My nephew will be nearly twelve this summer and I’ve been on brief day hikes with him. He’s enjoyed relatively short day hikes in the past and has brought up the idea of a backpacking trip when I talk about my hiking plans for this year. So I’m trying to think of a good but short overnight trip that isn’t too long but also not totally trivial in terms of difficulty. There’s nothing local but there’s an opportunity for me to take him for an overnight in Shenandoah National Park in mid August.
I’ve hiked the AT and many side trails in the park back when I lived in the Dc area and my current idea is the Rose River loop. However, I feel like this may almost be too short and easy given that it would be just a few miles to camp. I’d like to stay at higher elevations due to being the peak of summer and to include enough to keep him interested, so a river and waterfalls seems attractive. Of course, we would drive the skyline drive as well for views.
Does anyone have general suggestions of things I should do to make a first trip more enjoyable for a 12 year old? Ideally, he’d like this experience and then I’d plan to take him out to the Sierra Nevada for a few days near Mammoth next year and maybe do the entire JMT with him in 2021 or 2022.
Oh, one other thing is that I don’t really want to buy him expensive gear so I’m probably going to opt for a wal mart bag and maybe a cheaper REI tent. Not sure about the backpack yet but leaning toward ULA. I’ll be carrying most gear but I want him to have the experience of carrying something on his back that’s appropriate for his weight of about 100 pounds.