Backpacking with Children Introduction

Beginner's Guide to Backpacking

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"On no subject are our ideas more warped and pitiable than on death.... Let children walk with nature, let them see the beautiful blendings and communions of death and life, their joyous inseparable unity, as taught in woods and meadows, plains and mountains and streams of our blessed star, and they will learn that death is stingless indeed, and as beautiful as life, and that the grave has no victory, for it never fights. All is divine harmony."
John Muir, A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf, 1916

Hiking with children is far different from exploring the backcountry with other adults. Children, to their credit, are rarely as obsessed with goals as their parents. They cannot fathom the notion of hiking non-stop for hours with eyes fixated on Dad's boot heels in order to reach some scenic vista. Instead, kids are interested in the little things right in front of them. They love to inspect the bugs, beetles, lizards and leaves that line the trail. While backpacking in Rocky Mountain National Park with our neighbors Gregg and Amy Thayer, their daughters Maggie and Jessie became fascinated with renaming the flowers they encountered. The game occupied them for an entire mile – a long time for two young children. Kids don't comprehend why Daddy and Mommy, with their massive packs, are eager to cover the miles as quickly as possible so that they can drop their loads for the last time, and they don't grasp why adults don't share their fascination with the minute wonders that spring into view at every step. As the Little Prince put it in Antoine de Saint Exupéry's novel of the same name, "Grownups never understand anything for themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them."

Before taking your kids into the wilderness, make sure that you yourself feel comfortable there. Don't try to learn how to pitch your tent and fire up your stove when you've got cold, hungry, tired kids in tow. Even experts should never go into the woods as the only adult with young children. If something should happen to the adult, the whole group could be in serious trouble. Two adults are a minimum. Ideally, the ratio of adults to children under seven should be one to one. At worst, there should be one adult for every two children.

Next Page: The Stages of a Wilderness Childhood

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