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Nutbrown
11-16-2012, 14:19
Speaking of water. I know the 10% rule. I am taking my 7yo daughter on her 1st overnight hike this weekend. She has a small pack with light structure. She's going to be carrying her jacket, gloves, a snack, and some water. My question is how much water??? I have a litre platy bag for her. Would you fill up the entire litre?

moldy
11-16-2012, 15:30
I would make sure the backpack has wide sholder straps and a belly band. For a 40 pound kid the total weight should be 4 lbs or less. Adjust the pack so that it rests in the small of her back on the hips and the weight does not all rest on the sholders.

Feral Bill
11-16-2012, 16:01
Kids are not made of glass. Give her a full liter, weight be damned.:)

jakedatc
11-16-2012, 16:21
or 2 half liter bottles to balance things out if she has bottle pockets. maybe with a squirt top to encourage her to drink it. (vs a widemouth bottle that takes a bit more time)

have a fun trip!

http://www.trishalexsage.com/
Lots of hiking with little girls on Trish Herr's blog. Maybe something to inspire your daughter seeing other kids out there hiking

skymom
11-16-2012, 16:37
She should be fine with a liter. My daughter has her own camelbak so she can drink out of the tube. I also put a snack bar, ID, whistle and a few other goodies in there. I keep a few emergency supplies in there and teach her basic "survival" or what to do if you were lost in the woods skills along the way.

G-FOURce
11-16-2012, 16:43
my son carried his own sleeping bag, pad, gloves, hat, headlamp, and mug on his first overnight hike when he was five. i use a 20% rule. what she can carry will be determined by her size, weight, and strength and only you can know what she shoulld attempt to tote. kids are resilient and stronger than we tend to give them credit for, so load her up with what you think is appropriate and see how it goes. if its just an overnighter then you should be able to manage anything that you might need to remove from her pack if you need to adjust her weight down some.

JAK
11-16-2012, 19:01
Speaking of water. I know the 10% rule. I am taking my 7yo daughter on her 1st overnight hike this weekend. She has a small pack with light structure. She's going to be carrying her jacket, gloves, a snack, and some water. My question is how much water??? I have a litre platy bag for her. Would you fill up the entire litre?I think 1 liter is too much for someone that size. Total pack weight in pounds should be no more than height in feet squared, and for kids I would divide that by 2. So for someone 4 feet tall, 8 pounds, and keep the clothing worn light as well. Hard to find light clothing and gear and packs for kids, so you have to improvise. They need to go ultralight to keep up, but they can keep up as long as you don't encumber them too much. As a species we evolved for kids to first be small enough too carry, then light enough to keep up on their own as long as they didn't have to carry stuff, then gradually carrying more of their own share as they grow through their teens.

G-FOURce
11-16-2012, 19:35
.... Total pack weight in pounds should be no more than height in feet squared, and for kids I would divide that by 2. So for someone 4 feet tall, 8 pounds...

Thats interesting. I am going to use that methodology. I think for my 10yr old son I may use a .75 multiplier instead of the .5 suggested, but still I like it.

kayak karl
11-16-2012, 19:41
Kids are different. my 4 and their kids are different when it comes to these things. i am always prepare to carry their pack if it gets tiresome for them. this is suppose to be fun for them. they should not be expected to carry their share. the most drink they carried was about 8 oz. in an 8 oz. container.
no stuffed animal in pack? :)

JAK
11-16-2012, 19:42
Yeah it depends a lot on the child. Also depends on how much the parent can carry for them. My daughter is very small for her age and I am tall and not too much overweight so I would naturally carry her stuff, and even her sometimes, and she did not mind. That was when she was 8-10 years old. On the other extreme some 10-13 year old boys hiking with their mom might be capable of carrying some of their mom's stuff. Depends on how they are built. Just as with adults though, you don't want to get carried away buying the biggest backpack and filling it up like a kid in a candy store. Think like primitive man, woman, and child. What would they carry? The answer is quite simple - no more than they had to.

buldogge
11-16-2012, 22:41
We haven't done an overnight yet with my 6.5yo son...but...we regularly do 5-7 mile dayhikes. He often carries a small Camelbak pack with 1L bladder, snacks, and maybe a windbreaker/rainjacket. FWIW, he is 52"/60#.

When he was younger he would whine about carrying most anything and my wife would end up with the mini-pack (she never carries a pack), I even carried him a time or two.

Those days are gone now and I expect to soon be doing 8-10 miles in and overnight...but...I won't change his load much for now, my wife will need to pack in 1/2 the shared gear.

As several have already said, its down to the individual child...you know you child best...but...don't be afraid to give them a little push forward!

-Mark in St. Louis

Nutbrown
11-16-2012, 23:13
I'm sticking with the liter. It's a platy that is in the pack with a drink tube. All together, she'll be carrying 4 lbs. She's 40#, so I think she'll be fine. We're only going 5 miles a day, and I'm allowing all day for it tomorrow and Sun. Plenty of time for even a nap in the hammock if she gets tired! (sounds kinda good to me)

Feral Bill
11-16-2012, 23:55
I think 1 liter is too much for someone that size. Total pack weight in pounds should be no more than height in feet squared, and for kids I would divide that by 2. So for someone 4 feet tall, 8 pounds, and keep the clothing worn light as well. Hard to find light clothing and gear and packs for kids, so you have to improvise. They need to go ultralight to keep up, but they can keep up as long as you don't encumber them too much. As a species we evolved for kids to first be small enough too carry, then light enough to keep up on their own as long as they didn't have to carry stuff, then gradually carrying more of their own share as they grow through their teens. Comes out to 11 pounds (49 newtons for the metrically inclined) For me, 6.25 squared= 39 lbs (173 N). I could carry more without harm, but very rarely do. When my daughter was about 4', she carried up to 20 lbs. I kept up, just.

JAK
11-17-2012, 01:47
My daughter is 13 but still only 4'8" and 80 pounds. Works out to 21 pounds / 2 = 10.5 pounds. She carries way more than that to school of course, even though I tell her not to. On hilly hikes she carries under 10 and we cover a lot of ground if I can still keep up. We did 38km on the Fundy Footpath when she was 8, and 19 of that in one day. Supper hilly, like 5000 feet net elevation gain I would guess. Not sure what she could do now. Teenagers eh,

dornstar
11-17-2012, 12:53
I have a 7 year old girl (weighs 52 pounds) and she carries around 10-12 pounds fine, but she's a level 5 gymnast that is in the gym 15+ hours per week and is ridiculously strong (physically and mentally) for her size. I usually carry water for the both of us though and just fill up a water bottle as needed.