How much gear can your kid carry?

To get your kids to enjoy the backcountry in general, you have to get them out there and stay the night, and that will involve carrying gear. Just how much gear can your kid carry?

Backpacker magazine addresses this for a ten-year old at Backpacker Magazine - Kids and Backpacking.

I didn't get into the backcountry with 3 1/2 year old Paul this year like I was hoping to.  The plan now is to start in June in the Little Firehole Meadows area of Yellowstone National Park. That's a relatively short hike at 2-3 miles, mostly flat, and at a low enough elevation to be relatively warm at night. Oh yeah, there is some fishing available, too!

This summer, Paul was able to carry his little camelback with a couple toys, a rain jacket, and about
12 ounces of water. He could carry that for an hour or so, covering about 1.5- 2 miles. 

Noah is 18 months old and still in diapers. I don't do diapers in bear country.

Bottome line is that I'm planning to carry most of the stuff next summer. The goal is to get the kids to want to go back to the backcountry as their favorite place, not to see what their carrying capacity is.

Tornado in Yellowstone?

My job as an all hazards planner for public health emergencies is pretty interesting, and September is National Preparedness Month (mostly because of hurricane season).

We all know wildfires are a big concern in the park, and not only should you be careful not to start a fire, you have to be careful about spotting fires in the backcountry so you can stay safe.

But did you know you have to watch out for tornados, too? I've been in some horrific thunderstorms in Yellowstone, but I never thought about tornados at that altitude.

Click to the link for some info about a huge tornado in the park in 1987.  After that, make sure you have your own readiness kits in place for whatever threats are in your area.

http://www.ready.gov/wyoming

Wyoming

Jul 21, 1987

A 1.5 mile-wide EF4 tornado churned through Yellowstone National Park for 24 miles. Over 1 million trees were uprooted and discarded by this rare high altitude tornado, the highest ever recorded. The tornado began at roughly 7,000 feet above sea level and then climbed several thousand feet to crest at over 10,000. Despite no injuries, fatalities and limited infrastructure damage, the tornado was responsible for $2.5 million in damage.

Labor Day weekend trip report

  

This Labor Day weekend, we didn't hit the backcountry. With two little kids (one in diapers still), we just don't do the backcountry on family trips. It would have been perfect weather for fishing on the Lamar River or the Bechler River.

In fact, we ended up only about 10-20 miles from the Bechler River. We stayed at the Warm River campground, a beautiful family spot about 14 miles east of Ashton, Idaho. I consider this the perfect place for a family with young kids to camp because it's close to a river that is manageable with little kids, it's close to home for us to easily bail out if we want to, and it's just alot of fun in general.

On Sunday, we took a day trip to West Yellowstone to see the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center. What an awesome thing to do with kids! We saw bears and wolves up close, along with bald eagles, golden eagles, and several other raptors.

The bear show was the high of the day! The handlers put the bear "away" while they hid the food. Then the bears came out and showed the crowd how bears find food. This was incredibly educational for me as much as it was for the kids. I read about how the bears can do alot of things, like moving huge rocks and tree trunks to climbing the trees to get to food. It's one thing to read about it and trust that you're being told the truth....to see it makes it much more real. See below for proof that you need to make sure your food bag is centered between the bear poles in the backcountry.

And here's a great view of what is generally wrong with campsites. This was an exhibit that was setup in the discovery center area and really hits home.

The wolves were cool to see, but they weren't up to much activity.