Backpacking With a Toddler

 

Recently, my wife and I took our two-year-old son on his first backpacking trip.  We spent four nights in Wyoming’s Wind River Range, hiking 22 miles round trip to Shadow Lake, just west of the famous Cirque of the Towers.  Are we crazy?  Maybe.  Probably.  But it was one of the most memorable, awe-inspiring, and fun experiences of my life.  Even though, weeks later, we’re still getting all the dirt out of our hair.

Our son, who is 27 months old, is pushing 30 pounds.  Although he walked short distances on his own here and there, he spent most of the hikes on my wife’s back in a Deuter baby carrier.  That left me to carry pretty much all our gear.  With my photography equipment in my pack as well, it was very heavy.  Keeping weight down any way we could was crucial.  My gear is already really light: ultralight tent, sleeping bags, sleeping pads; titanium cookware and 2-ounce canister stove.  I swear by my Steri-Pen UV water purifier, which is very light.  Our son loves drinking milk, so we brought powdered milk, and we brought some individually wrapped snack cheese for extra nutrition with minimal weight.  He also loves oatmeal, so we packed a few instant oatmeal packets for him.  Besides that, he pretty much shared our backpacking meals with us.  But of course the biggest kiddo-related weight issue would be diapers.  I did some research and discovered GroVia diapers: they’re “hybrid” cloth diapers with disposable, biodegradable inserts.  The inserts, while not quite as absorbent as our usual disposable brand, were light, packed tiny, and worked surprisingly well.  We bought two of the cloth diaper “covers” and rotated them throughout the trip.  This system saved us so much space and weight.

Giving our son a chance to hike a bit, especially in the flat, sandy-trailed meadows, was a lot of fun for him, and a nice break for my wife’s back.  It gave him an opportunity to stop and smell the wildflowers, and point out all the butterflies.  My wife: “what does a butterfly say?” Son: “butterfly say I love you.”

Seeing him take joy in bugs, clamber up a granite boulder and giggle with pride, and greet the tiny baby trout in a crystal-clear mountain lake (“hi littley fishy!”) are things I’ll never forget.  There’s nothing in the world like witnessing my son experience the wonder of the wilderness.

 

 

Our sleeping arrangements took a bit of planning.  As we were just above 10,000 feet elevation, nights got pretty cold.  Our son slept in an REI poly base layer long-sleeve tee and socks, under fleece footy pajamas, in a fleece sleep sack (like a sleeping bag with arm holes).  We tried having him sleep in his toddler Patagonia down coat, but that didn’t seem to be comfortable for him, so we wrapped my down coat around him like a blanket.  He slept between us on his own kid-size Thermarest sleeping pad.

 

Backpacking with a toddler is a challenge.  I’m not gonna lie.  Our packs were heavy and our backs were sore.  But it was so worth it.  I hope to give my son the opportunity to, as Emerson said, “live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air.”  I want him to feel the exhiliration of the wilderness; to wonder at the stars and feel the ancient earth under his feet.  I want him to know the calls of ospreys and the peeps of marmots.  And, hopefully, I want to experience this with him again.  Soon!