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Kids first backpacking trip

Irrelevant

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Apr 17, 2015
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Wenatchee
We took the kids on their first backpacker this last weekend (left early Thursday). It was 7 miles in, 3k vert., 1.5k in the last mile. The 6 yr old packed his clothes and some snacks, 9 yr old packed her clothes, sleeping bag, pad, and some snacks. Both did great. The lake ended up being devoid of fish :( We day hiked to the ridge above the next day and spotted a fire from the thunder and lightening the night before and called it in (sad all the places you can get cell reception anymore). Friday night hordes of people showed up, freakin' 11! Ugh!!!! So Saturday we left for less crowded pastures. Ended up down lower along a small creek loaded with pretty cutts (both dirt ball kids tried to drop their fish as the shutter clicked). Day hiked up into some good looking deer country. Then boogied out on Sunday. Pretty impressed with the kids. My wife let me down a bit... she had what amounted to a 4-day tantrum over the black flies. To her defense they were horrible, but the rest of us didn't let them ruin out trip. She was either cussing or speed hiking, or in the tent almost all four days (minus some bikini time at the lake in the middle of the day when the breeze was keeping the bugs at bay).

The kids said they had fun. Hope to do it again later in the year. First trip of the year for me not in a "W"ilderness, certainly could have fooled me. My only question is where in the heck are the mountain goats!?!


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Looks like an awesome trip partner with some real troopers. The flies do seem to be excessive this year but glad everyone was able to push through. That's a pull for legs that aren't a third of the size as yours. Bummer on the fire I hope August gets some unexpected moisture for everyone it's brutal out. The goats have been in very north facing basins. Alpine grasses have been turning quickly....... thanks for sharing
 
WA website? Do you mean WTA?

This one, so far it's been pretty good for me. The last lake I was at was 7mi in, uphill mostly but some good sized rainbows!

 
Washington looks like paradise once you get away from the Seattle area. Way to get the kids into the great outdoors!
It is but the hard part is you have places all over the state where you still have to know how to get away from "seattle" they like to hoard to places
 
This one, so far it's been pretty good for me. The last lake I was at was 7mi in, uphill mostly but some good sized rainbows!

It was not. But I had actual first hand accounts... from 7 years ago, about non-stop catching.

I was thinking about volunteering to hike some fry in there. There's tons of bug life, and it's plenty deep. But without an inlet they can't reproduce and eventually get old and die.
 
Ive never seen nicer roads leading up to trailheads than here in WA. You pull up to a trailhead and there's 50 cars and 30 are Priuses🤣😂
That's a great point. I can only think of one trailhead that I wouldn't drive our honda fit to, and there are still prius(i) in the parking lot. Trails without water or with minimal views are still pretty low density. Can't hike anywhere off the pavement. Nothing around Leavenworth. Nothing west of the crest. Nothing to a lake. Let's see that about covers it.
 
That looks like an awesome trip. I’m impressed with your kids. I love that in the picture of your son, it looks like he’s been huffing paint (or Oreo dust) which is pretty much how my son looks all the time, including immediately following a bath.

Thanks for sharing the trip.
 
Looks like fun, never would have guessed that wasn't in the wilderness. Planning a similar hike with my kids about the same age, good to see others doing it, was a little worried I might be pushing them too hard, but seeing you and others taking similar trips confirms my thought that they can handle it.
 
Looks like fun, never would have guessed that wasn't in the wilderness. Planning a similar hike with my kids about the same age, good to see others doing it, was a little worried I might be pushing them too hard, but seeing you and others taking similar trips confirms my thought that they can handle it.
It's really a matter of conditioning, mental conditioning. I wouldn't take many adults on that trip because they don't know what "suck" is or how to deal with it. But we've forced our kids to embrace the suck, a day per weekend, probably 100 weekends a year. All kids can handle it physically (or at least all the ones I've been around), it's getting them to quit complaining and just hike. Part of that is also as a parent planning for the snack and water breaks, plus some more chasing butterfly breaks or playing in the creek breaks, or throwing rocks at trees breaks, and the distracting conversations and the motivational speeches, but kids are damn resilient and physically tough. Good luck and post a trip report when you get back!
 
It's really a matter of conditioning, mental conditioning. I wouldn't take many adults on that trip because they don't know what "suck" is or how to deal with it. But we've forced our kids to embrace the suck, a day per weekend, probably 100 weekends a year. All kids can handle it physically (or at least all the ones I've been around), it's getting them to quit complaining and just hike. Part of that is also as a parent planning for the snack and water breaks, plus some more chasing butterfly breaks or playing in the creek breaks, or throwing rocks at trees breaks, and the distracting conversations and the motivational speeches, but kids are damn resilient and physically tough. Good luck and post a trip report when you get back!
Yeah you nailed it on the head, totally mental, just like with adults. The trail snacks really get them excited so I tell them we have to hike good for so long before we stop, usually make the first few stops shorter and then stretch them out further. We were doing a tough climb the other weekend and my daughter was dragging her feet so I told her to put some pep in her step, she asked what's that, so I said, well how would you be walking if we were on our way to Disneyland, her face lit up and she marched up the trail. Now it seems to work as a motivator. Our steep cross country hikes in the backyard have been pretty good training, makes walking on a trail seem easier.
 
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