Packing checklist for day hiking with kids

Illustration courtesy of By GitHub (github.com/
github/octicons) via Wikimedia Commons

As the following items are placed in your fanny pack or backpack, cross them off (some items may be connected to your belt or backpack, carried around your neck on a lanyard, or worn). You may wish to add items to the list:
g Camera w/ extra batteries
g Candle
g Canteens filled w/ water
g Carabiners
g Compass
g Diapers (if applicable)
g First-aid kit
g Flashlight w/ extra batteries
g GPS (if applicable)
g Insect repellent
g Lip balm
g Maps
g Matches
g Mobile phone
g Multi-purpose tool
g Picnic lunch ingredients (if picnic is planned)
g Prescription medications (if applicable)
g Rain gear (poncho or jacket w/ trousers)
g Re-sealable plastic bags
g Rope
g Safety whistle
g Snacks
g Space blanket
g Sunscreen
g Tarpaulin (if backpack is used)
g Toilet paper
g Toilet trowel
g Wet wipes
g Wristwatch

If an unweaned infant or toddler is with you:
g Bottle w/ nipple
g Milk or formula
g Pacifier

If children are carrying daypacks, place in them:
g Jacket (for rain or wind)
g Maps (duplicates of yours)
g Safety whistle
g Snack

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

Great day hiking activity with kids: Rock climbing

Generally, exploring and discovery is enough for kids, but sometimes even they can grow bored with that and become restless. Remember that they naturally have shorter attention spans than adults.

Fortunately, there are lots of tried and true activities you can do on the trail that’ll keep kids from getting bored. Among them is rock climbing.

Definitely for older kids, children, and it means you’ll need to lug some extra gear for safety purposes, as you don’t want to fall in the backcountry and then have to spend several hours in pain as being hauled back to civilization for medical attention. Gear you’ll need to bring: roping, webbing, carabiners, harnesses, belay devices, climbing shoes. It’s not in the scope of this blog to explain rock climbing, but there are plenty of good books out there about how to do it safely.

Materials: Rock climbing gear

Ages: 14 and up.

Learn about more than a hundred other hiking diversions for kids in Hikes with Tykes: Games and Activities.

Carry handy carbiners on next hike with kids

Carabiners are metal loops, vaguely shaped like a D, with a sprung or screwed gate.

You’ll find that hooking a couple of them to your back or fanny pack useful in many ways. For example, if need to dig through a fanny pack, you can hook the strap of your trekking pole to it. Your hat, camera straps, first-aid kit and a number of other objects also can connect to them.

Hook them to your fanny pack or backpack upon purchasing them, so you don’t forget them when packing. Small carabiners with sprung gates are inexpensive, but they do have a limited life span of a couple of dozen hikes.

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