How to estimate distances when day hiking

How long a day hike with a child will take depends on a number of factors,
including terrain, how much you're carrying, and how fit you are.

When planning a day hike with children, you’ll likely want to have a good estimate of how long you’ll be on the trail. This is good to know for planning rest stops and snacks. You’ll also want to leave with a responsible party an estimate of when you’ll be back to civilization so that they can report to authorities that you’re missing (If you or a child is injured, having this safety net can be vital to you rescue and survival).

Unfortunately, estimating how far you can walk isn’t an easy answer. It depends on a number of factors. If you’re tall, you’ll take longer steps than someone who is short. If you have a child carrier or backpack on, you’ll need longer to walk the same distance than if you don’t. If the terrain is steep, rocky or otherwise difficult, it’ll take longer than a flat, well-maintained trail. If at a high altitude, you’ll go slower than at a lower elevation.

Generally, if you’re physically fit, expect that you can do a mile in:
g 20 minutes – No pack/carrier, easy trail
g 40 minutes – No pack/carrier, difficult trail OR pack/carrier, easy trail
g 60 minutes – Pack/carrier, difficult trail

The more hikes you do, the greater awareness you’ll have of your pace under varied conditions and will be better able to make an accurate estimate.

Read more about day hiking with children in my guidebook Hikes with Tykes.

When you'll need a backpack for a day hike

Sometimes called daypacks for day hikes or for kids, backpacks are essential once kids come down from the baby carrier. As the child is older, you’ll need to find a better way than a fanny pack to carry all of the items you need – snacks, first-aid kit, extra clothing, and more.

With multiple children, fanny packs can get awful crowded, so every time you dig through them, whatever you’ve packed gets knocked out of place. That makes finding an item difficult the next time you need it and increases the chances of losing something. Fanny packs also can carry only so much, so upsizing has it limits. By instead enlisting your back and shoulders, you can carry more items, a necessity the more children you have and the farther your hike goes.

Read more about day hiking with children in my Hikes with Tykes guidebooks.

Get children right kind of footwear for hikes

Courtesy of Michal Marcol /FreeDigitalPhotos.net

If a child’s feet hurt, the hike is over, so getting the right footwear is worth the time.

Make sure the footwear you have fits before hitting the trail. If you’ve gone a few weeks without hiking, that’s plenty of time for your children to grow, and they may have just outgrown their hiking boots. Check out their footwear a few days before heading out on the hike. If it doesn’t fit, replace it.

Avoid injuries
For flat, smooth, dry trails, sneakers and cross-trainers are just fine; but if you really want to head onto less traveled roads or tackle areas that aren’t typically dry (like Southern California is), you’ll need hiking boots.

Once you start doing any rocky or steep trails – and remember that a trail you consider moderately steep needs to be only half that angle for a child to consider it extremely steep – you’ll want hiking boots, which offer rugged tread perfect for handling rough trails.

Also, in some parts of the nation, such as the Pacific Northwest, parts of the trails will be muddy even after a few days of dry weather have passed. Sneakers quickly will become soaked and unable to traverse mud.

Hiking boots don’t just give you traction. If your children don’t have good shoes, they run the risk of blisters or even punctures from sharp rocks.

Afternoon shopping trip
Adults also should wear hiking boots, as they have either a baby carrier or a backpack strapped over their shoulders. If lugging about nothing more than a small daypack, you probably can get away with wearing crosstrainers, trekking shoes or trail-running shoes so long as you stick to fairly level, short footpaths.

Shop for hiking boots in the afternoon when feet are slightly swollen from having been walked on earlier that day. Also wear the socks you plan to don when hiking. If you wear insoles or orthotics, make sure they go into the boot as well.

The smaller the child, aim for lightweight shoes. Five-pound shoes would be cumbersome for most adults, so imagine what they would be for a child with smaller, less muscular legs. Indeed, an old hikers’ axiom is that a pound of shoe weight equals five pounds in the backpack.

Don’t allow children to wear open-toed shoes on a hike. Sandals are fine for the beach and walks on paved surfaces but not for the woods where rocks, roots and bugs all can get at exposed toes. Infants and toddlers confined to the baby carrier don’t need hiking boots. Besides being heavy, their rigidness actually can harm developing feet. Sneakers are sufficient for the few minutes they come out of the carrier and get to run about the trail.

Read more about day hiking with children in my Hikes with Tykes guidebooks.

Avoid a hiking disaster when on the trail with children

Avoid dangers by not allowing children to get into
dangerous situations.

While day hiking is fairly safe, accidents and problems can occur. Knowing how to deal with each one usually can avert larger issues.

The best solution to any of these scenarios is to avoid the problem altogether. Before hitting the trail, this means educating children on being safe. On the trail, it means playing it safe, so no horseplay around rocks, water and campfires, which can lead to injuries. Children also should not push or nudge one another on the trail to get past, and you should never press your children into doing something that is unsafe.

It also means keeping a close eye on children. “If there’s more than one adult in party, have one take point and hike ahead of the rest of the party, watching for obstacles and dangers and ensuring no one gets ahead of the group,” says Roberta S., Santa Cruz, Calif. “The other adult then can take up the rear and ensure no lags behind and gets lost or injured.”

But even the best plans can be laid to waste, so you’ll also need to be aware of how to face down each problem. Begin by taking a first-aid course. Besides learning to treat various injuries, a course can teach you how to deal with the stress of an emergency. The Red Cross and many hospitals and clinics offer them at a low cost. In addition, teach your kids basic first aid, or if they’re old enough have them take the course, too. It’s knowledge that could come in handy far beyond the hiking trail.

Some parent hikers put their small children on a harness or leash when they head into dangerous areas, such as steep cliffs. To me, that feels antithetical to the notion of what hiking in part is all about – the challenge of negotiating the trail, the freedom of the outdoors. If the trail is really so dangerous that a child can’t be trusted to be on it, then he belongs in a baby carrier. If the child is too big for a carrier, then the trail is simply too unsafe for him to be on, and the parent shouldn’t be taking him there. If you’ve done your research when selecting a trail, you’ll know if a trail is too dangerous or not.

Should a parent hike solo with children? Many long-time hikers say never, as the chances of getting lost in-crease dramatically. In addition, getting out of the wilds should one become injured makes a sharp decline if solo. Certainly having two adults is better than one when dealing with a group of kids. Having said that, many hikers including myself always take children by ourselves. If you properly prepare for the hike, given the short lengths of the trails you’ll hit, the chance of anything going wrong is very low, certainly less than the chance of getting into a car accident, and we drive our vehicles by ourselves or with just our children every day. Further, considering I usually hike in populous Southern California, I’m confident another hiker will be along within a day (and some-times even a few hours) to provide any help. I wouldn’t be so certain if in the backcountry of Alaska or northern Idaho, however.

Read more about day hiking with children in my Hikes with Tykes guidebooks.

Tips for carrying small children when day hiking

Baby carriers are a great way to
take children on long hikes.

If your child is an infant or toddler, you’ll have to carry him. Until infants can hold their heads up, which usually doesn’t happen until about four to six months of age, a front pack (like a Snugli or Baby Bjorn) is best. It keeps the infant close for warmth and balances out your backpack. At same time, though, you must watch for baby overheating in a front pack, so you’ll need to remove the infant from your body at rest stops.

Once children reach about 20 pounds, they typically can hold their heads up and sit on their own. At that point, you’ll want a baby carrier (sometimes called a child carrier or baby backpack), which can transfer the infant’s weight to your hips when you walk. You’ll not only be comfortable, but you’re child will love it, too.

Look for a baby carrier that is sturdy yet lightweight. Your child is going to get heavier as time passes, so about the only way you can counteract this is to reduce the weight of the items you use to carry things. The carrier also should have adjustment points, as you don’t want your child to outgrow the carrier too soon. A padded waist belt and padded shoulder straps are necessary for your comfort. The carrier should provide head and neck support if you’re hauling an infant. It also should offer back support for children of all ages, and leg holes should be wide enough so there’s no chafing.

You want to be able to load your infant without help, so it should be stable enough to stand so when you take it off the child can sit in it for a moment while you get turned around. Stay away from baby carriers with only shoulder straps as you need the waist belt to help shift the child’s weight to your hips for more comfortable walking.

Read more about day hiking with children in my Hikes with Tykes guidebooks.

Is a child carrier really worth it on a hike?

A child carrier is very useful when bringing small children on hikes.

If a baby carrier sounds like a lot of work, consider this: a full pack to go in the backcountry usually weighs about 45 pounds. Your child won’t weigh 45 until he’s in his fours. An infant weighing under 20 pounds is nothing to carry on one’s back, even if you add the four or five pounds of the carrier to it.

Most infants and toddlers like to be in baby carriers. They can see the world from a higher vantage point and can make direct eye contact with others.

Some casual day hikers will want to use strollers rather than baby carriers. This is fine in paved urban areas but will be nearly impossible on wild trails. The surface will be too rough, eating up the strollers’ plastic wheels. Other surfaces will be sandy or rocky, making pushing a stroller difficult at best.

Read more about day hiking with children in my guidebook Hikes with Tykes.

When to stop using a child carrier on hikes

You’ll need to stop using the child carrier when one of two milestones are reached: Your children outgrow it (in either weight or height), which for average-size kids happens sometime during their third year, or when your children becomes too heavy for you to comfortably carry them.

You’ll then need to start having your child walk. That most likely will mean cutting back on the distance you can traverse. When my son was two, we’d peakbag mountains on six-mile hikes with him in the carrier the whole way, but by the time he was four, we were limited to two-mile, fairly flat trails.

The good news is as children age they can go a little farther every year.

Just because the child can walk doesn’t mean you should quit wearing a baby carrier, though. Notes arent Sara F., of Lebanon, N.H.: “By about the middle of my son’s third year, he could scramble over any terrain and weighed 40 pounds, so I had him walk; fortunately, he wanted to be on the ground so he could explore the fascinating world around him; I still took the carrier along with me, just in case he tired out or was injured in some way, necessitating that I carry him out.”

Learn about trail guidebooks available in the Hittin’ the Trail series.

Use a child carrier to make day hike easier

Hiking with a child carrier poses different challenges than backpacks, mainly because your child will move about as you walk, which can throw you off balance, especially on steep or rocky terrain. Seated children will have a lower center of gravity than a full backpack, and this makes achieving a good weight distribution difficult if sometimes not impossible. In addition, you can’t scoot down rocks or inclines on your butt as your child’s feet are under you and would be crushed.

You’ll need to learn how to walk with a child carrier, so before hitting the trail it’s a good idea to place your child in one, put it on, and try vacuuming (to simulate the bending you’ll need to do on ascents) and walking around your neighborhood. It’s a good conversation starter with the neighbors and certain to earn you and your child friendly waves.

Seat the infant or toddler in the carrier each time before heading on a hike so you can readjust the straps for both the child and for you. This only takes a few minutes to do and will save you much trouble during the hike.

If the day is a bit cool, a child in a carrier will need to be dressed slightly warmer than you are. Children in carriers will get cold because they’re not exerting themselves as you are on the trail. They also could be more exposed to the wind depending on your direction of travel. On the other hand, if the day is a bit on the warm side, children on your back may need to be dressed cooler than you as the nylon making up a carrier seat doesn’t breathe. Some hikers recommend jury-rigging umbrellas on the carrier to keep the child out of the sun, but if a sunhat isn’t enough to protect your child, then you probably are hiking in too hot of weather for a kid. If walking in an area where you’ll be exposed to direct sunlight, make sure they wear a hat and that their hands, legs and feet are covered in clothing or sunscreen.

Before setting out on the trail, always be sure to buckle up your child by using the carrier’s shoulder straps. Their squirming about increases their chance of falling out if they aren’t strapped in.

Be aware that during the hike younger children like to take off their sunhat and sunglasses just out of curiosity or because they’re uncomfortable in them. They end up dropping them on the trail and then run the risk of sunburn or of being blinded by sunlight. You’ll need to periodically look back over your shoulder and see that they still have their head and eye protection on. Their legs also may be exposed as baby and toddler pants creep up.

The child also will need to be taken out of the carrier for every hour you walk. This will give you a rest stop and give the toddler a chance to run around, which he’ll welcome.

Read more about day hiking with children in my guidebook Hikes with Tykes.

Should you buy add-ons for child carrier?

Many carriers come with extras. I generally eschew the add-ons as they unnecessarily increase the carrier’s weight. The most any person can carry on their back about 60 pounds, and beginning hikers probably won’t be able to haul much more than 30-35 pounds, which is about the weight of a toddler and their carrier.

Still, sun and rain guards as well as canopies are popular, even though they generally don’t provide the perfect sun and wind protection as claimed, for at just the right angle (which almost always seems to be the angle the trail takes), the elements still can get in. Children usually don’t like looking through plastic windows, which often become scratched and discolored after a few hikes. In addition, they can be awkward to assemble and can’t be easily stowed on the trail if you want to take them on and off. A simple hat with a wide brim and properly layered clothing will keep sun and wind off your child while giving an unhindered view. In some regions, like the Pacific Northwest, hiking without risk of rain may be impossible for long stretches of time, so you’ll have to decide if the benefits of this add-on outweigh the negatives.

Another add-on is stirrups. Feet can dangle, and though kids may prefer that, stirrups are helpful once they start kicking about. Kids in baby carriers do swing their legs, and their feet can hit you hard in the back or ribs.

Places to strap things on and extra pockets are fun, but I prefer a fanny pack. To reach anything on a baby carrier, you’ll have to take it off, and that is inconvenient when hiking with children.

Read more about day hiking with children in my guidebook Hikes with Tykes.

Putting on gear during a day hike with kids

Once you arrive at the hiking area, you’ll want to strap on your own gear – and that’s not so easy to do when you’re also trying to watch little ones and making sure they don’t discard clothing or gear you just make sure they had.

Double check so you haven’t left something valuable in the vehicle that needs to be taken on the trail, such as maps you used to reach the site, your mobile phone, your wallet, and trail mix your kids talked you into munching on early. Once you’ve done that, get your gear on.

When putting on the backpack, tighten the waist belt snug, then shift the pack as high on your shoulders as you can and tighten the belt again. This will provide better stability when walking and keep most of the weight on your hips rather than your shoulders, which would be tiring.

If you have a baby carrier, put on your fanny pack first, then situate and buckle up the child in the carrier. Next, put on the carrier, grab the trekking pole, and gather the kids around to go over safety rules (more about that in an upcoming blog entry!).

Read more about day hiking with children in my guidebook Hikes with Tykes.

How to best cross water with hiking kids

When hiking with children, you want to avoid crossing water. Still, sometimes to reach a destination you’ll have to go through small streams, or in the case of a tide or a recent flashflood you may be cut off from your vehicle. With children, it’s usually best to avoid a water crossing by properly timing your hike – don’t walk a beach at high tide, for example – or simply turning back when the trail ends at a waterway, such as when a bridge is washed out.

If you must cross, do so where the water is calm and no higher than hip deep, which probably will be too deep for young children, meaning you’ll need to put them in a baby carrier. You’ll typically find calm spots at a bend in the river or stream, mainly because the waterway widens and slows at the turn. Look ahead for any deep water. It will appear dark or greener than the rest of the waterway. Before crossing, check the far bank to make sure it isn’t undercut or steep, as climbing out of the water will be difficult for children or for you if they’re on your back.

One kind of water crossing you may face is rock hopping across a stream that at worst runs only a few inches deep. Approach any rock hopping cautiously, for the stones will be slippery. You want to keep your feet dry and don’t to want to risk falling – children can drown in just three inches of water. First, select your rock, looking for those that are wide enough to support one of your feet and that can be reached with steps rather than jumps. Always test each rock’s stability with your trekking pole before committing to it.

If you lose your balance, don’t fret about stepping into the water to stay upright. It’s almost always better to have one wet foot than to fall.

Waterlogged ground, such as marshland and swamps, ought to be avoided. More than your feet will get wet as you sink into mud, which makes stepping very difficult if not impossible for children. Should children fall, they might land in pockets of deep water. In addition, snakes and insects can abound in such environments.

Read more about cross dangerous terrain when day hiking with children in the guidebook Hikes with Tykes.

Great snack ideas for your hike with kids

Trail mix also is known as "gorp" among hikers.

When day hiking with kids, bring a variety of small snacks for rest stops. You don’t want kids filling up on snacks, but you do need them to maintain their energy levels if they’re walking or to ensure they don’t turn fussy if riding in a baby carrier. Go for complex carbohydrates and proteins for maintaining energy. Good options include dried fruits, jerky, nuts, peanut butter, prepared energy bars, candy bars with a high protein content (nuts, peanut butter), crackers, raisins and trail mix (called “gorp”).

A number of trail mix recipes are available online; you and your children may want to try them out at home to see which ones you collectively like most.

Salty treats rehydrate better than sweet treats do. Chocolate and other sweets are fine if they’re not exclusively served, but remember they also tend to lead to thirst and to make sticky messes. Whichever snacks you choose, don’t experiment with food on the trail. Bring what you know kids will like.

Give the first snack within a half-hour of leaving the trailhead or you risk children becoming tired and whiny from low energy levels. If kids start asking for them every few steps even after having something to eat at the last rest stop, consider timing snacks to reaching a seeable land-mark, such as, “We’ll get out the trail mix when we reach that bend up ahead.”

How much food should you bring? Enough so each child can have a couple of snacks over a couple of miles is a good rule of thumb, but the older the child and the more difficult the terrain, the more food you’ll likely need. Each child is different, of course, and may require more or less as the eating habits and metabolism dictate.

Many hikers use food to create a fond memory of hiking. Says Jackie S., of Brevard, N.C., “Bring a special snack to enjoy upon reaching your destination. When my two daughters and I hit the summit or take a break at the waterfall we’ve just walked an hour or more to see, we break out a package of freeze-dried blueberry cheesecake. After a long hike, it’s like eating in a gourmet restaurant.”

Read more about day hiking with children in the guidebook Hikes with Tykes.