Backpacking with a Toddler

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For some reason, I decided that I wanted my daughter to experience the trifecta of camping before her second birthday. She had already been car camping as a baby, and we took her again this year. Then, we tested the waters (literally) by taking her canoe camping. And for the trifecta, we decided to take her backpacking!

Holy smokes, did we have to carry a lot of gear. At times, it felt like an absolute grind. But in the end (you know, once we were comfortable at home and looking back at our pictures, reminiscing) it was totally worth it!

We decided to backpack along the Eastern Pines Trail in Algonquin park. Here’s everything we messed up, everything we brought, and everything we learned!

Choosing Your Route

Backpacking with a toddler for the first time is, in my opinion, not the time when you want to push your limits when it comes to distance or difficulty! Choose a route that’s shorter than what you know you can handle. That way if you have to bail out early it’s easy. Not to mention it’s just way easier on the body.

Plus, I found that between hiking from site to site, setting up camp, pumping water, cooking meals, etc., a lot of the day was taken up! Hiking shorter distances means you have more time in the day to just chill out at your site and enjoy each other. After all, that’s why you’re out there together.

The trail we chose was just over 16 km and we stayed out for two nights, meaning we covered roughly a third of that distance every day… And it was still hard!

Carrying The Kid

Now that our daughter is older, we really only use two different styles of carrier with her. We have a MEC Shuttlecraft Kid Carrier that we tend to take on longer hikes because it has nice big pockets for gear. And we also have an Ergobaby Carrier that we still use for her occasionally.

For our backpacking trip, we opted to take the MEC Carrier simply because of the gear we could fit in it. We were able to squeeze in quite a bit of gear, and ultimately when you added in my daughter’s weight, we both ended up carrying the same amount.

The MEC Shuttlecraft Kid Carrier is a great carrier, and less expensive than a lot of others out there. You can also buy a rain cover for it which is great for the winter time too, because it cuts down on wind. We made sure to bring rain covers for both our packs so that we wouldn’t have to worry about any of our gear getting wet.

Before leaving though, we also played around with the idea of me bringing a normal backpack, and wearing her on my front in the Ergobaby. We decided against this, but while we were out realized that it might have actually been a good way to go. There were times that my daughter simply wanted to be cuddled up close to me, and she felt like the Shuttlecraft wasn’t doing that for her.

One of the most helpful things we did was to hang a small stuff sack on the outside of her pack. In it we kept all the things that would make her happy, like her snack cup and her water bottle. That way we could grab them super quickly and not have to bother with digging around among all the other gear.

…And the Gear

A set up with the Ergobaby also would have allowed us to split the gear between two packs, which would have been nice because the one was nearly bursting at the seams!

Depending on your kid and their temperament (and the carriers you have!) I think it would be worth testing out both styles of carrying before you go and figuring out what works best for you ahead of time.

Ultimately, we were both carrying about 45 lbs on our backs. This is too much! In order to be even remotely comfortable, your pack is supposed to weigh no more than 20% of your body weight.

I also made sure to bring along my hiking poles. Whenever I’m carrying my daughter on any trail that isn’t SUPER easy, having an extra point of contact always makes me fee more confident. And it goes without saying that having hiking boots and good wool socks to keep our feet comfy helped out with managing the extra weight too.

Gear:
Backpack with Rain Cover
MEC Shuttlecraft Kid Carrier
Hiking Poles
Hiking Boots
Wool Socks

Food Storage

It’s important to check what’s available for you for food storage before you head out backpacking. Going somewhere like Frontenac Provincial Park where they have food lockers on site can help make food storage super safe and easy. And it can lighten your load because you don’t have to bring along gear to keep your food away from bears and critters!

Unfortunately, Algonquin park doesn’t have lockers available, so we made sure to bring gear to hang our food. This time around we brought a bear barrel to hang, because we were thinking that we wouldn’t want to have our daughters food compromised in the event we did a bad hang and a bear was able to get to it. I still think this would be the right call if you were going on a multi-day trip where it might take you awhile to get out of the backcountry if you needed to.

But for our two night trip, if I were to do it again, I would gamble on just hanging the food without the additional protection (and weight!) of a bear barrel. They also take up so much space in the pack that you have more limited options of how and where to pack the rest of your gear.

In the future, I would also bring a dry bag to hang our food. We got caught in the rain and bear barrels don’t keep water out so that was a good learning experience!

Eating and Drinking

We decided to eat all dehydrated meals while we were out, to save on weight and not having to do any dishes. Our heaviest food was a handful of pureed food squeeze pouches, and a few cartons of milk we brought for our daughter to have as a treat. We wanted to bring some foods we knew she would definitely eat to make sure she got at least SOME calories into her.

For water, we brought along two Nalgenes and a water filter pump. We also brought along water purifying tablets and used those on top of the pump, because the water from the lakes we pumped at was a bit… brown.

And for coffee, the most important of all liquids, we brought powdered latte mix from Starbucks. It was sugary and delicious and amazing for folks like me who refuse to drink their coffee black, even in the backcountry.

Gear:

Bear Barrel
Rope (at least 50 ft.)
Bag to Hang
MSR Stove and Extra Fuel Canister
Dehydrated Meals
Powdered Latte Mix
MSR Water Pump
Water Purifying Tablets
Sporks

Sleeping

We’ve never been a family who co-slept. Which has me wondering if families who are used to co-sleeping might have a slightly easier time backpacking, simply because they have to bring less gear?

We stuck with the same sleep set-up that we use for our daughter when we’re car or canoe camping. She sleeps in her Phil & Ted’s Travel crib. Which sounds like (and totally is) a ridiculous piece of gear to bring on a backpacking trip. But the crib weighs in at just over six pounds, so it’s not THAT bad. And it also means that at bedtime we can pop her in the tent and leave her to fall asleep just like she does at home. We also brought her comfort items and her white noise, with a solar charge to keep it charged. The charger is heavy but good to have along for if you need to charge cell phones, headlamps, etc.

For ourselves, we brought along our Thermarest sleeping pads and some lightweight sleeping blankets and camp pillows.

Planning for our trip, we bought a new tent that packed up smaller than any others we had. It also weighed in at just over 6 lbs. We’re completely in love with this tent now! It’s lightweight but has a great dome shape so there’s a ton of space for things inside like the travel crib. It also sets up SUPER easily, making setting up camp a breeze. This tent was totally worth the investment and we’re really glad we grabbed it!

Gear:

Hushh White Noise Machine
Solar Charger
Lovey
Phil & Ted’s Travel Crib
Thermarest Sleeping Pads
Sleeping Bags
Camp Pillows
Weanus Tent

The Potty

Our daughter is fully potty trained, and early on we taught her how to pee standing up, and how to pee into a cup. So we normally don’t have any issues with pottying on the trail, but for some reason I decided that she might need to poop while we were hiking. Since it was incredibly unrealistic to bring along her Ikea potty, we bought her a brand new, foldable, smaller potty. And she never used it once!

The Banana Potty we bought unfolds and has a plastic bag that you insert to catch… anything that comes out. So it could also just be placed right over a cat hole, if you didn’t want to deal with carrying a used bag along with you. Honestly, even though she never used it, I’d probably buy it again.

We also brought along a pack of wipes. And honestly those things come in handy no matter where you are! It was nice to have them along for things like wiping down our sporks after meals, and making ourselves slightly less stinky on our last morning.

Gear:

Banana Potty

Clothing

We did our very best to go lightweight on clothing, packing just the essentials for ourselves. But, whenever you head into the backcountry you should count on the weather changing. So we made sure to bring rain gear for our daughter, and we did end up using it! Even though we never got caught in the rain, her gear was still helpful for afterwards, when everything was wet.

For our swimsuits, it was helpful to have a dry bag to stuff them into, since they didn’t fully dry overnight.

We also brought along layers and socks for our daughter so that we could make sure she was always warm enough.

Gear:

Pika Layers Adventure Shirt
Rain Boots
Mec Newt Suit
Mec Fleece Zip
Long Sleeve PJS
Roots Socks (I swear these are the only ones that stay on her feet)
Dry Bag (for wet clothes)

Safety

Whenever we go hiking, we try to bring along the 10 Essentials. And when we’re bringing our daughter along, we add a few things to the pile.

To be safe on this trip, we added Benadryl to our first aid kit for her. We also bring along a tick removal tool. Because ticks are gross.

We also made sure to have a map and compass on hand, as well as sun and bug protection in the form of our daughter’s UPF Shirt, sunscreen, and bug spray.

Gear:

First Aid Kit
Tick Removal Tool
Compass
Map
Sunscreen
Bug Lotion
Sun Hats (Jan & Jul for my daughter, Sunday Afternoons for my husband, and Patagonia for me)
Sunglasses

Everything Else

We didn’t pack much beyond the essentials! We don’t tend to pack too many toys when we go camping, because we find our daughter is just as happy to play with rocks she finds along the way. For this trip, we brought her stacking cups because they can clip easily onto the outside of the pack. We also brought her a book for her bedtime routine. I brought myself a book too, deciding the extra weight would be worth it.

We also found it really handy to have a bunch of stuff sacks/dry backs to keep things organized and separate from one another. When you pack, add a few more stuff sacks than what you originally needed to pack. I don’t know about you but I always get way less organized as the tirp goes on. So have a few extra bags handy is helpful!

Would We Do It Again?

100% yes. I won’t lie, this trip felt SUPER hard at times. We were tired, and sore, and it was a ton of work. Our daughter was having a fussy few days, and she was attached to me like a little barnacle. On the second night, there was a massive thunderstorm. And all we packed for breakfasts was oatmeal. I hate oatmeal!

But having those memories is truly priceless. And we felt really proud of ourselves for taking on backpacking with a toddler and coming out on the other side relatively unscathed.

Have I convinced you that you can do it to?