Got out for a day in the woods with my six month old daughter a couple of weeks ago and thought I'd share.

I packed her diaper bag with all the fixings into the jogging stroller, and hit a section of trail I haven't been on for over a year. It was a gorgeous day so we did an all day hike/roll, a little trailside cooking, as well as some firecraft.

My gear consisted of my safety lanyard and a day pack with a poncho, canteen kit, SS can with lid, mre spoon, windscreen, SS water bottle, a broken down MRE, Mr. Noodles, tuna, juice crystals, FAK, a pocket fire kit, a fixed blade knife, bug juice, some paracord, a bandana and some garbage bags.



There's a really nice paved trail along the creek, but it's pretty popular, so I crossed over and took a road less travelled while my daughter dozed.



I was hungry when we started, so before we crossed, I quickly found a nice spot beside the creek for breakfast, which consisted of MRE chicken and dumplings and some hot chocolate, heated on the canteen stove with esbit cubes, for me and a bottle for her.

After cleaning up and changing a diaper, we headed back onto the trail. Even though the sun was shining and the creek was low, I had to detour around part of the trail because of flooding, so lunch ended up being under a big 'ol maple tree on the edge of a park. bacpacbaby had a bottle while I whipped up Mr. Noodles with spicy tuna. I brought an MRE spoon but I've got the whittling bug so I tried to make some homemade chop sticks, which is much trickier than it looks!



Another clean up for my cook kit and the baby's bum, and we got back on the trail. I found a nice little spot to practice a little firecraft. I wanted to practice my feather sticks, wood shavings and twig fire prep. I wasn't really going for the actual fire, but how could I resist giving my ferro rod a scrape for a little wood smoke on such a glorious day?

I used my Buck Silver Creek Bait Knife that lives in my fishing kit. My ten year old son has been eyeing it so I wanted to try it out to recall if it's appropriate. Passed on it for him That saw blade on the spine is nice and sharp and he still tends to put his hand there when using a fixed blade so I gave him the SAK Camper the Woods Walker sent me instead. It's just like the one my dad gave me eons ago so SO much better! Thanks again, Woods!





Thanks for looking!

p.s. There's more pics here: http://zombiehunters.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=108571

Nice! Way to get the baby started out early as a bushcrafter!

Nice pictures and summary. bacpacbaby is blessed indeed.

LOL!! I'm going to take that as a compliment!

My fire was interrupted by a crabby baby. It was a little too windy to deal with them both so I doused it and we'll try another day. Baby steps~!

Ouch! LOL!

I had an unexpected chance to get some dirt time with both my kids today, so we went for a little adventure on a section of trail a little further North than we were yesterday. Thanks to the curiosity of the ten year old and cooperative ground conditions, we found an awesome little wilderness spot a little way off the trail. It was brand new for us and a pretty cool little spot. We discovered a little tributary of our local creek and thought it was the perfect place for a little exploring and a picnic lunch.

My son decided to ride his bike this time, and we took the jogging stroller as is our usual MO these days, but I also brought the little baby carrier (It's an Infantino Flip Front & Backpack Carrier) to give it go too. I rolled the baby there and carried her back. She slept both ways so I guess they're both a hit. One of these days I might go to just the carrier with my daypack, or upgrade to a better child carrier backpack, but I have to admit, I like the jogging stroller. It lets me carry more, and it keeps me a little more cautious, because I'm less adventurous on inclines and bad terrain.

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When we broke through the pine forest beside the main trail, into an area that we've been curious about, we discovered what felt like a secret forest. (Not such a secret with the local mountain bikers though.) We haven't ventured in there before because we've always had the baby with us, but today the trails were pretty dry and I found a route that wasn't too steep, so I decided to give it a go. There were trails all over the big ridge, with lots of ups and downs and a creek down below. It was a good work out and a lot of fun to explore. This little area has taken some serious storm damage, but it was really peaceful today. Until the scream, that is, but more on that later.)

I brought my canteen stove and a huge piece of thick foil for underneath, (lower impact, IMO) with the intention of harvesting some natural tinder to boil our water. I didn't want a big fire, but did want to give the boy a chance to practice his fire starting skills.

We didn't use the squirrel nest we saw because it was WAY too high. We did use birch bark along with some cedar bark. Silver? Yellow? River? I'm not sure. I've always called it Silver, but we're going to double check. Whatever it is, it took a spark really well and blew into flame pretty easily. We threw in some twigs to feed the flames and had a rolling boil in less than 10 mins. The boy started the tinder with his brand new SAK and ferro rod. (Sorry no pics of the actual start. I was supervising.)





We decided to use my canteen stove to boil some water for Mr. Noodles and KD. I used my GSI Halulite Tea Kettle to boil the water, and we filled the kettle with water from the boy's new Naglene with compass lid. He used a huge tin cup and plastic LMF spork, which he loves, and I used my canteen cup and tried out my brand new Sea to Summit andonized aluminum spork. He had KD and KoolAid, his all time favourite lunch, and I had Mr. Noodles and flavoured tuna. (Lemon and pepper this time.) One of my favourite trail meals. YUM! (The baby had some baby oatmeal and a bottle.)

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The Scream

While I was getting settled in and feeding bacpacbaby, bacpacboy went to explore the creek. He found an old tent under the tree in the middle of the creek and tried unsuccessfully to rescue it. As he was climbing out of the creek, he got stuck (both feet) in knee high mud on the banks. There's obviously been a lot of storm damage in there, and the mud was super thick. (He thought for sure that it was quicksand and screamed.) He was well and truly stuck so I need to perform a rescue operation. I used a long branch, so that I wouldn't get stuck too. (He asked me afterwards, "Mom, that was just like what we're supposed to do if someone falls through the ice, right?" Cool lesson, if a little dirty.)

Once we got him out, he crawled to shore, found a digging stick and then crawled back to try and find his shoes. (Yup, both.) After about 15 minutes of digging he pulled them up, two gloppy gloopy messes. By that point he looked like a mud monster, so I sent it to the rocky shore to wash up. It was high drama for a while, but it gave the baby time to eat before we fussed with our lunch. He sure had a great story to tell bacpacdad when we got home! (The shoes weren't much better after washing, so they went home hanging off his pack and he peddled in his sock feet. Good think he wore thick merino wool socks. They have flames on them. What are ya gonna do?) Oh, to be a bacpacmom!

Here's a short Youtube video of the trip AFTER the clean up:

Trip to the Creek

Thanks for looking!

Hahaha! Well, that's how they learn!

It's definitely going to be a story he tells his kids, but it reminds me of a story with a more dramatic ending:

A few years back, a woman took her two kids (about the same ages as mine) hiking at our local Scout reserve. Her son ventured out into a mud field and got stuck, so she wheeled the baby in the stroller out to get him and they all got stuck. I believe it was in the Spring or Fall, and it was nearing dark. She couldn't get out so called 911. She had no idea where she was, so a SAR operation, included a helicopter, was activated. Right in the heart of the city, you can walk no more than an hour in any direction you choose and you're back in civilization.

It made all the local media and it something that I always have in the back of my mind when I head out with the kids. Never more so than yesterday.

EEK!! I would have pooped. LOL!

I think it's should be a rule that every kid have chances to experience their own stories like that, where no harm was done, everything worked out fine, and important lessons were learned.

He wasn't in any danger, so I can't help but laugh.

I was going to ask that. My daughter is 6 m/o too ... how did you find trying to hike while keeping yours happy/occupied?

And where did you get that mosquito net? Definitely worth looking at.