Backpacking with Two Little Ones –

This is what worked for us a few weeks ago camping for two nights at Chevelon Lake in central Arizona…

·         Choose a location that is somewhat free of major hazards: dangerous current, unavoidable cactus, other people who could be mad if your baby is awake crying at night.

·         Choose a base camp that is a short walk in (less than a mile or two).  You can feel like you are backpacking (i.e. no cars or crowds),  yet one parent can make a couple trips to the car for gear if need be.

·         Pack only what you need – bring multiple use items and pare down knowing that you can get out quickly and that simplicity and sensible self sacrifice are good practices anyway.

We packed Violet (2 ½) into her Kelty Pathfinder on which I added a homemade cargo bag.  I carried her and as much gear as could fit into and on the backpack (1 sleeping bag, 3 sleeping pads, a crazy creek chair for nursing, and hats, sunscreen, snacks and water).  Jason carried a 4-person tent, two sleeping bags, all of our clothes (minimal), diapers, all of our food, and the stove/fuel/pot in his big backpack and Tanner (7 months) in an Ergo carrier on the front.   Sammy the dog carried his own food in his pack as well.

Jason’s good observation was that we actually could have carried less weight by having two 2-person tents rather than one 4 person as those bigger family tents are much heavier given the need for heavier gauge poles.  Jason and Violet slept out under the stars anyway so we could have gotten away with much less.   Maybe the way to go is a small 2-person tent to have a place to escape in the bug hour (s) and to have a secure place for a baby to nap and then a simple tarp in case in inclement weather if all need to sleep under something.  We have some improvised gear for Violet: a custom small sleeping bag and a piece of a Z-rest rather than the whole thing.  For Tanner, we multi-purposed Jason’s down vest as his blanket and he also slept on a remnant of ensulite (he was mostly in my bag with me).

We know we will go on bigger backpack trips in the future, but this was just the right speed for Tanner’s first trip and our experiment with carrying all gear and two kids.  We didn’t eat extravagantly nor have all the comforts of home, but neither of those things were important.  Violet loved the stars and Tanner could have combed the pine needles in the dirt all day.