Enjoying Backpacking with Kids: Part 2

I am loving this series! Reminds me of camping when I was younger.

Great article Luke, this is an excellent contribution to lives of those kids and to BPL.

Thanks for putting this together.

Very well written article Luke!

Thanks for sharing your experiences!

great article. I hope to see many more of these from you as you develop. I need to refine my list as I have tackled lots of these same issues for kids. A real motivator!

I like many of your insights hear Luke. The only problem I have is with the kitchen section. First, here in SoCal you can't have fires almost 70-90 percent of the time. Everything is to dry. Second, while you can never meet the ideals of LNT with kids your pictured fire doesn't even try to come close.

In any event, great series and good to see you out there with younger kids.

Andy good catch, you are right that fire is nowhere near LNT. Just for the record I would NEVER make a fire pit like that on a true wilderness trip. In this picture we were camped at an established campsite on private summer camp property so this wasn't such a big issue. We did teach LNT practices and at summer camp my cabin always took pride in leaving a clean campsite (unlike some others). Their favorite was the "how to p..p in the woods" lesson, along with "how to use only one square of TP to wipe" and "which leaves to wipe with." I hope they never tell their moms.

As far as fire bans thats a real problem. I dealt with that issue in Texas this past summer and its a challenge. I've tried using sterno stoves to cook marshmellows and a battery powered lattern to provide a centralized source of light. Those things help but I still missed the fire. The main thing I missed was the "crowd control" factor which is more of an issue with groups than families. What I've found is that kids naturally cluster around a campfire for various reason but take that away and they want to scatter.

Gosh, Andy it is obviously an existing campfire ring. Many places allow campfires in existing fire rings.

Lets not lose sight that Luke works with troubled kids and at that age just getting them involved in these types of activities is wonderful. Yes you teach them LNT as appropriate, but a campfire for these kids, when permitted, is a great idea.

We need more people like Luke.