I've been taking my daughter car camping since she was 6 months old and we gone car camping and day hiking plenty, but last weekend was her first overnight hike. She is almost two, so her baseweight in the XSDUL category (extreme super duper ultralight) of 0 grams. We did a simple out and back in Harriman State Park, walking in 2 miles from 106 to the Bald Rocks area and setting up camp near the shelter. I've taken her much longer day hikes, but for this trip I wanted the experience to be about her and not me, so I picked a short mileage trip with plenty of time to walk at a toddler's pace, collect rocks and acorns, and give her the chance of really experiencing being outdoors. I initially thought I was going to take her in my Kelty back carrier, as I am nervous about carrying her in the front and not being able to see my feet. I lashed my gear to the frame of the carrier and we went out on a shakedown hike and that solution was a little wobbly. A friend let me borrow her Ergo 360, which was cool because my daughter hated it and ended up walking way more than if I put her in the backpack and trudged off. There were quite a few dad and kid combos that night camped around shelter area. I noticed somebody put there food bag on top of the shelter, which struck me as odd. I stayed around that area on a Friday in early May, and had it mostly to myself. Here are the requisite snapshots.
