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RE: Babies on the trail


How small is small? :-)

My wife and I took our son on his first camping (NOT backpacking)
trip when he was three months old.  Two weeks in the Whites in
New Hampshire.  Only problem on that trip was when I misstepped
coming down off the summit of Mount Washington and went down
in a heap.  Attracted lots of attention :-)  Got to meet Brad Washburn,
who was doing the final survey for his Mount Washington map...

We took our son out on his first backpacking trip when he was
thirteen months old.  We felt he was walking well enough at that
point (he had walking without assist since eight months) that he
could handle walking around a campsite by himself.  Even so,
he still had problems tripping over rocks and roots.  He thought
the tent was a GREAT playpen.

We continued carrying him until he was about three years old
and was just too heavy.  We were using a seat from Tough Traveler
mounted to my Kelty frame.  Nice and comfy until he hit forty
pounds or so.  At that point we settled in to walking as far as he
felt comfortable, then set up camp when he began to complain.
These intervals get longer over time :-)

Back to infancy...we generally planned two to three day outings
because we didn't feel comfortable carrying enough things for
longer trips.  I carried our son, his things, my gear and the tent.
My wife carried her gear, the cooking equipment and our food.
The dog carried his own food :-)

We also wanted to make sure he enjoyed the experience, which
included waiting for good weather.  Nothing like rain in an early
experience to turn off a kid to camping.  Today our son is eight
years old an just loves backpacking.  He's also a quarter of the
way to having climbed the New Hampshire 4000 footers.

jim
jloudon@gic.gi.com