Backpacking with Babies: The Beginning
The beginning of the trail from Carver’s Gap along the Appalachian Trail
As we drove the winding road up into the Blue Ridge Mountains, Chris said, “This feels like the start of something—as if we are just on the brink of everything changing. I think we will look back on this first backpacking trip as where it all started.” I felt it too. That thrill of exhilaration—the intuitive knowledge that there is something more here.
I’ve felt it before. The changing of the winds, and the steadiness of knowing that somehow, I am on the right path. It’s the thrill I felt when we moved to Hong Kong with 6 duffel bags, a toddler, and not a speck of Cantonese. The feeling I had when I made that first step to homeschool my daughter for preschool. It is the peace in the midst of wild happenings! I felt it, too, when Chris asked me to marry him.
We were hiking to our favorite spot in the canyon. The stars were out. The wind whispered through the trees. He looked at me and said, “I feel peaceful when I’m in the mountains, and I feel the same way when I’m with you.”
We’re on the edge—a crossroads, a turning-point that will become a defining moment in our lives. It’s funny that that feeling that accompanies major life decisions—marriage, births, moves, education—would also follow a simple hike into the mountains to spend the night.
Three children, 65 pounds of gear, and an insane determination to make it work.
Four days ago, backpacking with kids wasn’t even on our radar. Chris was on a conference call, locked in a tiny bedroom-turned-quarantine-office, while I nursed a teething 8-month old and tried to convince a newly potty-trained toddler to leave his soiled nighttime diaper ON. “Just one minute! I will change you! Let me get Coco to bed! DON’T CLEAN IT UP YOURSELF!”
Parenting tends to be waves of intense action followed by moments of calm. I seized the following calm to research hiking trails for a fantasy trip….maybe when I’m done breastfeeding, I could go with some fellow mamas! Maybe we could get a babysitter and go on a trip for our tenth anniversary---it’s been that long since we had a trip alone. We have a lot of limits right now. Someday, someday.
Inspired by great adventurers, travel podcasts, and books, I had tried to bring more adventure to our everyday life. We took the 1,000 hours outside challenge, bought water-hiking shoes for the kids, and started spending entire mornings hiking and playing in creeks. We chose to homeschool so that we could have flexibility—freedom to live abroad and travel, freedom to build a homestead and go horseback riding every morning, freedom to live life in a big way, But right now, we don’t live abroad. We don’t live on a picturesque farm. We live in the suburbs, square in the middle of North Carolina—equally distant from the beach and mountains. We have trees, and lovely little creeks, and not much else in the way of adventure. We are incredibly lucky—or blessed—to have the home we do, and the luxury to be bored with it.
But I was bored. So I fantasized about someday.
Then I came across a comment on an obscure thread, reviewing a backpacking trail far away: “Good for kids.” I was thunderstruck. Backpacking and kids? I couldn’t imagine those two going together. I’d never been backpacking. My reference points were Alastair Humphreys’ My Midsummer Morning, and a whole lot of life experience that told me kids have opinions and needs. I was intrigued. And off I went, researching anything I could find about backpacking with small children. I found a couple that took an 11-month old on a 4-day trip. The Mama carried the baby and a few diapers, the Dad carried the rest. Apparently, compostable diapers exist. Okay, so we won’t have to pack out our diapers. That’s manageable.
I found a larger family with children as young as 4, all the way up to big kids that could carry their own packs. I learned there are backpacks for children! Not many, but they exist.
I found a trail—10 miles out-and-back, with a stream nearby. Woods, rhododendron, wildflowers, grassy ridges, and a view of the blue-ridge mountains as the sun rises and sets: it was perfect. Worst-case scenario, we weren’t going to be stranded. My kids can hike, and my kids can camp. It follows that they should be able to hike to the camp!
What followed was a jumbled midnight conversation with Chris, who was working late on his MBA homework. “We should take the kids backpacking!” He obviously thought I was kidding. Kids can’t go backpacking. ….but….why not? As we talked it through, it became more and more probable. Why did we think we couldn’t? Well, we didn’t know anyone that did. Neither of us had ever been backpacking. Backpacking trips are 30-40 mile slogs, rough conditions. A woman backpacking is already a triumph for feminism, to my mind. Toddlers on the trail? …but the more we discussed it, the more doable it seemed.
We decided we would go over the next 3-day weekend, which was comfortably at the end of the month. Oops! Actually, I think that’s two weeks away. WOAH! No, it’s this weekend! We have 4 days to get it together! I’m going to REI!
Part 2 of our first backpacking adventure Backpacking With Babies: The Climb will be published soon! Subscribe to be the first to know!