[pct-l] backpacking with child - more thoughts

[Barbara Egbert]

Captain Bligh, Scrambler and I have been discussing the recent PCTL debate about Rachel and David Liechty's plan to take their toddler on the Pacific Crest Trail in 2011. Since we, and our book "Zero Days," were specifically mentioned, we decided to respond with some clarifications and a few suggestions for anyone planning to backpack with a small child. 

 

 Experience is crucial.  We carried Scrambler on six backpacking trips (ranging from two days to four days each) before we took her into the Grand Canyon on her first birthday for a five-day outing. Every baby is different, and helping one adapt to everything from breast-feeding outdoors to sleeping in a tent requires a great deal of adaptation by the parents. And what each baby needs can only be learned through experience - a lot of experience.

 Backpacking with a baby is vastly different than backpacking by oneself or with other adults. The parents must constantly gauge the baby's situation - warm enough? comfortable? shaded? - because that small being can't speak for herself.  They must carry considerably more weight and allow much more time for everything. My husband had extensive backpacking and mountaineering experience (including summiting and traversing Denali) and I was an experienced on-trail and off-trail backpacker.  Yet we needed to learn new skills as well as draw on our existing skills and strengths when we started taking a child along. 

We applaud the goal of bringing up a child with extensive wilderness experience. Being able to bring a baby or toddler on backpacking trips is worth all the extra trouble and worry and loss of sleep that Captain Bligh and I experienced. Today, Scrambler is 16 and those shared memories of overcoming challenges together still serve us well.  

I must disagree with David's remark, "I would be much more afraid of fording a river with a short ten year old, than with a 16 month old strapped securely to my back in a sturdy, well made backpack."  Scrambler at 10 could participate in deciding how best to cross a stream (although most kids her age wouldn't have that skill set).  She was a good swimmer and strong for her age. A 16-month-old baby doesn't necessarily know about holding her breath underwater.

Of greater concern than stream crossings are the passes in the Southern Sierra. I would be reluctant to take a baby anywhere that I have to carry an ice ax.  If I were to fall, the baby could easily be injured while I'm thrashing around trying to self-arrest (and the self-arrest itself would be very difficult because of the baby on my back). An ice ax is sharp and pointed, and the child could be hurt just by that. Scrambler had already climbed Mt. Shasta (at age 7) with her father. They took an extra day at about 10,000 feet and conducted self-arrest drills for hours. By summit day, Scrambler could reliably self-arrest even while sliding rapidly downslope, headfirst on her back. 

 One remark during this debate was, "I'm sure Scrambler was just as young when she went on similar excursions." Well, based on our experiences, there just aren't any similar excursions. Even with our level of experience, we were often surprised by what we had to deal with on the PCT. 

Another remark ran as follows: "From reading Zero Days, there were many alternate routes taken by Scrambler's family so that they could avoid things that mom considered too dangerous for her. They avoided some of the worst creeks. They did a lot of boring road walks. I think they tried to keep their daily mileage very low, too." In fact, we only once took an alternate route in order to avoid a potentially dangerous pair of stream crossings (Russell and Milk creeks in Oregon). We had very few road walks. While our miles-per-day averaged about 17 for the entire trip, that average included days when we only walked a few miles to or from a town stop. Typical daily mileage in northern California was 20 to 25 miles. After all, we had to rack up decent mileage to get the hike done in one season (as well as breaking up our PCT hike with a short hike on the AT in June that same year).

 

 With a toddler, keep in mind that a child that age needs to get out of the backpack and crawl, explore and "walk" every day, and when outdoors requires nearly constant supervision. That cut way down on the mileage we could achieve on backpacking trips when Scrambler was little, and also meant that one parent had to be on child-duty while the other did camp chores, which doubles the time it takes to set up and take down camp. 

 

Scrambler herself responded to one statement - "Trust me, there will not be a creek or river that we will not anticipate on this entire trip"- by pointing out that the very nature of the PCT is that you can't fully anticipate the conditions you'll find at any point. 

 

Finally, one very important issue to consider at the end: diapers! When we took Scrambler on backpacking trips as a baby, we used disposable diapers and carried them all out, double-bagged at a minimum. That's a lot of bulk and weight. Opportunities to safely wash cloth diapers along the PCT may be limited. I should point out that while we took her backpacking starting at age eight weeks, the longest we were out at a time while she was still in diapers was one week. 

 

All that said, babies and toddlers CAN go backpacking, as long as the child's safety and happiness are the primary considerations.  

Nellie Bly