Tyler and I go out on a two day trip the first night (Friday) we put on the trail and hiked in the dark until about 11pm. This was Tyler's idea because after our last trip all he could talk about was going on another trip and he wanted to hike at night. This hike was one of my favorites cause I could see that Tyler was really enjoying hiking and all he could talk about was wanting to hike the whole A.T. It was a great trip and I will never ever forget it. Oh yea we slept cowboy style the first night next to an old down tree which Tyler thought was the coolest thing ever.

Both of my kids put in at least 200 miles or so a season and on that day back in 1998 I figured Tyler would never even put a pack on his back again. I think he was about 8 or 9 when we did a 9 day trek on the PCT and JMT and we both laughed about the day his mom carried his pack for 3 miles for him.

The best advice I have about hiking with kids is to let the kids be involved in everything from picking the trip to help setting the miles to do in a day. We always plan our trips around a destination that has oppurtunities for day hikes away from camp. I use to always set low miles and make sure I had a back up plan if we got to camp really early. Unlike us kids don't want to just hang out at camp and do nothing. We always bring cards and play silly card games and we always play hide-go-seek cause even adults love that game. Nothing worst than getting to camp and having your kid say what do we do now and you have no answer. On some trips we take a Nerf football and frisbee(which can double as a plate) to play with.

I hope some of my advice is helpful to you. We used to live in Georgia and then in North Carolina and your story about leaving Unicoi S.P and hiking to Ann Ruby Falls brought back some fond memories. We used to spend alot of time in that area back in the day. Have fun with your son and keep me posted on your trips!!!

Happy Trails

[bigcranky]

When our daughter was about 4 or 5 we were dayhiking in Shenandoah, a very short little hike out to Blackrock from the parking lot. The hike out was fine, and the views were great, but on the way back she had a meltdown. My wife (her mother) ended up carrying her back up the trail all the way to the car. I can still hear my daughter screaming, at the top of her lungs, "I WANT MY REAL MOMMY!" the whole way back.

It's funny now <g>.

[cheetah]

Last summer, we backpacked with my then 8 and 10 year olds and they used their school backpacks. It kept their loads light, but was not very comfortable for them. All the weight hung from the fronts of their shoulders and they were sore and red. We used extra straps to try and shift some of the weight and fashion a 'front strap' across the chest. We also used extra socks and bandanas to pad the sore spots.

This year, I found 2 different kids' packs at REI for about $85 each. One is an REI Lookout (my favorite), and the other is a Deuter Fox30. They are both internal frames, and the Deuter adjusts to the childs torso length, thereby providing some growing room. Surprisingly, they don't hold much more than the school packs, which I guess is OK because I don't want to overload them anyway. They are way cool and we can't wait to try them out!

Good Luck!
Cheetah

[betic4lyf]

when i started out as a youngsterish, i was 12-14 i got a kelty tornado, which i would recomend if it was still made. one of the cool parts for a parent, is that it has an adjustable torso.

[betic4lyf]

just an adition to what i said before, maybe do a bunch of dayhikes first. thats what my dad did with me, and it was more fun that way

[clicker]

My younger cousing started doing day hikes with me when he was 8 or 9 and he just used his school backpack to carry a small load. For his first overnight trip he agian just used the small school pack and carried his clothes and his sleeping pad. I also had him carry a little bit of trail mix and some water so I would not have to stop to hand him snacks all the time. It is important that when you take a younger person for thier first trip that you don't over stress them. Make the trip fun and memorable. Otherwise they will get turned off to backpacking and the outdoors in general.

[Rainman]

OK, finally, here is my trip report. I ended up buying my son James (now Windwalker) an REI Comet (http://www.rei.com/product/733276). It is a 2,250 cu. in. (37 liter) full featured pack that weighs 2lbs. 8 oz. He loves it. James is now 9+ years old and weighs 58 lbs. The fully adjustable harness is a great feature and it is presently set to the shortest possible torso length, which means he has room to grow into it. The hip belt is also adjustable just like an adult pack and we cinch it down as tight as it will go.

In preparation for his first walk on the AT, we took a two day, one night shakedown hike on the Croom loop of the Withlacoochee State Forest about 60 miles west of Orlando, Florida on Highway 50. Both boy and pack performed beautifully.

On May 24 my wife dropped us off at the parking lot below the peak of Clingmans Dome. The whole family walked up to the observation tower and then at around noon James, a friend of mine named Chuck, and I started SOBO. We hiked about 10 miles and stayed the first night at Derrick Knob Shelter. We then took two easy days to Spence Field Shelter the second night and then Mollies Ridge Shelter the third night. On the fourth day we hiked out 10+ miles to Fontana Dam.

He started out with about 15 lbs. in his pack (which of course decreased as he ate his food). He carried a North Face Tigger bag stuffed into a granite gear compression sack to save space, a Bozeman Mountain Works (BPL) Torsolite pad, a contingency change of clothes, the technical long underwear referenced earlier in this thread to sleep in, a generic fleece jacket from Target, a Marmot Precip kids jacket in case of cold rain, all of his own food consisting mostly of Cliff bars and Tuna foil packs (which I let him pick out), and a 1 liter hydration pouch from a Kelty hydration pack. He also carried two empty 1 liter Aquafina type bottles for use in camp, his own headlamp, a back up photon type light, and a few miscellaneous toys for playing in camp (he had so much fun he never even got them out).

I couldn't be more proud of his performance. On the second day out we passed a group of NOBO Boy Scouts preparing for a Philmont Trek. James was going at such a good pace that the adult leaders with the scouts couldn't believe when I told them he was nine and this was his first real backpacking trip. James passed them going up Thunderhead Mountain with the wind at his back like he was being pushed by a sail. That's when I named him "Windwalker." There is another Windwalker on WB who has not posted since 2004. I am hoping the system let's me register James as Windwalker also.

Well, I guess that's about it. Happy hiking!

[SteveJ]

whoo-hoo! Great trip report - go Windwalker!

[sarbar]

Awesome!