My daughter and I had a free day together today, and Mother Nature fully cooperated but giving us a glorious warm (22Cish) sunny day. I threw the little princess and her well-stocked diaper bag into her stroller, put together a minimal day hike kit from my BOB, and off we went.



The Gear

I brought my day hike pack with these priorities in mind

Water - 1.5L SS water bottle, 1L aluminum water bottle, double pot cook set, esbit stove, bandana
Shelter - poncho, 25 ft paracord, nylon/fleece jacket, fleece blanket for the baby
Fire - fire kit with ferro rod & scraper, tin with fatwood shavings & char cloth
Emergency - safety lanyard (Fox 40 whistle, mini BIC, Gerber Clutch mini multi-tool, Garrity squeeze LED) and FAK (in baby's BOB)
Baby BOB - diaper bag built for about two days, including a PSK and FAK for whichever adult is with her at the time, as well as a bottle ready for feeding at any time
Food - spork, oatmeal, raisins, instant and cold coffee, lemonade, tuna & crackers and 2 twinkies

The Hike

I planned to head North on our primary bug-out route, estimating that it would take us about 2.5 hours to get to our family rally point, where we would stop for lunch and then turn around and head home. It was pretty shady in the forest, and there was a nice breeze too.






Breakfast on the Trail

One of the things I'm working on is reducing the weight of my BOB, so I wanted to take this opportunity to do a little trail cooking so I could further evaluate my cooking set up, which I think is a little heavy. I took only my water bottle (and a back-up since I was with my daughter), my Outbound Robson cook set, my SS spork and my esbit stove.

After about an hour of hiking, I found a nice shady spot to sit and have breakfast while my daughter snoozed in her stroller. There was a downed tree to lean against, so I laid out my nylon GI style poncho beside it. There was a little bare patch of ground right beside it, which I cleared out a bit more to make a cooking area. I found a fairly flat rock to use as a base for my Esbit Pocket Stove, and I was ready to boil my water.


For breakfast, I brought oatmeal and coffee. I found some instant steel cut oats at the grocery store a few weeks ago and brought a couple of servings in a Rubbermaid juice box minus the straw. I mixed in a little brown sugar and cinnamon before I left home, and brought a box of raisins to add on the fly. Nescafe instant coffee with cream and sugar isn’t the greatest coffee, but all coffee is good in bush! I had a full 1.5L SS water bottle and a second 1L aluminum bottle that was also full. My Outbound Robson cookset holds about 1.5L, but I only boiled a little less than a litre (in the bigger pot) for breakfast, and saved the rest for later.






Here's a little video if you're so inclined:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tc1_crno2Q0[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1-wZpdVfpM[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuZ7UBdHrpY[/youtube]


BTW - the instant steel cut oats? Meh. The cook set set-up? I like it! Might ditch the GSI kettle and alcohol stove for now. But, then again, it is supposed to be a BOB to support the whole family. hmmnmm....

I enjoyed your video's!!! Thank you!!! It looks like perfect conditions for your outing.

Did you have any rough trail spots in regards to the stroller?

Ya'll have a very beautiful daughter!!!

Thank you again for sharing!

Thanks, wildman! It was a great day.

It's still muddy in spots and the AO has some short steep hills. We detoured around some spots that were just too slick and steep for the stroller. It's a pretty good off-roader, but gravity and momentum are a pretty dangerous combo that I'd rather avoid. There were a few that had a gradual climb or decent, that were a great workout for me, but the steep ones were to be avoided. Even a little foot high hill that's got a steep angle can topple the stroller over.

I'm sure she'll be an adventurer who will eventually make my heart stop (they all are at some point) but I'm not encouraging that just yet. For now, the excitement of her starting to crawl will have to do.

I stayed on the paved path for the most part, and only ventured off-road a little bit in pretty sedate areas. No news headlines for this mama.

Your oatmeal needs more additives - try walnuts, pecans, or for that gourmet experience,blueberries. Costco has a fruit and nuts mix that is splendid.

my standard oatmeal breakfast has additives that cost far more than the basic oats. I am a miser...

Jacqui... nice video set....I recently rebuilt my 3 gun cart from a jogging stroller...your adaption of the jogging stroller as a bug out platform has a lot to offer for us older folk...I personally don't plan on going too far, but if it was required, a skeletonized stroller, especially one with three equally sized wheels could carry a lot larger load a lot farther than I could on my back.... something to think about...I built attachment points for a gun bag, that could easily be adapted to a backpack, tent bag, or other...a couple of rim tools, a spare tube, and a hand pump for vehicle maintenance...

Mmmm.. .I love nuts and fruit in my oatmeal, hikermor. I recently had dental surgery though, and am not quite ready for the crunch yet. I sometimes just break up a granola or cliff bar and add that.

I did forget the powdered milk and I usually put wheat germ on it too. I've adjusted the recipe further for this coming weekend at camp, by packing real steel cut oats instead of the instant. It'll take longer to cook, but I like the chewyness and the instant version is too mushy, IMO, to warren the extra cost compared to regular instant oatmeal.

Another family favorite is to make it our oatmeal with hot chocolate. (Personally, I think hot chocolate works better with granola.)

Very cool setup Les! We've used a wagon in the past, but I'm digging the jogging stroller again, especially as a kiddo mover. I took her to camp with me for a few hours a couple of weeks ago, and while one of the moms was getting her snuggle time in, I used the stroller to move some gear around. Worked pretty well, but would be much better modified like you have done. Nice!

I have never had instant steel cut oats, so I wondered about the texture but didn't want to ask. I get the same result with instant rolled oats, and even worse with the little instant single-serve packages. Those are perfect for a food fight, but for eating, not so much.

I'm a big fan of steel cut (or Irish) oats for breakfast. I use the ancient Celtic recipe...get out of bed, put on the oats, boil until lunch time.

I've always wondered about steel cut oats. What are the alternatives? Aluminum cut oats? Copper cut oats? "Tactical" titanium cut oats? In days of old, was there such a thing as flint cut oats?

Does the type of steel make a difference? Are 1095 oats better or worse than S30V cut oats?

Obviously, I need a hobby....

I like the way you think, hikermor. Obviously the tactical oats are cut with a titanium blade with a tungsten carbide edge.

Another option for taking the little-little ones on the trail are backpack-style child carriers. I had a MEC Happytrails Child Carrier when my kids were little and thought it was great:



It has an 18 litre pack that connects to the frame under the child too so you can still take some gear, food, etc. with you.

The big advantage to this is that you are only limited to terrain you could otherwise hike. For full-out hiking, I think these are the best option.

We used a similar carrier when our daughter was wee. It worked quite well. One of our ground rules was that the parent carrying our DNA also employed a stout hiking staff; it was a great aid to stability. I wouldn't want to take a tumble with a baby on my back.

did you bring plenty of hot sauce for him?

We had one of those for my son when he was a baby, Denis, and we've got a small one for our daughter, but it always made me nervous. My husband used it with our son, but I was always worried that I'd slip and fall, even with hiking sticks. I keep in with the baby's BOB, but I think I'm going to give it a go on the paved trail around here. It'll be a good workout, me thinks.

One thing about the baby, she keeps me on safer ground. If she can't get there in her stroller, she doesn't go. That said, when talked with the Ontario Volunteer Emergency Response Team's Canine Unit on the weekend, and they told us the story of a woman and her baby and toddler who got stuck a the mucky lake bottom at the camp we stayed in last weekend, and triggered a SAR operation because she was lost to boot and couldn't tell them where they were in the park so they could come dig them out.

Hi Bacpacjac, nice to see your setup.

Its a bit frustrating that so much gear is designed for one or two people, things are a bit different if you need to cater for a whole family !

What works for us is to set out the breakfast into individual servers, including raisins, sugar, sizing (big or small) and any other additives you like, into ziplock bags.
I boil a kettle of water and we put the ziplocks into a cup/bowl to support the bags and so that everyone can hold their breakfast without burning hands etc.

Then we pour the boiled water into each bag and zip it up for a few minutes to “cook” before eating it - from the bag,

Using two stoves (perhaps ever two different types of stoves) means that we have enough water to make breakfast, and can be heating up water for a coffee at the same time.
The kettles and most of the hiking pots we have are too small to make enough water for breakfast and coffees in one go, so its two stoves, or two rounds with one stove.
I like having two stoves, so I have a “spare” (you know the mentality ... lol ).

Thanks Aussie! I'll have to give the ziplock trick a try! When we kick it up to family cooking, I either

Use the two stove method - bacpacboy and I both carry a stove in our day hike kits and our BOBs:

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yp2ILHEFa-U

-or-

Take a grill and bunch of stuff to cook over an open fire:

YouTube gear video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OoRiOVRoGg
YouTube cooking video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKYdW_pTeYA

-or-

Bring even bigger pots and pans(i.e. my dutch oven)


Ziplocks would be a lot lighter!