View Full Version : What age did you Start to Backpack
YoungMoose
02-15-2009, 19:36
I have been backpacking since i was 12. What age did you guys and women start?
11 with Boy Scouts. 26 years ago last Thanksgiving.
YoungMoose
02-15-2009, 19:47
nice
Around when I was 20 or so... I was always into basketball, baseball and football but when my "skills" began to diminish and I certainly wasn't going to get to play any in college I picked up walking with heavy loads for some reason....
YoungMoose
02-15-2009, 19:48
Around when I was 20 or so... I was always into basketball, baseball and football but when my "skills" began to diminish and I certainly wasn't going to get to play any in college I picked up walking with heavy loads for some reason....the reason is becuase u love not taking a shower for a week at a time:D
le loupe
02-15-2009, 19:55
I started last year.
I had been a day hiker and avid hunter, but got tired of the increasing taxes being levied upon me in that sport.
Backpacking is a similar experience, without the gun. ;)
Let someone else pay for the wild lands for a while.
Cabin Fever
02-15-2009, 20:15
Around when I was 20 or so... I was always into basketball, baseball and football but when my "skills" began to diminish and I certainly wasn't going to get to play any in college I picked up walking with heavy loads for some reason....
You story is pretty much identical to mine. Hate that I wasted teenage years not spending more time in the backcountry.
ChinMusic
02-15-2009, 20:19
A few trips in Boy Scouts. A few more "trips" in the Army.
As a hobby (which I took as the spirit of the question)......age 44.
About the age of 11. Would leave on a friday afternoon after school and walk downstream,sunday would walk back upstream. Carried matches and a mess kit,ate what we caught or shot. Bass,pike,perch,bullhead,bullfrogs,squirrel,rabbit/hare. Brought slimjims for backup. My parents were/are very cool,they trusted in us and less us grow up naturally. The good ole days,I incourage my sons to do the same. I had a crappy pack and a wool military sleeping bag liner,but I survived somehow...froze my butt off somtimes though. Mind you,this was in the 60s and 70s. I miss those days.
I meant...let us grow up naturally...not ,less us grow up naturally. I either need glasses or learn to type what I am thinking.
theinfamousj
02-15-2009, 20:30
My sophomore year of college, when I was 19. I'd never so much as been camping, but my (co-ed) fraternity was heading off on a Fall Break trip and my roommate (also in the fraternity) convinced me it would be great fun.
So off I went. And had a miserable time. I was cold all night and had the wrong shoes and overpacked my pack which didn't fit right because I was borrowing practically everything. And I brought cans of food and a huge hobo tool so that I could open the cans and ... well, you get the picture.
But the next year, when I was 20, I let my Canadian friend outfit me with his gear (still borrowed, but at least he knew what he was talking about) and my experience improved significantly and I knew that backpacking was for me. So that year I bought my first Therm-a-Rest and haven't looked back.
Not that I've gained many years since then. But I have gained many stoves ...
YoungMoose
02-15-2009, 20:30
I meant...let us grow up naturally...not ,less us grow up naturally. I either need glasses or learn to type what I am thinking.lol:D my parents trust me and i have gone on a 4 day backpacking trip in a state park near me by myself. so i guess i grow up naturally
4eyedbuzzard
02-15-2009, 20:54
40 years ago, when I was 12. My father was disabled and his brother took me backpacking rougly twice every year with his family on their backpacking trips. First one was through GSMNP back in 1968. I still have my first pack and sleeping bag, a Camp Trails Horizon and an old brown Campmor down bag, in storage. I did sell my first stove, an old Optimus 8R, last year along with a lot of other gear that I wasn't using anymore.
You younguns have it easy these days--today's gear is about half the weight:D
YoungMoose
02-15-2009, 20:56
40 years ago, when I was 12. My father was disabled and his brother took me backpacking rougly twice every year with his family on their backpacking trips. First one was through GSMNP back in 1968. I still have my first pack and sleeping bag, a Camp Trails Horizon and an old brown Campmor down bag, in storage. I did sell my first stove, an old Optimus 8R, last year along with a lot of other gear that I wasn't using anymore.
You younguns have it easy these days--today's gear is about half the weight:DNice u still have some of your gear. and yes us "younguns" have it easy these days.
Very Cool,sounds like you are mature for your age. Do what you feel you are comfortable with in life,but do not forget...some of us old farts have some meaningful things to pass along to the younger crowd.We do not know it all,but we can help by explaining our mistakes/experiences. You have to decide what to do with the info. Good luck,seems good to see someone of your age so enthusiastic about getting out in the woods.
lol:D my parents trust me and i have gone on a 4 day backpacking trip in a state park near me by myself. so i guess i grow up naturally
Mountain Maiden
02-15-2009, 21:44
I had never backpacked a day in my life until I stepped onto Springer Mtn at age 48. And, I made it all the way to Maine despite a broken arm enroute. I tell everyone--"If I can make it--anyone can!"
It was a great adventure and I love it to this day!
S:sun
kythruhiker
02-15-2009, 21:50
I started camping on the river for weekend fishing trips with my father when I was 3. I grew up with a very nature oriented family - my grandmother was the type that would be driving along a country road, spy a wildflower on top of the ridge, pull the car over and scale a cliff to take a closer look. Some of my fondest memories, and what I think instilled my love of the outdoors were those fishing/camping trips with Dad almost every weekend, and the outdoor walks around the farm and wildflower spotting adventures with my grandmother.
My earliest *backpacking* trips were usually weekend trips with whatever would pass as something to hold gear uncomfortably to my back - an old Alice pack or rucksack of some type.
First backpacking trip was in Scouts (I was 12). Went from Newfound Gap to camp at Icewater Springs shelter & Charlie's Bunion in Great Smokies in March. Near freezing rain. Froze my ass off, but had a great time, despite carrying a pack that probably weighed more than half of what I weighed.
After experiencing all the deprivations, pain, fatigue, bad cooking, blisters, and while sharing a cramped and leaking tent with four other boys, endured an odiferous offensive and a fitful night sleep due to lying on roots and rocks (and freezing), but laughing like a maniac due to all the clowning around...I was hooked.
And since then, I've had many thousands of nights in similar joy.
As Steve McQueen used to say: "I'd rather wake up in the middle of nowhere than in any city on earth."
YoungMoose
02-16-2009, 22:25
I will never join boy scouts. I think its a good idea but i just think its too much of the army that you ahve to wear a uniform (thats my opinon)
SGT Rock
02-16-2009, 22:28
Started hiking when I could walk.
sheepdog
02-16-2009, 22:30
My brother and I used to throw some pork and beans in a canvas pack and head out to the neighboring woods. We had sleeping bags and a canvas tent. I think my folks used to sneak out and check up on us, but I never saw them. We were about 9 or 10.
Must've been about 12. Also in Boy Scouts. First trip on the AT was from Washington Monument St.Park up to Pine Knob on a cold November weekend. I've been hooked ever since!
Feral Bill
02-17-2009, 00:29
When I was 14 my parents let me go solo in Harriman SP.
Just like OBBP.:sun
I guess that's one reason why I enjoy his posts.
I started my kids at 4 and 6. I can no longer keep up with them.
FB
Feral Bill
02-17-2009, 00:31
I will never join boy scouts. I think its a good idea but i just think its too much of the army that you ahve to wear a uniform (thats my opinon)
Scouts have other issues as well. Be your own man.
FB
maxpatch67
02-17-2009, 02:13
Not really backpacking, but my first similar experience was in junior high in the Boundary Waters in MN. A week out canoeing and portaging(with backpacks). Then in high school my brother-n-law took me to CO to climb 14ers. What a rush(and headache-from altitude)! Those trips got me hooked. Everything you need-right there on your back.
Homer&Marje
02-17-2009, 08:25
Got my first backpack when I was 12 and my first trail was about 40 miles of the Tahoe Rim Trail. Greatest experience of my life, learning that you don't have to rely on anyone but yourself. And if you do everything properly, you'll enjoy your time much more. Good life lessons.
OldStormcrow
02-17-2009, 09:51
You forgot to include a 10 and under category. Sure, I wasn't soloing or anything like that, but I was carrying a pack on overnights 'way before I was old enough to actually be a cub scout....just tagging along with my older brother's cub scout pack. My 15 year old daughter has been backpacking since I could fit anything like a pack on her.....probably about 1st grade.
Boy Scouts, did the 4-state (PA-WVA) hike in 1968, and 1970 (was rained out).
That's how I got the bug. Wow that's hiking the AT for 5 decades!
double d
04-30-2009, 00:08
Started backpacking trails when I lived in Colorado (early 20's), its the law in Colorado to own and carry a backpack.
Born on a mountain top, raised by a bear, double set of dog teeth, double coat of hair, six pound sack and 40inch........you get the idea.
Funkmeister
04-30-2009, 01:02
Forty inch what?
Hit the trail in Boy Scouts near Port Clinton about age 12 or 13. Has inspired me for more than 30 years. I have friend with boys about that age, and will pass on the insight later this summer. Hope some of you do the same.
OutdoorsMan
04-30-2009, 01:40
I don't think that I was 10 years old but my father took us kids on a weekend trip on the AT in Western Ma. We took CANS of pork and beans, slept in "tube tents" which were these orange plastic cylinders that you tied between two trees - talk about condensation! We loved it. School, the Marine Corps and business has offered me few opportunities to go backpacking but now that I have two boys in Scouts (and I am the Backpacking Merit Badge Instructor), I am finding reasons to hike. I think that that first trip on the AT (my father told us the trail went from Maine to Ga.) created a fascination with the trail.
I don't forsee an opportunity to thru hike it in my lifetime but I would like to section hike it.
I find it interesting to see how many were introduced to hiking through Scouting. This is just another of many reasons why I believe so strongly in Scouting. I was never a Scout and I did not intend for my boys to be Scouts as I THOUGHT that I could expose them to MORE than Scouting does and boy was I wrong. Scouting is the best activity a boy can be involved in. Sports are great but they don't compare to the values, the leadership and the experiences that a boy gets from Scouting.
Sorry to get off topic.
I started hiking when I was in my early 20's,but due to work I was never able to really get out for then day hikes. Around the time I hit 30 I started solo camping,either from my truck,or in state parks that had wilderness camping. In the past 3 yrs I've been hooked on long distance,mutiple day trips. My goal is to go out longer and further each year.
hikergirl1120
04-30-2009, 09:24
I started backpacking when I was like 10 under the guidance of my father who thought a 60lb pack was being prepared....I have never looked at the White Mountains the same LOL
hikergirl1120
04-30-2009, 09:25
P.S. The pack included jeans, cotton socks and WAY TOO MUCH FOOD!!!
Phoenixdadeadhead
05-01-2009, 11:42
I remember camping with my Dad and step father when I was 3 and 4 in Kodiak Alaska, after that there were small day hikes and rafting trips for years. My first real hike, I was about 10 in the YMCA outside of Black Mountain NC. There is a mountain trail there that goes up to the top of what they called High Windy, I don't know what it's real name is, but it was an amazing hike, I have redone that hike many times since. It helps that My Grandfather has 1 of his houses less than a mile from the trail head lol.
modiyooch
05-01-2009, 11:52
20 quit my job, quit school, sold me car and stored my personal items. that was 30 yrs ago
modiyooch
05-01-2009, 11:54
my kids started at age 2, 3 & 5. They were day hiking with me earlier, as infants.
Chenango
05-01-2009, 11:59
I was 11 or 12 years old. I hiked the Presidentials with a YMCA group. I was hooked.