If you are going to take kids on a thru-hike (or really any long-distance backpacking trip), you need to think a bit more carefully about gear than if you were just taking them in a mile or so to basecamp at a lake for your backpacking trip. If you get nothing else from this post, the key points I want to you to takeaway are:
- Lightweight is key
- Kids can’t carry more than ~15% of their body weight
- Water and food are heavy!
- The big 3 (tents, sleeping bags, sleeping pads) are the most important to worry about
- Be creative about distributing gear
Keep reading to see our favorite gear for a family thru-hike!
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Our Experience with Family Thru-Hiking
Last summer my family hiked the Maine section of the Appalachian Trail last summer, and while this isn’t a true “thru-hike”, it is the same distance as the thru-hike we were planning to do on the Long Trail (but it flooded), so I am using that experience to share our gear tips here. I was alone with my two children (then 9 and 11) for about 2/3 of the time and half the distance of the trip. My husband joined us for the Hundred Mile Wilderness and Katahdin. The gear lists below are what the kids and I used for the part of the trip without my husband.
I also found this page from the Green Mountain Club about thru-hiking the Long Trail with a family to be super, super helpful. They have detailed gear and food lists.
The Big Three: Tent for a Family Thru-Hike
We have two Big Agnes Tigerwall UL3 tents with MtnGLO built in (no longer available in that form) with Big Agnes footprints. We carried one on the trip (until my husband joined us). It was tight for three of us, but worked fine. We usually slept with me on one side (I get up to pee in the night), my daughter in the middle with her head at the foot end of the tent, and my son on the other side. I quickly learned that the kids don’t sleep well in shelters, so we only used them when it was currently raining, was going to be a soaking rain all day, or there was nowhere to put our tent. Our Best Family Tents post has more details on good tent choices.
The Big Three: Sleeping Bags for a Family Thru-Hike
My kids are relatively tall, and I don’t like to invest in expensive child-specific bags unless they are a really good price. See Kids’ Sleeping Bags – Are they worth it? analysis to decide what works for your family. My husband and I have Feathered Friends Vireo sleeping bags that the kids use as summer sleeping bags. They can scoot down lower in them if it is cold (there is more insulation in the lower half of the bag) and scoot up when it’s warmer.
We bought Big Agnes Fussell UL quilts for the adults about 15 months before the trip. They don’t have temperature ratings but in quilt mode they are comfortable to about 55°F with a down jacket on and in sleeping bag mode they are good down to about 45°F with a down jacket on. I was rarely cold overnight on the trip, but for colder areas, sleeping bags will be harder to figure out a light system for. Best Sleeping Bags for Kids and Family Sleeping Bags are posts that have more ideas.
The Big Three: Sleeping Mats and Pillows for a Family Thru-Hike
Sleeping Pads for a Family Thru-Hike
The kids had very old women’s short Therm-a-Rest pads for the trip (something like these modern Therm-a-Rest pads), but since then we upgraded them to Nemo Tensor Trail mattresses. This could be a problem for three of us in one tent in the future. We haven’t tried it yet. I had a Nemo Tensor Trail regular wide mattress for the trip. If I have to share a tent with both kids again, I will probably get a regular mattress for use only on trips where we have three people in a three-person tent.
The two-person sleeping pads currently available are heavier than two of the Nemo Tensor Trail pads. My husband had a Big Agnes Q Core SLX but recently upgraded to the Nemo Tensor Trail regular wide. It makes less noise, is lighter, and lets us share inflation sacks.
This recently upgraded post on Sleeping Pads for Families has good info on choosing sleeping pads for you and your kids.
Pillows for a Family Thru-Hike
My son had a Klymit X pillow, I had a Nemo Fillo Elite, and my daughter used her clothes for a pillow. Since then both kids have upgraded to Nemo Fillo Elite pillows. They are fabulous!
This recently upgraded post on Sleeping Pads for Families has good info on choosing pillows.
Cooking Gear for a Family Thru-Hike
We carried an MSR Pocket Rocket 2 with the pot that comes with the 2-person mess kit. Although the Pocket Rocket doesn’t come with a windscreen, we found it really helpful to have one. In fact, we carried two: one for under the stove and one for around the canister stove and pot. Between the windscreens and turning the stove down to about 60%, we went through fuel at about 50% of the estimated rate, which saved us a lot of weight.
I carried two lighters and a set of matches in a ziplock bag. I didn’t want to get stuck with being unable to light the stove (yes, this happened on a bike tour one time).
Instead of the mess kit pieces that came with the stove kit, we carried plastic children’s bowls (like these from Ikea), spoons (like these from Ikea), and cups (like these from Ikea). I just went and looked at what we had and found the lightest weight stuff that was likely to not fall apart. Since then, we upgraded to Nathan’s collapsable cups. The collapsable cups are a little unstable, but good enough for hot drinks on the trail.
We carried two silicon zip top bags (something like this) to rehydrate food in and insulation packs made of mylar. The insulation packs kind of fell apart and so we made a new one out of pipe insulation material instead of just space blankets. People we met had pouches like this that had lasted for the entire AT.
We drank “smoothies” every morning and cold soaked those in an empty plastic peanut butter jar. We just shared one of those. They don’t hold hot drinks well, so they aren’t useful for anything else.
To clean dishes we carried an onion bag (for scrubbing – they are great!) and a small bottle of Dr. Bronner’s soap in an ~8 oz disposable water bottle. To be honest, I ended up licking the dishes a lot. The cups were hard to lick, but bowls and silicone pouches (which can turn inside out) were very lick-able.
We carried an UrSack Major 2XL and P-cord for a bear bag. This meant we didn’t need to “properly” hang a bear back each night, but could just hang it off a branch. It is NOT rodent proof (ask me how I know), but with the food in two large Odor Proof bags, the rodents didn’t get into our UrSack. They do get into UrSacks if the food isn’t in odor proof bags.
We had a second UrSack for the Hundred Mile Wilderness. The odor proof bags weren’t really that durable but did a good enough job over the trip. During the day I had to carry food loose in my pack, but we could fit it all into the UrSack at night.
Food for Your Thru-Hiking Family
See our posts on Backpacking Food Ideas for Families, Family Camping Meal Plan, and Best Freeze Dried Backpacking Meals for Kids for some food and meal ideas.
We resupplied food about twice a week until the Hundred Mile Wilderness, where we were only able to resupply twice (through Shaw’s Hostel) and then had to buy mediocre food for Baxter State Park at Abol Bridge. We had an extra adult for that part of the trip, so the weight wasn’t that bad. We stayed in town once a week, so alternate resupplies were midday in-and-out affairs.
Sample Menu for a Family Thru-Hike
A sample menu for a 4-day, 3-night stint between resupplies is as follows. Assume we resupplied after lunch and then got to the next town after lunch on the 4th day. This means it’s approximately three full days of food for three people. Note that I carried ghee and olive oil but my kids would only tolerate small amounts of them. I added them wherever I could to get more calories into the kids, but we gave a lot away in hiker boxes. I think we ate about 2.5 pounds of food per person per day, divided up per the NOLS Cookbook (see Backpacking Food Ideas for Families for more information).
After resupply snack 1: 1 homemade “larabar” (approximately 150 g, so equivalent of 3 bars).
Dinner 1: One package Lipton chicken noodle soup split three ways as an appetizer. Add small amount of olive oil to the soup. Ginger cashew carrot soup (homemade and dried from the Moosewood cookbook recipe) in a crouton “bread bowl” for the main course. Add ghee to the carrot soup. Instant vanilla pudding (one package) for dessert.
Breakfast 2: Cheesy grits with eggs made with instant butter grits (1 pack/person), OvaEasy eggs (~1 egg per person), and Big Daddy Mac Mix cheese. Add ghee to the grits. Hot chocolate for the kids. Trail mocha (hot chocolate and instant coffee) for Mom.
Morning snack 2: Smoothie made with coconut milk powder, freeze dried banana powder, freeze dried strawberry powder, and OvaEasy egg white powder.
Lunch 2: ~1/3 of an 8 oz block of hard cheese (e.g., cheddar, asiago, parmesan, Manchego), ~1/3 of a summer sausage, and peanut butter M&Ms.
Snack 2: Homemade larabar; trail mix; peanut butter M&Ms; natural crunchy peanut butter with oats mixed in (we just ate it from the jar with spoons). Note that this isn’t a single snack, but the food we snacked on whenever we were hungry.
Dinner 2: Hot Jello for appetizer. (Gross, I know, but it’s calories and my kids love the stuff.) Indian red lentils (homemade and dried from the Indian Slow Cooker recipe) with coconut milk powder over rehydrated rice. Add ghee to the lentils. Instant pudding for dessert.
Breakfast 3: Oatmeal with choice of toppings, including dried whole milk powder, trail mix, peanut butter powder, brown sugar, dried fruit.
Morning snack 3: Smoothie made with hot chocolate, freeze dried banana powder, freeze dried strawberry powder, and OvaEasy egg white powder.
Lunch 3: ~1/3 of an 8 oz block of hard cheese (e.g., cheddar, asiago, parmesan, Manchego), ~1/3 of a summer sausage. M&Ms.
Snack 3: Homemade larabar; trail mix; M&Ms; natural crunchy peanut butter with oats mixed in (we just ate it from the jar with spoons). Note that this isn’t a single snack, but the food we snacked on whenever we were hungry.
Dinner 3: Tomato soup made from Harmony House tomato powder, whole milk powder, and Italian seasoning. Add olive oil to the tomato soup. Beans and rice made from Harmony House dried bean flakes, dried peppers, and dried tomatoes seasoned with Mexican seasoning and Big Daddy Mac Mix cheese powder. Add ghee to the bean mix. Served over rehydrated instant rice. Instant Oreo Cheesecake for dessert.
Breakfast 4: Rice pudding made with dried whole milk powder, cinnamon, brown sugar, and OvaEasy egg crystals. Rehydrate with hot water. Add small amount of ghee to the pudding.
Morning snack 4: Smoothie made with dried whole milk powder, peanut butter powder, freeze dried banana powder, freeze dried strawberry powder, and OvaEasy egg white powder.
Lunch 4: Remainder of the cheese and summer sausage. M&Ms.
Some notes: We didn’t really like the freeze dried fruit from Harmony House because it got weird and chewy. Regular dried fruit lasted better. However, the kids loved the smoothies made with freeze-dried fruit powder. I only bought peanut butter M&Ms and the kids got VERY sick of them. My son still won’t eat any M&Ms.
Clothes for the Thru-Hiking Family
Hiking Clothes for a Family Thru-Hike
We generally hiked in one set of clothes each and carried a second set that we basically never wore. I wouldn’t carry the extra shorts and shirts next time.
I have Ex Officio 7-in inseam shorts and wide strapped tank tops (from Decathlon and EMS, but neither is available anymore; these are similar from REI). The only issue with the shorts is that they need a belt once they stretch out from wearing every day. I wore a nylon one that my mom sent in our second resupply box. I recently got Fittin sports bras and they are great for hiking. I carried two sports bras but really only wore one. I’m not 100% sure what I actually wore on the trip. I have Third Love synthetic sports underwear that is great. I carried two pairs.
My son wore Lands End sports shorts and Decathlon synthetic shirts. My daughter was in similar clothes but the shorts were girl style shorts, which she found too short. She prefers boys’ shorts because they are a little longer. The kids have Fruit of the Loom sports underwear (boxer briefs and panties), which is a synthetic mesh and they report is very comfortable. It’s also a good price. This post on Hiking Clothes for Kids has great ideas.
Long Pants for a Thru-Hike with a Family
We carried pants but after we never wore them for a week, we sent them home and never missed them. I have ArcTeryx light weight hiking pants and the kids have REI Mountainmaker pants.
Insulating Layer for a Family Thru-Hike
We each had a thin down puffy. We sent these home after the high peaks, immediately regretted that, and had them sent back. We were very sad for the week we didn’t have them. I have an Outdoor Research Down Sweater (old, but like this Helium one), my son has an old Marmot down jacket (bought on Poshmark), and my daughter has the down sweater layer of an LL Bean 3-in-1 jacket (also from Poshmark).
Socks for Thru-Hiking as a Family
We all had two sets of Wright Socks. My son likes crew socks, I had quarter socks, and my daughter had tab socks. They are great except that we had a few instances of gravel being stuck between the two sock layers. Regardless, I would wear them again.
We had thick Smartwool socks to wear around camp and at night.
Base Layers for a Family Thru-Hike
We each had one pair of long underwear to wear at camp and overnight. If it was warm when we arrived at camp, we just kept our hiking clothes on until we got too cool. I had Lands End long underwear bottoms and a long-sleeved Outdoor Research Echo shirt, but I wish I had something slightly thicker. The kids had LL Bean long underwear tops and bottoms.
Rain Gear for a Family Thru-Hike
We used Frogg Togg ponchos (adult sizes) for everyone. They barely lasted the trip, but for the weight and price, they were fabulous. It was wonderful to have a poncho that we didn’t sweat so much inside.
We are buying Frogg Togg breathable rain suits for the kids for a long-distance backpacking trip in Scandinavia this summer because the weather is likely to be colder than New England in July.
Windbreakers for Our Family Thru-Hike
Breathable windbreakers were super useful for cool mornings and evenings plus all the above treeline locations. I have an old GoLite windbreaker but the newer Outdoor Research Shadow Wind Hoodie ones are very similar. The kids have Marmot lined Ether windbreakers. They are a little heavier but also a little warmer and quite comfortable.
Hats for a Family Thru-Hike
We all carried sun hats and bug nets (for my son these were combined into one thing). We had a variety of types of sun hats (Best Sun Hats for Kids has good ideas), and generally something like this Sea to Summit head net. We rarely wore the bug nets but they were nice to have in swampy Maine. My daughter has a Decathlon sun hat, I wore a visor, and my son has a combo bug net/sun hat.
We all had warm hats for overnight. I have a buff that I folded up into a hat. The kids have Outdoor Research fleece hats, which aren’t made anymore, but are something like this adult OR hat. I wore my buff nearly every night but the kids rarely wore their hats.
Shoes for the Thru-Hiking Family
We had Crocs for camp and river crossings. Our original plan was to use flip flops in camp, but because Maine has many unbridged large rivers, we went with Crocs. Even though they are heavier than flip flops, I would definitely use Crocs again because you can wear them with socks. It was really nice to have camp shoes, even if not strictly necessary.
We all wore GoreTex Merrell Moab low top boots, but wish we had trail runners. The biggest issue we had was that once shoes got wet (rain, sweat, overtopped at a river), they took a really long time to dry and so our feet were constantly really damp. I have more details about this in the Keeping Dry in the Backcountry with Kids post. We upgraded to Merrell trail runners (Long Sky for adults, Agility Peak for the kids) for our upcoming 11-day backpacking trip in northern Scandinavia. Our TMM posts on Best Hiking Shoes for Kids and Keeping Dry in the Backcountry with Kids have lots of good shoe-related ideas.
Notes on Clothing, Rain, and Thru-Hiking
We really didn’t change our clothes during the week between each town stay. I had thought we might, but then didn’t want to risk getting the spare clothes wet and dirty, so we often just wore them the last day into town. I think this means we didn’t really need them.
We wore dry our clothes when it had rained. Sometimes this was the day it had rained, sometimes this meant putting wet clothes back on the next morning. See the moisture post. In cooler weather this could be an issue, but not in the middle of the summer when we were hiking.
To deal with chafing feet, we started to rinse socks out daily and then carry them in our pockets to dry them out. See moisture post for this trick. I did the same with our underwear so that it was a little cleaner and more hygienic.
The unfortunate side effect of all this reusing clothing is that my kids now don’t like to change their clothes (or underwear) every day in the front country. Ugh.
Emergency Gear for a Family Thru-Hike
We carried a small repair kit and a very blister-focused first aid kit.
Repair Kit for a Thru-Hike with a Family
This is a pretty small kit in a single sandwich zip top bag. It includes: tent pole elastic and a tent pole sleeve, a small bit of a cut up nylon stuff sack and seam grip, a gear patch or two, and a grommet. I’m quite confident that with seam grip and nylon (or gear patches), I can repair most anything.
First Aid Kit for Thru-Hiking with a Family
Our first aid kit was also small and focused nearly entirely on blisters.
- Silicon toe protectors (they can be cut for sleeves, no need to carry both). These keep toes from rubbing on each other.
- Body glide. This is for feet and anywhere else that is rubbing. I used it on my back the first few days of our big trip last summer.
- Blister prevention patches. These were new to me last summer but are GREAT for treating persistent problem spots in shoes on the shoe rather than on the foot. They can smooth out rough surfaces and add glide to the inside of shoes.
- Tincture of Benzoin. This is like liquid sticky stuff that can help moleskin and tape stick to sweaty feet better. I repackaged it into a smaller bottle and carried a q-tip to put it on with.
- Moleskin and mole foam. These are the standards for treating blisters and hotspots.
- Blister bandaids (aka hydrocolloid bandages). Maybe these are gimmicky, but maybe not. My kids swear by them.
I also carried a small amount of iodine for disinfecting wounds (but after doing WFA this spring and learning that it isn’t recommended anymore, I won’t carry that again), and aloe vera for burns. I had a hand sanitizer in the first aid kit. The post on Keeping Dry in the Backcountry with Kids has more details on our blister-focused first aid kit.
Water on a Family Thru-Hike
We each carried two 1L Platypus soft bottles to put in the outside pockets of our packs. We did not use hydration packs because it is too hard to refill on the trail during the day, so people tend to carry too much water, which instantly leads to too much weight. Many thru-hikers use SmartWater bottles because they are tall and skinny, so it is easy to get them in and out of your outside pockets on your own. Most people only carry enough water to get to the next water refill spot. It’s easy to tell where to get more water from the Far Out app, which has great long distance trail information. We often carried only 2-3 L of water between the three of us.
I carried a 4 L platypus bottle for camp use. I don’t think this was strictly necessary and I would probably not carry it again.
It’s controversial, but I treat water with bleach. It’s only 1 drop per liter and it works really well in cold water and bleach is really cheap. The water is ready in 20 minutes and doesn’t have a flavor. Even if you carry a filter, it is worth carrying iodine or bleach for a back up if something happens to the filter.
Hiking Poles for a Family Thru-Hike
I carried hiking poles but the kids always wanted them for boggy areas, steep uphills, and steep downhills. I rarely got to use the things except on smooth, flat terrain. Eventually we got one for Colby from a hiker box.
Toiletries on Your Family Thru-Hike
We didn’t carry much in the way of toiletries and kept what we did have in a quart-sized SmellyProof bag that we put in the UrSack at night. We had toothbrushes, small toothpaste, dental floss (the single use stick things for the kids, regular for me), my menstrual disc, ear plugs (several disposable sets, but I recently upgraded to Loop Quiet and LOVE THEM), hand sanitizer and eye masks for my son and me.
I also carried sunglasses for myself (kids won’t wear them), bug repellant, and sunscreen. I treated our clothes with permethrin before we left as well. Check out our TMM post on Hiking on Your Period Hacks for more period-related hygiene ideas.
Toilet Supplies for a Family Thru-Hike
I kept all this stuff in a gallon size zip top bag on the outside of my son’s pack. It included toilet paper in a quart sized bag, hand sanitizer (yes, a third container, and yes they were all really small), an ultralight trowel, a SmellyProof quart sized bag lined with a grocery store vegetable bag for used toilet paper when we were not at a privy, a Kula brand portable bidet with a 500 mL disposable water bottle.
My daughter and I both carried Kula cloths on our packs. My daughter struggles with the snap on them, so she has hers on a really small carabiner.
Entertainment on Your Family Thru-Hike
We carried smartphones for everyone. The kids don’t have sim cards on their phones, but they like to read, and these are more durable (and lighter) than kindles. They each had an audiobook and a kindle book on their phones. They were allowed 1 mile of audiobook time a day, unless it was pouring, in which case I let them listen from lunch until the end of the day.
Everyone had wired headphones.
My phone had FarOut on it, so it was crucial for route information.
We had two big-ish backup batteries. Just the smaller of the two would have been sufficient, but I had a few work things I had to attend to the first few weeks, so we carried more battery back up than we really needed.
Charger box for when we were in towns.
Cable for each phone and the batteries.
Deck of cards. We rarely played, but I don’t think I would sacrifice this because it was nice to have and the ability to do so many different games is key with kids. I will carry these waterproof ones in the future.
Small blank journals and ~3 colored pencils. I used one for a journal and the kids were meant to draw in the others. They rarely did. I took dictation on my phone for their journal entries (and made them each a photobook on Shutterfly with their own journal entries and photos from the trip). In the future I think I won’t bother with the artsy stuff unless my daughter wants to carry something to draw or paint herself. We just didn’t use them enough and I am happy to write journal entries on my phone for myself.
Packs for Our Family Thru-Hike
The kids have Osprey Ace 38 L packs with covers. I lined them with trash compactor bags, which double as an emergency blanket.
I have an Osprey Kyte (48 L) pack with a cover. I lined it with a big outdoor garbage bag. This is less durable, so I had one included in my half-way resupply box. I carried a spare to use as a second part of an emergency shelter/blanket.
You might see that these are small compared to what people recommend based on the trip length. I think of this two ways.
- We resupplied twice a week, so it’s really a series of long weekend backpacking trips in terms of gear.
- If I have more space, I will carry more stuff, so I want less space.
Distributing Gear and Pack Weights for a Family Thru-Hike
Remember that kids really can’t carry more than 10-15% of their bodyweight.
Everyone carried their own sunhat, windbreaker, poncho, phone, and headphones. When we had water to carry, that got spread around.
In addition, my daughter, Lua, carried sleeping bags, sleeping pads, and pillows. She refused to carry my sleeping pad after the first day because it is a little heavy. She had about 10 lb of gear.
Colby carried kid clothes and the soft parts of the tent. He had about 15 lb of gear.
I carried everything else. My pack was never more than ~35 lb, and that was with 16 person-days of food before I gave food to my husband when he met up with us later that morning.
By resupplying twice a week and carrying minimal water, we were able to keep pack weights down.
The TMM post on Solo Backpacking with Kids has lots of great ideas on distributing gear weight.
Thru-Hiking Gear for a Family
Although it sounds daunting, it’s not too hard to pull together the gear for a family thru-hike. If you do much hiking already, you probably already have a lot of what you need. The key thing is to strategically lower weight where you can and to focus on high impact weight reductions (like sleep system rather than buying a titanium spork to eat with). This can be a fun adventure for all!
Related articles
- Family Backpacking: The Gear You Need
- Backpacking for Beginners
- Journey to the Appalachian Trail With Kids
- Keeping Dry in the Backcountry with Kids
- Solo Backpacking with Kids
Gear for a Family Thru-Hike
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