6 Tips for Successful Navigation on a Hike

• Paper maps indispensable for hikes
• Types of maps to bring on day hike
• Know type of trail you're day hiking
• Use pacing to keep track of where you are on trail
• How to estimate distances when day hiking
• Teach children about hiking trail markers
• BONUS: Teach kids how to read maps by having them make a 3D model

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

Maps of 5 great Bayfield County day hikes

Visitors to Wisconsin’s Bayfield County can enjoy a number of major recreational areas, many of which contain great day hiking trails.

Five great county day hikes and maps for them include:

Bay View Trail, Boardwalk, nature trail
Incredible views of Lake Superior await hikers traveling to Big Bay State Park. Taking the Bay View Trail along with a boardwalk and a self-guided interpretive trail affords hikers a 5-mile round trip, though this can be cut in half if turning around at the boardwalk.

Birkie Trail
Though known primarily for the annual ski race held on it, Wisconsin’s massive Birkebeiner Trail system also makes a great hiking route in summer. With more than 66 miles of trails, all maintained by the nonprofit American Birkebeiner Ski Foundation, “The Birkie Trail,” as its fans affectionately call it, offers multiple trailheads, loops and variations between Cable and Hayward. One segment that’s easy to locate and hike is the Birkie’s opening section, a 2.6-mile round trip when treated as an out-and-back trail.

Forest Lodge Nature Trail
Among the best hikes to learn about the Wisconsin Northwoods is the Forest Lodge Nature Trail, east of Cable. Located in the Chequamegon National Forest, the 1.5-mile loop is maintained in cooperation with the Cable Natural History Museum. Any dry summer day is excellent for hiking the trail, and fall colors are spectacular with trees usually remaining golden until the third week in October.

North Country National Scenic Trail, Erick Lake segment
The Erick Lake segment of the North Country National Scenic Trail heads along a ridgeline through a new growth forest. About 61 miles of the North Country Trail crosses Bayfield County. The Erick Lake segment of it runs four miles one-way.

Drummond Woods Interpretive Trail
Massive trees from an old growth forest and vibrant autumn colors await day hikers on the Drummond Woods Trail in the Chequamegon National Forest. The 0.75-mile trail runs through the Drummond Woods, where a number of trees survived the 1800s logging of the Wisconsin Northwoods. The route sometimes is referred to on maps and in literature as the “Drummond Woods Trail.”

Read more about these and nearby trails in Day Hiking Trails of Bayfield County.

Quick precautions before hiking with kids

Once you select a trail for you and your child to day hike, there are a few simple safety precautions to take before ever making that first step on the trail. The chances of something going wrong are slim, but an ounce of preparedness will do much to reduce the burden when you're facing a pound of trouble.

First, map out your route. Using a light, transparent highlighter that won’t obscure details, trace the trail on your map. This will make navigating the path easier once in the field and prevent you from getting lost. Make sure you pack extra maps with your gear.

Next, tell someone where you are going and when you plan to return. In case you are injured or lost, this can prove to be valuable information so search and rescue teams can find you sooner.

You also should learn where the nearest hospital or walk-in clinic is located. If an injury occurs, you may need to bring your children there for medical help.

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

Fun game for drive to trailhead: High or Low

"Is the number 601?" "That's high." Photo courtesy of ivanvlee8/Photoree

Once you’ve got your children excited about the hike, you next have to get them to the trailhead, probably in a motor vehicle. Sometimes those drives to a national forest, nature preserve or state park can be long. You can keep kids’ spirits up by playing games on the drive there.

One great activity combines and tried-and-true game with map reading: High or Low.

The topo map you take with you on a day hike will contain a plethora of numbers – contour intervals, highway numbers, elevations for summits. A good way to help kids learn to read maps and to become familiar with the area you’re going to hike is to have them play High or Low in which they must use a number form the map.

The game begins with the first player selecting a number on the map. The next player then guesses a number, to which the first player must say if it is “high” or “low” compared to the map number. The number guess and a “high” or “low” response is done for each additional player. Up to three rounds of guesses can be made; if after the last player makes a third guess the number hasn’t been determined, the first player wins.

Pass the map onto the second player and repeat.

Materials: Topo map

Ages: Five and up

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

Fun activity for hiking teens: Songlines

What are the lyrics for these kids' songline?

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 Songlines.

Rather than use written maps, Australia’s Aborigines traditionally created maps by using songlines; that is, they created songs giving directions for getting from one place to another. Teenagers will find creating songlines for the trail they’re hiking a fun challenge.

To create a songline, start by using the melody of a well-known song, such as “Row, Row Your Boat” or “Happy Birthday.” As coming upon a key marker on the trail (like a large boulder or the tallest tree in the woods), add a new line to the song.

Have someone in the group write down the lyrics. Years later, the songline can bring back great memories of the trail, thanks to the power of music.

As completing the hike, talk a little with the teens about the songlines. Is it an effective way to navigate? Why or why not? Could someone else navigate the trail using the songline they devised? How would they pass on the songline to another (It’s not as simple as simply handing someone a piece of paper!).

Materials: Pen or pencil, paper, clipboard

Ages: 12 and up

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

Fun activity for hiking kids: Sound Maps

The sounds heard on a hiking trial can help one find their
direction if they create a sound map.

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 Sound Maps.

We typically draw maps based on roads, landforms or buildings – that is, what we can see. However, we can map an area using our other senses, such as the ability to hear. This activity can help children become more aware of their surroundings by using their non-sight senses.

During a rest break, have children draw a “sound map” of the trail. The should use symbols to represent the sounds that they hear to their front, back, right and left. For example, a bird might symbolize bird songs, a tree with a wavy crown the sound of rustling leaves, and a squiggly line the gurgle of a running stream.

Materials: Pen or pencil, paper, clipboards

Ages: 4 and up

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

Use pacing to keep track of where you are on trail

Knowing how many steps you need to take to reach 100 yards can keep you
from becoming disoriented on the trail.

A useful navigational technique to know when hiking is pacing. This technique allows you to accurately estimate how far you've walked based on the number of steps taken. With that information, you'll be able to determine where you are on a map.

Backpackers generally use a couple of different methods when pacing. Single pacing involves counting every step you take. Double pacing counts only the right or the left footsteps (i.e. every other step).

To use either method, you'll need to know how many yards you can cover in a hundred steps. The best way to do that is to find a flat surface, such at a local track, and count the number of steps you take to go the hundred yards. Do this a minimum of three times, determine the average, and remember the number (You may even want to write it down and keep it in your backpack.).

When on the trail, you can use pacing by first determining your exact location on a map. Then count off the number of steps you taken until reaching the number that equals a hundred yards for you. Stop at that point and look at the map. Now check the map's key to determine where a hundred yards is located from your last point. You are at that new point, give or take a few feet. This marks about 1/19th of a mile.

Be aware that your pace count will vary from hike to hike. For example, you take shorter strides (and hence more steps) when going uphill and longer strides (and hence fewer steps) when going downhill. In addition, if a teenager, the pace count probably will decrease the taller you get, as your strides will be longer.

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

Pros and cons of standard maps when day hiking with children

Depend on topographical rather than standard road maps and their kin
when navigating a hiking trail. Photo courtesy of ulrikkold / Photoree.

Standard road maps (including printed guides and handmade trail maps) show highways and locations of cities and parks. Maps included in guidebooks, printed guides handed out at parks, and that are hand drawn tend to be designed like road maps, and often carry the same positives and negatives.

The main advantage of a standard road map is that it eliminates all of the extraneous info you’ll find on other maps, focusing on a key landmark feature, specifically roads. Because of this, a road map is mainly useful for helping you figure out how to reach the trailhead, and in the case of printed guides, pointing out highlights you can see on the trail.

The benefits end there, though. Standard road maps rarely show trails or forest roads that you might traverse. In addition, they don’t give you a sense of the lay of the land, such as how high hills and mountains are. If hand drawn, as are many of those on printed guides, they are not always done to scale, making any estimate of how far you’ve got to go difficult if not impossible.

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

Use day hike as opportunity to teach children to read topo maps

A day hike provides a great opportunity to teach
children how to read topographical maps.

There’s no better time than when hiking with elementary-aged children to teach them how to read a topographical map. It’s a real life situation in which they can relate the map’s symbolic features to the landscape.

When showing children how to read a topo map, be sure to cover the following:
g Compass direction – Kids should know that the top of virtually any map is north. By lining up the map with a landscape feature, they’ll always know where west, east and south is.
g Landscape forms – By showing how contours run on the map as well as elevation numbers, kids can learn what makes a draw, a mountain peak, or a canyon.
g Scale – Point out that an inch on a map equals so many yards or miles. They then can estimate how far away objects on the landscape are using the map.
g Colors – Help children understand that a green tint means forest or brush, blue means water, black means man-made objects such as buildings, and that brown is a contour line.
g Symbols – Show kids the map legend and have them identify roads, trails and power lines on the map as well as on the landscape.

Teaching children at a young age the basics of reading a topo map will help them develop strong navigation skills. In the long run, they’ll find hiking more enjoyable and are far less likely to get lost.

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

Always research your day hike before heading out with kids

Do you really need to research my day hike with children?

Sure, pulling into a wayside and strolling a small loop that never loses sight of the parking lot is fine. But if going into the real wilds, you’ll get more out of the hike if you research it and plan ahead.

It’s not enough to just pull over to the side of the road and hit a trail that you’ve never been on and have no idea where it goes. In fact, doing so invites disaster. You need a map so you don’t get lost. You need to know about potential dangers ahead, such as water crossings, to avoid dangerous situations. You need to know if a trail is steep to avoid the disappointment of not reaching a cool destination simply because your children can’t traverse the path.

In addition, remember that not all kids are made alike. The five-year-old neighbor boy may have had no trouble with a specific trail, but your five-year-old may not like it or be able to handle it (There’s nothing wrong with that, by the way; we’re all different and develop at our own rates). You can get a good sense as to whether or not the trial is right for your child by researching it beyond your neighbor’s anecdotal evidence.

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

Pre-hike checklist to ensure successful walk with kids

You’ll get more out of the day hike with children if you plan ahead. It’s not enough to just pull over to the side of the road and hit a trail that you’ve never been on and have no idea where it goes. In fact, doing so invites disaster.

Before leaving on any hike, plan out your trip:
g Print a road map showing how to reach the parking lot near the trailhead. Outline the route with a transparent yellow highlighter and write out the directions.
g Print a satellite photo of the parking area and the trail-head. Mark the trailhead on the photo.
g Print a topo map of the trail. Outline the trail with the yellow highlighter. Note interesting features you want to see along the trail and the destination.
g If carrying GPS, program this information into your device.
g Make a timeline for your trip, listing: when you will leave home; when you will arrive at the trailhead; your turn-back time; when you will return for home in your vehicle; when you will arrive at home.
g Estimate how much water and food you will need to bring based on the amount of time you plan to spend on the trail and in your vehicle. You’ll need at least 2 pints of water per person for every hour on the trail.
g Fill out two copies of a hiker’s safety form. Leave one in your vehicle.
g Share all of this information with a responsible person remaining in civilization, leaving a hiker’s safety form with them. If they do not hear from you within an hour of when you plan to leave the trail in your vehicle, they should contact authorities to report you as possibly lost.

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

A basic guide to planning a hike with kids

Good planning will ensure smiles
on your day hiking child's face
- as well as yours!

You’ll get more out of the hike if you research it and plan ahead. It’s not enough to just pull over to the side of the road and hit a trail that you’ve never been on and have no idea where it goes. In fact, doing so invites disaster.

When selecting a destination, remember that not all kids are made alike. The five-year-old neighbor boy may have had no trouble with a specific trail, but your five-year-old may not like it or be able to handle it. There’s nothing wrong with that. We’re all different and develop at our own rates.

For your first few hikes, stick to short, well-known trails where you’re likely to encounter others. Once you get a feel for hiking and your kids’ abilities and interests, expand to longer and more remote trails.

Until they enter their late teens, children need to stick to trails rather than going off-trail hiking, which is known as bushwhacking. Children too easily can get lost when off trail. They also can easily get scratched and cut up or to stumble across poisonous plants and dangerous animals. Always check to see what the weather will be like on the trail you plan to hike. While an adult might be able to withstand wind and a sprinkle here or there, for children it can be pure misery. Dry, pleasantly warm days with limited wind always are best when hiking with children.

Don’t choose a trail that is any longer than the youngest child in your group can hike. Adults in good shape can go 8-12 miles a day; for kids, it’s much less. There’s no magical number. Ask other parents what their children can do, and you’ll get a whole range of answers. The reality is that every child is different: different leg lengths, different attitudes toward hiking, different levels of physical fitness, different levels of physical development, different expectations about being carried, and more.

When planning the hike, try to find a trail with a mid-point payoff – that is something kids will find exciting about half-way through the hike. This will help keep kids’ energy and enthusiasm up during the journey.

Generally, kids will prefer a circular route to one that requires hiking back the way you came. The return trip often feels anti-climatic, but you can overcome that by mentioning features that all of you might want to take a closer look at.

Once you select a trail, map out your route. Using a light, transparent highlighter that won’t obscure details, trace the trail on your map. This will make navigating the path easier once in the field.

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

Re-sealable plastic bags great for day hikes

Always bring a couple of re-sealable plastic bags on a day hike.
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.

Quart-size plastic bags normally used in the kitchen will have a number of uses on a hike, from holding garbage and soiled diapers to keeping dry items from paper maps to matches.

Always brings a couple of extra bags; even if never used, they’re lightweight and take up little space.

Related articles:
g Carry wet wipes during day hike with children
g Select right sunglasses for hiking children
g Pack waterproof bags on day hike with children
g Carry safety whistle when hiking with children
g Selecting the right camera for a day hike 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.

Guidebooks: Great sources but not enough

Guidebook trail maps usually lack enough detail to be
of use on the trail. They also can be out of date.

Guidebooks are great sources of information for planning a day hike with kids. They provide a list of potential trails and usually all kinds of relevant information, such as trail lengths, sights to see along the way, and even maps.

Be forewarned, though: trails and conditions may have changed since the guidebook was published, so you don’t want to rely solely on one book for information to plan your hike. Always check online and other guidebooks to see if there’s any updated information or additional descriptions to help you become even more familiar with the trail. You’ll also almost always want to gather better maps than what a guidebook provides.

Some hikers find the information in them useful when out on the trail. While you might take kid-friendly field guides to help identify plants and animals, guidebooks about trails usually are bulky, and the first moment they get wet the pages turn moldy and curl out of shape. A guidebook is best left at home, if only to reduce the load you carry.

Bethany O., of Hood River, Ore., suggests, “If there’s information you need from a guide-book about a specific location, type it as notes and carry it with your paper maps. I usually do this for directions to the trailhead and location of key turns and landmarks to help me along the way.”

Read more about hiking navigation in my guidebook Hikes with Tykes.