What To Pack On A Day Hike
Packing for a day hike is thinking of the basics needed for life. Food, shelter and clothing are the traditional basics for life.
When packing for a day hike, think of these basics but switch out shelter or add safety.
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Why Pack The Basics?
Because if you get lost or hurt or the weather changes then you may find yourself needing the basics of life to survive.
Food, Safety &/or Shelter and Clothing are the main elements to think about when packing for a day hike.
Food
A day hike must consist of three essential parts of food: water, snack and meal(s).
We have learned to have our children carry their own water. We like these hip packs or these backpacks. We used to think we had to carry all the water for the family but water is heavy. One quart of water weighs around 2 pounds. Yikes!
Snacks are all shapes and sizes. We like snacks that are easily pack-able meaning they can be squeezed and smashed into small spaces without hurting the food. Lara bars and a nut mix are great to take.
Meal(s) are similar to snacks they must be pack-able! Although on a personal note I grew a loved for the smashed sandwich from being the youngest in the family and getting the last sandwich! We to take sandwiches or beef log with cheese.
Food needs to be high in fat! Hiking burns a lot of calories so to through in a bag of chips doesn’t work. 1st the chips will be smashed in your bag second you’ll eat the chips and keep on being hungry.
The amounts of water, snacks and meals for a day hike depends on a lot of variables: weather, hike length, danger?, etc.
Safety And/Or Shelter
What to throw in your pack for safety? Hopefully you’ve created a small first aid kit that is small and pack-able.
Along with the kit you may need: sunscreen, bug/tick protection, whistle, sunglasses, bandana(s), compass, map, hiking pole(s), knife, fire starter (if possibility of getting lost), thermal blanket (fits in hand) and a hat. These are the best children's and adult hats for hiking and outdoors!
Honestly on some hikes we’ve taken small pack-able umbrellas. These items are necessary in some hikes but not all.
Clothing
The only extra clothing we generally take on a hike is a sweatshirt or jacket and/or rain jacket.
Obviously it is best to combine these by bringing a jacket that is rain proof so you don’t bring two jackets.
Other than a sweatshirt or jacket we usually don’t take extra clothing.
For our family we will as well throw in some small identification books or pamphlets (such as these or these depending on where you are headed) and an Ergo (child carrier) sometimes two as the hike can get long sometimes for our little ones. We have tried others and love our Ergo the most. It is small, packable and can still carry our 5 year old. We find this much better than the big child backpack carriers they sell. The weight of the child is close to your body and is much more steady on a hike than most of the child carriers that could make it easy to become off balance because the child sits so high on your back.
Review:
Every Day Hike should include a Pack with: Food, Safety gear, and Clothing.
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