Hiking with Kids- Tips 6-10

<–Click here to read Hiking with Kids- Tips 1-5, if you haven’t already.

Young kids can carry a few pounds- and every pound helps!

6.) As a kid becomes more familiar with hiking, share the weight.

Kids like to help adults, let your child start helping out with carrying gear, when they are ready. That’s a tough decision- how do you know when your child is ready to start carrying a pack? For starters, the child shouldn’t have any weight the first couple of trips. If they’re young enough (younger than 9), you should be carrying all of their gear, with the exception of their water bottle. As the child grows older (and is more experienced with hiking), you’ll know the right time to start adding weight to their pack- they’ll ask for it. Kids love to help out, and as they grow older they’ll want to be increasingly more independent. They’ll thank you for the added responsibility, and your back will be thankful as well!

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Hiking with Kids- Tips 1-5

Hiking with your kids forms memories that last a lifetime.

There’s no greater joy than sharing the outdoors with your family. Hiking with kids adds a whole new perspective to a day hike or overnight hike, allowing you to see the mountains through their excited eyes. Hiking with children is no easy task- it will test your patience, and theirs as well. Special considerations will have to be made, adding extra weight to your pack. The extra weight and hassle is definitely worth it-you will build memories that last a lifetime, provided a few extra precautions are made, and a few extra provisions carried.

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You feel your chest tighten up, your heart races, and your eyes dart back and forth trying to find a way out. You’ve become lost in the woods, and you just realized that you can’t find the way out. As the terror subsides, there’s the urge to just run- your adrenaline starts pumping, and your body tries to fix the problem by telling you to go as far as you can in a single direction. When the adrenaline wears off, you realize how hopeless your situation is. The landscape seems alien to you- did you cross this path before? The woods close in on you, and the trail seems miles away. What do you do, now?

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Completed Hobo Stove with Soda Can Pot

There we were- ten miles from the trailhead, and even further from civilization.  We were all staring down in disbelief at what we saw.  Our only pot for boiling water had a large crack in it, rendering it worthless.  We tried to patch it together with tin foil, but the truth of the situation was that we were in trouble.  We were in one of the most remote places in the Beartooth Mountains, and we were without a method of boiling water.  Since our freeze dried foods required boiling water to make, we could not use much of the food we had brought on that hike.  We had to leave early, and quickly.

That hike out was a death march- 12 miles in one day, through a huge rain storm that lasted over 6 hours.  When we arrived to the vehicle I had parked at the trailhead, we were exhausted, soaking wet, and hungry.  This all could have been prevented, if we just had a reliable backup method of boiling water.  This was an easily preventable emergency, and I’m now going to show you how to make one of the easiest stove/pot combinations to make, in case you are in a similar situation.

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We’ve all been there- you’re down to your last match, and you want to start a fire.  You strike the match, only to be left with disappointment, when the match burns out.  Building a fire is not an easy task- but it’s a crucial one.  Campfires bring warmth, morale, and a way to cook your meals.  Whether if you are starting a fire for survival, or for entertainment, all fires are built the same basic way.  Read on, if you want to know how to properly start a fire.

The first step of starting a fire is to find good quality firewood.  This is relatively easy, since you’re usually in a forested area, if you are trying to start a fire.  The general rule that I use is simple- gather a lot of little pieces of dry firewood, and a little of the larger pieces.  You’ll have plenty of time to gradually gather more firewood once the fire is started, and you’ll conserve energy for the important part- building the fire.  Remember that even if you cannot find a dry source of firewood, you can always split dry dead standing trees, and burn the insides of the trees (which will usually be dry).  In a desert/dry environment, dead stems and roots of bushes can be used, in lieu of wood.
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