Hiking

Image by vastateparksstaff via Flickr

. . . Keeping The Little People Happy while Backpacking

More and more families have discovered the joy of backpacking and hiking with children, and although you may be limited as to the amount of hiking trail you can cover with young children (unless they’re small enough to fit in a hiking baby carrier backpack) you can still enjoy a few nights out in the wilderness with your family. The majority of kids love backpacking, hiking and camping in the great outdoors, it can offer them the sort of freedom which is so difficult to achieve for some at home.

Unless you are willing to share your sleeping bag (which can get very squashy) then kids do need their own sleeping bag as part of their essential hiking and backpacking equipment. Many kids sleeping bags are simply smaller versions of adult hiking sleeping bags . . . although very often they’re much funkier.

What To Look Out For When Buying Kids Sleeping Bags

• Kids sleeping bags are available in basically the same shapes as adult sleeping bags, rectangular or mummy, although this depends on whether your child is a real bedtime wriggler or a still sleeper. Some people do find it difficult to sleep in too much of a confined space, no matter how warm they are. 

• Kids sleeping bags do come in some rather attractive colors . . . pink for the girls (with flowery linings) and blue for the boys . . . that sort of thing.
• Kids sleeping bags are useful for all sorts of other occasions too, apart from overnight backpacking or hiking trips . . . they’re great for sleepovers.
• Kids sleeping bag designers have come up some rather nifty features which make it easy for children to settle after a long day on the hiking trail. There are very often pillow pockets where you can put either a pillow or some of their hiking clothes for a little extra comfort, and some have zippers which go all the way around so that your children can actually wear the sleeping bag whilst they are walking around base camp, keeping them cozy until it’s time to settle down for a well earned rest in the great outdoors.
• Kids sleeping bags which do zipper right the way around can be opened up and used as a quilt if required.
• Make sure that your childs sleeping bag will actually fit into your childs backpack (unless you are car camping of course). Remember that childs back packs are smaller than adult ones (because children are generally smaller than adults) so it stands to reason that they will need a sleeping bag which stuffs up pretty small if they are expected to carry it themselves on the hike.
• Remember also that kids are always growing, so make sure that your sleeping bag has plenty of “growing space”, there’s nothing worse than trying to get warm after a day backpacking when your sleeping bag barely reaches past your stomach.

I’m not suggesting for one minute that you should truss up your kids in their sleeping bags after a days backpacking, I just added this video for the fun factor . . . go on comedy bill, you can do it!