Been meaning to post this trip report from my daughter Cassidy's first backpacking experience last month.
TLDR version: Awesome first backpacking trip with my 7-year old daughter. Lakes Trail is beautiful and not a bad “starter trip” but in retrospect probably too hard for a little kid. Keep snacks and clothing layers accessible. Don’t expect kids to appreciate the grandeur of the Sierras! Be prepared to welcome pet worms and bugs into your life.
Ultra-looooong blah blah version:
I took my 7 year old daughter out on the Lakes Trail in Sequoia National Park at the end of July. We left San Diego on Saturday and after a couple hiccups (left her hiking shoes at home and had to burn an hour driving back for them), about 7 hours later we arrived in Three Rivers where it was 103 degrees. Tried to enjoy the pool at the craptastic motel we stayed in, but were warned out of the pool by other guest because there was a ton of glass in the pool from a broken patio table. The management didn’t seem too concerned. Crossed the Western Holiday Lodge off my list of hotels for future reference.
We drove into the park early Sunday so I could get our permit by 1:00 PM for the following day’s start. We made good time, so good in fact that we had some time to kill and I stopped at the Giant Forest museum to show Cassidy the sequoias. Her complete disinterest should have set off warning bells. I knew that she wouldn’t possible have the same awe for these old giants as I would but I thought she would at least think it was cool they were so big and tall. Nope. Her favorite part of the museum was buying a bear keychain at the gift shop.
I had a reminder on why I rarely go to parks frequented by too much of the general public. Here is a look at the bear box in the Giant Forest parking lot (where I dutifully stashed our cooler and bear cans on the left) . WTH is wrong with people? (There were bear proof trash cans literally 10 feet away).
We arrived at the Lodgepole visitor center and picked up our permit for the Lakes Trail. The ranger was eyeing my daughter dubiously and asked if she was going to be able to do 7 miles with a pack. I countered it was only 5 to Emerald, and that her pack would contain little besides her water. The ranger said it was “more like 6” calling the maps inaccurate, but grudgingly she gave us the permit. Another couple who was headed to Pear Lake on the same trail was picking up their permit at the same time, and asked the ranger about chance of thunderstorms. She told us both that it was very likely given the forecast and that if we experienced thunder and lightning to get into our tents and stand on our sleeping pads in the lightening position. I was surprised at the level of concern (not to mention the fairly useless advice). She told us that even Emerald was “pretty exposed” (it isn’t — lake and adjacent area is surrounded by much higher peaks and campsites are mostly in moderately dense stands of trees). We were also warned about an active bear at the lake that had been doing some “tent-shiffing” as well as a nearby smoldering fire from a lightning strike the previous day. Awesome! rain, lightning, bears and forest fires… I started working on my parent-of-the-year speech.
We headed to our car camping site which was at the huge Lodgepole campground complex. Our site was fortunately on the perimeter with woods surrounding us and away from the noisiest part — not too horrible for a car camping site. My daughter beelined for some fallen logs on the forest slope and commenced chasing squirrels, log and rock hopping, looking for bugs, and otherwise having the time of her life, while I set up camp and began readying things for an early departure.
The next morning between Cassidy sleeping in (I couldn’t stand to wake her because I figured she needed to rest up for the day) her being not nearly as helpful as the grown-up camping/hiking partners I’m used to, and a final stop at the ranger station for a weather check, trailhead directions, bear can and backpack organizing, etc. it was nearly 11:30 AM by the time we hit the trail—a much later start than I had wanted.
The trail to the lakes is relatively short but steep, covering about 2000 vertical feet in about 4 or 5 miles. It mostly meanders through the woods for about 3 miles before finally breaking outside of the trees and skirting the edge of the Tokopah valley where you start getting some really nice vistas and some sense that you are in the Sierras.
It was probably the shortest trail I’ve been on in years, yet it felt like 100 miles. Our pace was positively glacial. Not only did Cassidy need to stop to rest frequently (which was totally fine with me, but did take some getting used to as I am not accustomed to constant starting and stopping, especially when I was slogging a lot of gear), but she felt the need to stop and inspect absolutely everything and poke at every bug, flower, etc. (supercute at first, but after the 100th anthill and woodpecker hole inspection it truthfully started to wear)
About the time she started pouting because I wouldn’t let her bring a grub that she found on the trail and named “Wormy” along with us for the rest of the hike, my usually unflappable patience was starting to fray around the edges. It was raining steadily on us off and on, and I was stunned and a little bit anxious about how little progress we were making. It took us almost 3 hours to go the first 2.5 miles, and 7 hours (!) in total to reach Emerald. Toward the end she was pretty worn out, and still I was pushing her a little bit because I really wanted to set up camp before it got dark. I separated her from her backpack early on, as even the very light load I gave her (it was probably 4 pounds) was clearly slowing her down. I wore her little pack on my chest backward. She was on-again off again with her hiking poles—wanted them some of the time and didn’t some of the time so I also got good at a hiking with two poles in each hand (surprisingly, not as difficult as it sounds!).
We passed a ton of day hikers on this popular trail, and a lot of backpackers both coming and going. I have to mention one young guy who was stopped at the same time as us to show the backcountry ranger his permit. I couldn’t get over him. He was carrying a small daypack, to which he had strapped a gigantic, old-school rectangular heavy nylon sleeping bag, which had clearly not stayed rolled up and was sproinging all over the place, along with a gigantic tyvek tent of some sort that was just draped and bungied somehow onto his backpack as well. In one hand he carried a half-empty gallon jug of water — the only water he had brought for the trip. Some kind person he met further down on the trail had forced a sawyer mini and bag on him, and that he was carrying in a walmart shopping bag in the other hand.
What he lacked in experience and preparedness he made up for in enthusiasm, and he couldn’t have been nicer. I chatted with him for a bit and he explained it was his first backpacking trip and he was still figuring things out. My heart sank a bit though when he said “I hope it doesn’t rain tonight or I’m kinda screwed!” and elaborated that his tent didn’t have a rain cover. He didn’t have rain gear either. I think off my look of shock he said “what do you think I should do?” “Turn around and hike out,” I said honestly, explaining that getting soaked in the backcountry at night at 9500 ft could be very dangerous. “I’m sure I’ll be fine, once I get there” he shrugged. Thankfully, as I said, the rain tapered off later and it stayed dry that night. He was headed to Pear Lake, a mile beyond our camp, or I would have checked up on him but I assume he made it through the night ok!
Despite all, we had great fun! and I have to give my kiddo a ton of credit. She was a super trooper—didn’t complain, was determined to get to our destination (until we reached the half-way point, I kept giving her the option to turn back and she refused). She picked out our campsite (sites are designated but most were empty). It was MUCH closer to the trail and less private than I would have ever wanted to be under other circumstance but I couldn’t care less at that point, I was so happy to be at our destination. Plus it was situated not too far from the solar privys and not too far from a bear box that we wound up stashing our packs in (I wanted to reduce any chance of bear sniffing!) The rain mercifully stopped for the evening and we stayed dry all night too. No bears bothered us either—I think Cass was disappointed! (We did see a mama and cubs while driving through the park — that was a highlight as I am some kind of bear repellant and never see then on the trail) Mosquitos were mostly a non-issue — a handful of biters at dusk. I brought headnets, but never even took them out.
The next morning the smoke was thickening though and I wasn’t sure if it was going to clear or worsen. The weather also turned gloomy and threatening, and we were reluctant to leave for Pear Lake (our original plan to day hike there and back, and return for a second night at Emerald). Cassidy had been obsessing the whole way up about horseback riding (we passed a lot of pack animal poop on the trail), so I gave her the choice to stay another night at the lake, or hike out so we could get up early and do a horse trail ride the next day. It was an easy decision for her; I was reluctant to leave, but also not looking forward to spending a rainy day in a tent. We spent a couple hours exploring the area, looking for marmots and such before hitting the trail back home. This was the second longest 5 miles in memory!
All in all an awesome trip though — beautiful scenery, and great mother-daughter bonding time. I wouldn’t change too much, but here are some lessons I took away. This trail is without a doubt great trail for a beginning backpacker—great scenery and a little mini “greatest hits” of the Sierras in a compact distance—lakes, granite, pine trees, meadows, flora, fauna. However, it was still a lot harder than it needed to be for a little kid. And while I appreciated the setting, the grandeur was 100% lost on my daughter. What she dug was playing around in this natural playground, and being with me, and spotting animals. The vistas and the scenic lakes were totally wasted on her. She enjoyed sitting by the water to watch the fish jump and the damselflies, uh, fly. But when I was stoked by the astonishing views on the trail, the serenity of the lakes, she could not have cared less about that. At one point she literally said, with completely sincerity, “I don’t know why you are getting so excited—it’s just a bunch of rocks and trees and stuff.” I mean, I *knew* she wouldn’t appreciate it like I would, but I think I still failed to internalize it enough.
When I look back at the things that got her the most excited it was things like playing word games on the trail, climbing onto fallen logs and picking up little rocks and tossing them, or taking off her shoes at stream crossing and sitting and wiggling her toes in the gravel. Thus in retrospect I wish we had planned a shorter trip to somewhere less spectacular that would have allowed us a more leisurely, less stressful pace, and more rock-throwing and bug collecting time. The heat was an issue here. I had noodled on some alternate hikes when it because clear that we might get rain and t-showers, and when the ranger made me worried I was overextending her but it was unusually hot in the park that week — in the mid 80s and I really wanted to get up out out of the heat. Even at 9,000 feet we were pretty warm — we slept with our summer bags unzipped and barely covering us.
I was totally prepared for the dawdling and doodling on the trail — though it exceeded even my expectations. Things I was less prepared for: she never got thirsty. She is in general a bit of a camel but I really had to force feed her water. There were silly things that didn’t occur to me, like she really struggled with the bite valve on her bladder because she is missing most of her front teeth! And she didn’t like the taste of the water from the trail head or the lakes (her bladder was brand new and gave everythign a vaguely plastic taste, and I had just cleaned my filter with a very dilute bleach solution and though I pumped many liters through it, everything did have a slight aftertaste that I didn’t care for either. Some flavoring like kool aid something like that might have been a good idea. And I wish I had just brought a plastic water bottle for her.
She was also strangly fickle about food. Starving one minute then “I’m full” the next. Altitude messes with my stomach so maybe she’s the same way. I force-fed myself a LOT of cold leftovers rather than carry them out. She also wanted to graze constantly vs. eating “meals.” I had kept some snacks accessible but not enough and there was a lot of stopping to unpack the bear can and get food out and I wish I had figured out how to organize for that better (Part of it was trying not to put food items in her pack or my pack as I didn’t want to encourage any bears to investigate our packs that night) Ditto for her layers. I had all her clothes packed in a stuff sack together tucked way into my pack (in a sack inside a pack-liner) to protect against getting wet in the rain, but as she was constantly getting warm and cold I was again unpacking everything constantly. In retrospect I wish I had packed some of her clothes in a dry bag in her pack, instead of giving her any water to carry.
I also had to figure out when to let her learn some lessons and when to be the mom. I usually (in day to day life) advise my kids on clothing choices but I don’t argue on and on when they want to do silly things like wear a long sleeved fleece shirt when it’s 90 degrees out, or wear shorts when it’s 50 and raining. Because, as any of you with kids will attest: that way lies madness. And so I was trying to let her make her own good and bad choices where I could. But at one point, after she stubbornly refused to put her rain jacket when it started to sprinkle, I let her get a bit too wet (it was still fairly warm out and I was in just a t-shirt as well so I wasn’t paying close attention), I realized that she was had become really cold and wet and her hands were little icicles and I was kicking myself for not having just put my foot down and forced her into gloves and layers sooner. Ditto for mosquito protetion — while they weren’t bad at all, only a little bothersome at dusk, I kept telling her to keep her hat on and she insisted she wouldn’t get bitten and didn’t care if she did. In exasperation after the 3rd time asking, I let her make that choice. But she had some very uncomfortable bites on her hairline and head the next day and I feel I should have made that non-negotiable.
A few gear notes:
As uncomfortable as it was to carry so much crap, I was happy with a lot of the luxuries and extras that I conceded. It was very comforting for her to have a stuffed animal along, and a book for after dark. And, on the advice of someone on this board, I bought some small glow sticks that were a big hit and also were a comfort in the dark. I used a GSI halulite dualist cookset that had a “cuteness factor” she liked, and nested perfectly with my snowpeak canister stove and fuel (bought when I though Esbit might be banned). It was very compact, which was nice since room in my bulging backpack was a factor, but ultimately was way too heavy. I wish I had stuck with my esbit setup and some cheap ziplock bowls. We didn’t each need both bowl and cup, though having a sip-through lid was nice. We used short Phantom 32 bags picked up at STP that mated together. I was glad to have this option. She thrashes around a lot so on our first night in the tent (car camping) I didn’t zip them together but I found myself not sleeping well as I was constantly waking up and checking on her as she was sliding all over the place, in and out of her bad, off the pad every which way. So when we were at the lakes I wound up zipping them together on the bottom, which kept her anchored and kept us both from falling off between our pads, and then I pulled the top layers over each of us like a reverse quilt. This was perfect as we both had breathing/kicking room but I could reach over and snug her covers down as needed. This probably wouldn’t have worked well had it been colder. That said, for the temps we encountered, I think a light double quilt would have been perfect and I think I will invest in one if we go again. Some Kid-gear recommendations: We brought a mix of regular street cloths and “technical” clothes but I was glad she had synthetic layers as the on-and-off rain meant clothes got damp and it was nice to have things that dried fast. We had a Columbia hiking t-shirt, a long sleeve mid-weight long underwear shirt from REI, some random fleece pants and I think REI rain pants, which were the smallest pair of pants I could find anywhere. I also broke down and bought a Pata down sweather on sale, after buying a couple used low fp kids jackets that were not only very heavy, but just waaay too puffy to layer under her rain jacket. Killed me to pay that much for a jacket but it was a perfect piece for layering. Also loved her Columbia Peak Freak shoes. It was hard to find kids athletic shoes that had any kind of tred and that were cheap without being stiff (blister-bait). Even better, they were purple — what could be better? I bought some Black Diamond kids hiking poles, and while they were v cheap, she did fine with my poles (kept wanting to switch) and the larger grips didn’t seem to slow her down). She actually also didn’t really use them much period, so I wouldn’t have bothered with them if I was doing it again. It’s hard to find water-resistant gloves in her size so I brought thick waterproof mittens for her but she didn’t like those — she couldn’t hold her poles well with them and didn’t like the way they inhibited her ability to pick things up etc. I would have invested in some decent gloves if I was doing it over again.
Also for next time: Smaller portions, more frequent meals. More m&m's and hard candies! Remember kids are messy!! I could have used triple the baby wipes, paper towels, etc. Also, pit toilets and the people who use them at National Parks are disgusting! And little tiny people are NOT physically able to do a “hover” manuever on a full-size toilet. Thus I burned through a ton of purell and TP scrubbing urine and splattered feces off the seat so she could use it. Next time I will be more prepared. Animal spotting was a highlight of the trip, and I wished I had made up a little animal scavenger hunt sheet, with pictures and maybe a few facts about the critters. We were trying to figure out whether things were ground squirrels or chipmunks and that would have been fun to have pictures to compare to, and I wish I’d been able to answer more of the “what kind of bug is this?” questions. We did invent an animal alphabet game. Ants, Bears, Chipmuck, Dragonfly etc. and we actually covered a surprising number of letters.
She is already looking forward to the next trip!
