Taking Kids Along for the Adventure

Outdoor adventure changes when you bring kids along.

That sounds obvious, but it’s probably the single most important thing to understand if you’re getting ready to take your children camping, backpacking, paddling, overlanding, or exploring backroads for the first time. You can’t simply take the trip you would have planned for yourself, add a couple of smaller people, and expect everything to work out.

The trip has to change.

When I was a kid, things were different. My brother and I traveled quite a bit with our family, and this was long before parents worried about many of the things we think about today. Car seats weren’t what they are now. We weren’t necessarily strapped into something every moment the vehicle was moving. The general approach to discipline was different, too. We went where the adults went, and for the most part, we were expected to fall in line.

That probably contributed to the stereotypical Gen X ability to tolerate a certain amount of discomfort, boredom, questionable decision-making, and occasionally being left to figure things out for ourselves. I’m grateful for a lot of that upbringing.

But I don’t necessarily think today’s somewhat softer approach to raising kids is a bad thing, either. We understand children better. We pay more attention to their limits, their fears, their safety, and whether they’re actually enjoying the experience.

That matters when you’re trying to introduce them to the outdoors.

The Goal Isn’t the Destination

Adults have a tendency to turn outdoor recreation into objectives. Drive this route. Hike this many miles. Reach this waterfall. Paddle to this campsite. Make camp before dark. Check another trail off the list.

Kids don’t care about your itinerary.

They might spend twenty minutes throwing rocks into a creek that you considered nothing more than a water crossing. They may become fascinated with a salamander when you’re trying to get another mile down the trail. They might want to climb the same boulder six times. And ten minutes later, they’re hungry.

If you’re traveling with kids, build enough flexibility into the trip that those things aren’t problems. In fact, sometimes those things are the trip.

That can be difficult for adults who are accustomed to measuring a successful adventure by distance covered or destinations reached. With kids, a better measure might be whether they had enough fun that they ask when you’re going again.

Start Smaller Than You Think You Need To

When my kids were around eight or nine, I started taking them backpacking. I had plenty of backpacking experience by then, but that didn’t mean they did, so we kept the trips short.

A five-mile hike might not sound like much to an experienced adult. Add a backpack, elevation changes, creek crossings, summer heat, unfamiliar noises, tired legs, and an eight-year-old, and five miles can suddenly become a very long day.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with hiking a mile or two into a campsite and calling it home for the night. The same principle applies to almost every type of outdoor adventure. Your child’s first overlanding trip doesn’t need to involve eight hours in the rig. Their first paddle doesn’t need to be a twelve-mile river section. Their first camping trip doesn’t need to be three nights deep in the backcountry.

Leave them wanting more. You can always make the next adventure bigger.

Don’t Give Kids an Adult’s Load

When my daughters backpacked with me, they carried backpacks, but I didn’t expect them to carry the same percentage of their body weight that I might carry.

The two of them shared a tent, so I divided the tent between their packs. They carried parts of it, their own clothes, water, and a few snacks for the trail. Their packs also contained some basic survival items: fire-starting supplies, a whistle, a few bandages, a compass, a headlamp, and an emergency blanket.

I carried most of everything else.

Was my pack heavier? Absolutely. That’s part of taking kids backpacking.

The purpose of giving them a pack wasn’t to make things easier for me. It was to teach them how backpacking worked and let them participate in the experience without turning it into a sufferfest. As they got older, stronger, and more experienced, they could carry more.

The same thinking applies beyond backpacking. Give kids jobs appropriate for their age. Let them help collect firewood where permitted, filter water, set up sleeping bags, organize camp, hold the map, help prepare dinner, or choose the next snack stop.

Participation creates ownership. Just don’t confuse participation with making an eight-year-old pull their share of an adult workload.

Kids Get Bored

This is one of those things that’s easy to underestimate. Adults can sit in a vehicle for hours because we understand where we’re going and why. Kids experience time differently.

Four hours on forest roads might sound like an incredible Saturday to you. To a nine-year-old in the back seat, at some point it’s just four hours in the back seat.

Plan stops. Let them get out. Let them run around. Find a creek. Stop at an overlook. Have lunch somewhere interesting instead of eating while driving. If there’s a short trail along the route, consider walking it.

For longer trips, bring something for the downtime, too. Books, cards, drawing supplies, binoculars, a camera, or a small nature journal can all work. And yes, depending on the trip and the child, electronics may have their place.

We’re trying to raise kids who enjoy the outdoors, not conduct a purity test.

Fear Is Real, Even When the Danger Isn’t

My kids sometimes got scared when we backpacked in the Cohutta.

That’s understandable. The woods become a very different place after dark. Familiar daytime sounds become unfamiliar nighttime sounds. Something walking through the leaves suddenly sounds enormous. An owl can sound downright prehistoric if you’ve never heard one from inside a tent.

An adult with years of experience knows that most noises in the woods aren’t anything to worry about. A child doesn’t know that yet.

Telling them, “There’s nothing to be scared of,” isn’t always particularly useful. Explain the sounds. Show them what you’re doing to keep camp safe. Talk about wildlife before the trip. Give them a headlamp they know how to use. Let them know where you’ll be sleeping. Most importantly, don’t ridicule the fear.

Confidence outdoors is built through experience. A kid who makes it through a scary night and wakes up to pancakes beside a mountain creek just learned something important: I can do this.

Safety Changes With Kids

Children introduce considerations that may barely register when you’re traveling with other experienced adults.

Water deserves particular attention. Creek crossings, riverbanks, waterfalls, slippery rocks, and seemingly harmless swimming holes can become serious hazards quickly. Life jackets should be properly fitted when appropriate, not just whatever spare PFD happens to be in the truck.

Temperature matters more. Kids may not recognize the early signs that they’re getting too cold, too hot, or dehydrated. Getting separated is another concern. Before leaving home, establish simple rules: what happens if they lose sight of you, whether they’re allowed to leave camp without an adult, what they should do if they become lost, and which areas around camp are off-limits.

Teach them that if they’re lost, stopping is usually better than wandering around trying to find everyone. A whistle is inexpensive, weighs almost nothing, and can be attached to a child’s backpack or clothing. Teach them how and when to use it. For younger kids, consider putting emergency contact information somewhere on their person or gear.

But there’s another part of backcountry safety that we don’t always like talking about: other people.

When my daughters were young and backpacking with me, I had them carry Mace. I told them it was in case of bears.

One of my daughters brought that up with me just a couple of days ago. She’s an adult now, and she told me she finally understood something she hadn’t understood as a little girl.

“That wasn’t for bears, was it?”

No. It wasn’t.

It was for people.

I didn’t want an eight- or nine-year-old walking through the woods afraid of every stranger she encountered. I wanted her to enjoy being outside and to learn that the backcountry generally isn’t something to fear. But as her father, I also understood that being miles from a trailhead meant I needed to think about possibilities that she didn’t need to be thinking about at that age.

That doesn’t mean handing a child defensive spray and calling the problem solved. Today, I’d emphasize that any defensive tool has to be legal where you’re traveling, appropriate for the child’s age and maturity, and something they’ve been specifically taught how to handle safely. An accidental discharge into their own face in the middle of the backcountry creates an emergency rather than preventing one.

The larger lesson is more important than the particular tool: you are responsible for thinking about the things your children shouldn’t have to think about yet.

That includes wildlife. It includes weather. It includes getting lost. And, unfortunately, sometimes it includes people.

Food Can Make or Break the Day

Experienced adults will sometimes push through hunger because dinner is another hour away. Children tend to provide more immediate performance feedback.

Bring more snacks than you think you’ll need, and bring snacks they’ll actually eat. An outdoor trip isn’t necessarily the best place to introduce an ambitious new nutritional philosophy. Familiar food can also provide a little comfort when everything else around them is unfamiliar.

Keep water accessible instead of buried somewhere in the vehicle or backpack. Encourage drinking regularly rather than waiting until someone announces they’re thirsty.

A strategically deployed snack has rescued more than one outdoor adventure.

Bring the Comfort Item

Adults spend a lot of money trying to eliminate ounces from backpacks and cubic inches from overlanding gear.

Then a child wants to bring a stuffed animal.

Bring the stuffed animal.

A favorite blanket, pillow, toy, or other familiar item can make an unfamiliar campsite considerably less intimidating. If you’re backpacking and weight genuinely matters, obviously you’ll need some limits, but don’t underestimate the value of a little familiarity.

You aren’t attempting a fastest-known-time. You’re camping with your kid.

Give Them Some Control

One of the easiest ways to get children invested in an adventure is to let them make some decisions. Give them two possible trails and let them choose one. Let them pick the campsite from a couple of appropriate options. Let them choose dinner. Hand them the map and show them where you are.

Older kids can begin learning navigation, weather awareness, Leave No Trace principles, fire safety, camp cooking, vehicle recovery concepts, paddling skills, and basic first aid.

That turns the outdoors into something more than scenery. It becomes a place where they develop competence, and competence builds confidence.

Know When to Call It

This may be the hardest lesson for experienced outdoorspeople. Sometimes you turn around.

Sometimes the kid is exhausted. Sometimes they’re genuinely frightened. Sometimes the weather deteriorates. Sometimes the creek is higher than expected. Sometimes everyone is miserable, and forcing another three hours of “fun” isn’t going to teach anyone anything except that camping sucks.

You may have driven two hours to get there. You may have spent all week planning it. It doesn’t matter. The mountain will still be there.

Calling a trip early isn’t automatically failure. Sometimes it’s simply good judgment. There’s a difference between teaching children that they can work through temporary discomfort and teaching them that adults won’t listen when they’ve reached their limit. Learning that difference is part of being responsible for someone besides yourself in the backcountry.

Let Them Get Dirty

There’s another side to all of this. Don’t make outdoor adventure so safe, structured, and sanitized that you remove the adventure.

Let kids get muddy. Let them climb rocks within reasonable limits. Let them splash through creeks. Let them explore around camp. Let them discover bugs and snakes and salamanders and animal tracks. Let them scrape a knee occasionally.

Teach them how to assess risk instead of teaching them that everything is dangerous.

Somewhere between the childhood many of us Gen X kids experienced and wrapping children in metaphorical bubble wrap is probably a pretty healthy place. The outdoors is particularly good at finding it.

Let them be kids, but have their backs.

You’re Playing the Long Game

Taking children into the outdoors requires patience. You’ll carry more gear. You’ll stop more often. You’ll cover fewer miles. You’ll answer approximately seventeen thousand questions. Someone will forget something. Someone will complain. Someone will suddenly need to use the bathroom five minutes after you passed the last convenient place to stop.

That’s part of it.

Years later, they probably won’t remember whether you covered three miles or eight. They may remember eating freeze-dried food beside a creek. They may remember the night something walked around outside the tent. They may remember Dad carrying the heavy stuff while they carried part of their little tent through the Cohutta.

And apparently, one day they may realize that the Mace you told them was for bears wasn’t really for bears.

Eventually, they may take their own kids outside. That’s a pretty good measure of a successful trip.

Start small. Stay flexible. Keep them safe. Give them some responsibility. Let them get dirty. And make the adventure something they want to do again.

Places worth getting off the pavement to find.