Backpack recommendation for packing with kids

Depends on your gear: are you carrying traditional gear, or are you a tarp & bugnet kind of guy?

One thing that helps you ( a little) and is fun for kids is to carry their school pack w/snacks, water bottle, a stuffed animal/favorite blanket and a small pillow…you get the idea. My girls felt like they were "backpacking like Daddy does" this way and gave them a sense of accomplishment.

Post a brief list of your other gear and recommendations will be better tailored to your usage.

Sounds fun! Way to go, Paul. They'll appreciate you for it.

All that said, my Six Moon Designs Starlite has worked well for the added bulk of another person's gear.

Todd

Just picked up off the gear swap a golite tarp and mesh tent. I'm trying to keep my own weight to a minimum so that my daughter doesn't have to.

I had a similar idea with getting her to carry some basic comfort things (and snacks).

I'll be in Bolivia until the summer so I don't have access to my sleeping bag to weigh it (farwest winter bag (it'll be below freezing at night where we go)),
sleeping pad is 200g (7 oz)
the tarp tent and mesh have a combined weight of 2 lbs 15 oz
I'll be bringing my trangia or an alky stove.
I have a waterbladder and waterbladder pack (15 oz total)
My daughter's sleeping bag is a kitimat jr. +20 (3 lbs 14oz)

I will also be loading a couple other things into my pack for a couple gear reviews on the trail.

My base weight will probably be around 15 lbs plus whatever my daughter needs.

My son started coming along with me on backpacking trips when he was seven. That first trip he carried his school backpack with his pajamas, toothbrush, a book, a headlamp I had given him for the occasion (which he loved) and the kitchen (three ounce pocket rocket stove, four ounce pot, two spoons, two cups.) It made him feel like he was carrying his things plus a share of the joint things as he told everybody we met along the way that he was carrying the whole kitchen.

The reality is that I had the two person tent, two sleeping bags, two pads, food for two and water for two, plus some extra stuff for him just because I was nervous about having him out with me for the first time. I carried it all in an old monster pack from earlier days that I thought I had long retired. It just didn't make sense to try to cram it all into a lightweight pack.

Slowly and over the years he has taken on more of the load. Maybe some day when he's all grown up he'll let me carry just my pajamas, headlamp and 3 ounce kitchen.

Enjoy this time of backpacking with your kids when they are little. It's magical.

Hi Kristin,

Thanks for the encouraging words. How big is monster? 70 L?

Not really sure the exact dimensions but 70L sounds about right. Those first few trips my son had a synthetic kids sleeping bag that was rather bulky. Everything fit fine in the monster pack though:)

When he got a little older I had him switch to using one of my down sleeping bags and a foam pad, both of which he carried himself. By that point I was back to using my regular pack, a Granite Gear Ozone, which is what I normally carry when I go solo.

Agreed with Kristen. We started taking our daughter backpacking when she was four. A four person dome tent, two sleeping bags, family cook kit, two people's clothing, two sleeping pads, large first aid kit, etc., added up to much more than I could fit in a lightweight pack. Of course, this was 1994 or so, and we didn't have much in the way of UL stuff. So I crammed it all in my Gregory Shasta.

Fast forward a few years, and as she began carrying more of her own stuff, I could back off a little. I think if I had to hike with small children now, it would be easier in that my own gear would be pretty light, but still, two bags, two pads, two sets of clothing — it adds up in space if not in weight. 70 liter seems like a good place to start.

A bit of a tangent, but you might not need a "monster pack". Kids can carry some light, but bulky gear, which reduces the volume requirement of your pack. I've found the kids prefer to carry some gear.

At 3 years, my youngest son carried a sweatshirt and a roll of toilet paper–we usually take a full roll when traveling with kids. (A kid that small isn't hiking far even w/o a pack). We made a big to-do whenever using the toilet paper: I need the toilet paper. Who packed it in? Oh, right–in Sammy's pack. He was a proud little guy.

At 4-5 years they can carry more and go further and I've had them carry a sleeping bag (I use MYOG down blankets for the small kids). They can also carry other light/bulky gear like a titanium pot/stove combo. Trust me–if your kid is carrying the pot and stove, he/she will feel pretty important.

Packs for kids are NOT light (ranging around 2 lbs), so your kid's pack weighs 2lbs. He/she carries a 12 oz sleeping bag and the stove. That's 4 lbs total. The child will want to carry his own water and some trail mix, and have a small LED flashlight. A trashbag ponch can completely cover a kid and is almost weightless. Assuming a 40-50 lb child, you're hovering right around 10% of their weight, which is very doable.

This leaves you with the heavier, more dense items, which is generally food and tightly packed shelter, poles.

I've never had to carry a pack larger than the ULA Circuit, but I use low volume shelters like the GG Spinntwin and pyramids. Now that my kids are bigger and can carry most/all their gear, I don't carry the Circuit–it's too big. I'll probably sell it here to raise some money for a new shelter.

My wife and I came up with the formula of a pound per year until they are 10 years old. With 1lb of that being water. This keeps their packs between 8% and 12% of their bodyweight.

Our 5yo daughter can do 5 miles a day at the moment. She carries:

My old Platy hydration pack 10oz
1 liter platy with tube 4 oz
Rain Jacket 6oz
Snack 4oz
Fleece 10oz
.5L water 17oz
Hat 2 oz
Kids Magazine 2oz
Thermarest small 16oz

Total 71 oz

It's pretty amazin how much of their own weight they can pull.

This is very similar to the approach we take. Agree that a 5 year old can do around 5 miles per day, but I think they wear down after a while. I had a four year old on a 4 day trip at 4 miles per day, and he was wiped out the last day.

My daughter is six and I ordered her a custom XS size MLD Burn for her to use on our upcoming trips. The pack should arrive this week and I will post a few pictures. If interested in a child size pack contact Ron.

I would look at ULA, Granite Gear, and Osprey for companys that have large lightweight packs. I would bring your gear to REI and fill a pack with it to see what is the smallest volume you need. Then you can narrow down your choices based on using that as the max volume.

I think that keeping the base weight down to 20lbs for you and your daughter is a good goal. That way adding food and water gets you to about 30 lbs total which is definately managable for the amount of milage you will be doing.

When my first daughter was between 6 months and 12 months we went on trips where I would be the pack mule and my wife would carry our daughter for short trips. I didn't way it and hadn't really gone lightweight yet so I am sure my pack was close to 50lbs which while heavy wasn't bad for the short trips we were doing.

Now next year when my 1st daughter will be 3.5 I think I will try to go out with her and will probably use my old Serratus 4lb 70L pack with a goal of a 20lb combined base weight. This year it is just short day hikes with her walking and long day hikes carrying her.

My son #3 is the pack mule when we go out backpacking with his kids. His pack is an Osprey Atmos 85. These trips are mostly to the Olympic National Park coast, so he carries his surf board and packs his wet suit (a lot heavier on the way out!) as well as most of the food for 4 in the required bear canister and the larger tent (Tarptent Rainshadow). If it weren't for his bulky and heavy wet suit, he wouldn't need such a big pack with such a beefy suspension. I carry the community cooking gear, the smaller tent, my own stuff and a smaller bear canister with lighter, more fragile food items (such as s'mores ingredients). All of that fits fine in my 2005 model Six Moon Designs Comet (discontinued model). The two older kids carry their own clothes, snacks, water bottle, sleeping bags and pads, one in a cut-down REI Comet, the other in a Deuter Fox 30. Last year my son's total pack weight was 36 pounds and mine was 23, while the kids' (ages 8 and 10) were, respectively, 10 and 12 lbs. With a 6-year-old added this year, "SurferDad" and I will be arguing over who carries the youngest one's sleeping bag (TNF Tigger) and pad. (Hopefully I'll win!) The second tent, instead of my GG Squall Classic, will be a Tarptent Squall 2, 10 ounces heavier. The 6-year-old will carry his clothing, water bottle and snacks in a day pack with hip belt (an old Granite Gear Sidekick, unfortunately discontinued). Each child gets to bring a small toy and a paper-bound book. The 11-year-old, though, carried all the tent stakes and poles last year and will be able to carry a couple pounds more of community gear this year. I'm not too sure we want to put any community gear on his 9-year-old sister for another year. Because it's a beach trip and they inevitably get sopping wet, each child carries a complete change of clothes.

When taking one grandkid out at a time, I do fine with my approximately 40L SMD pack and haven't even had to use the extension collar, even in the days when I was carrying the kid's sleeping bag.

Yeah David. With the little ones, a long holiday weekend is about as far as we push it too.

I won't buy anything fancy for my 6 year old. He is growing too fast and he is still not carefull enough for anything too delicate. Last year I borrowed an old youth external frame pack that weighed about 2lbs. He had to carry his bag, headlamp, water, 1 small toy and his bear. I didn't weigh the pack but it was likely around 6lbs.

I carried everything else. I have an Osprey Aether 60 I keep on hand for when I am playing sherpa (loads over 20lbs). I love the Osprey for this, it rides like a luxury sedan. I basically didn't change much of my gear I just added extra food and clothes for my son. I am trying to teach him the light way with the gear I have in my pack. He is in the scouts, so I want to imprint the right ideas on him before they teach him heavy outdated concepts.

It really depends on how much money you want to spend and how carefull your kids are. Personally, I'd rather borrow stuff or get cheap gear for my little ones. I have a lot of friends with kids around the age of mine so we can swap items around.