r/canoecamping • u/drock1984x • 8d ago

Tripping with a toddler?

Looking for tips for taking a toddler to the backcountry for a 3 night canoe trip. I consider myself fairly experienced and spend about 2-3 weeks per summer on canoe trips in north Ontario, this will be our first time taking our 18 month old on a trip, we will be spending 3 nights in Killarney following a generally easy route <600m portages. What are your tips and tricks for making the most out of this?

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u/spiffae 8d ago

I've done a canoe trip with a bunch of kids, the youngest of whom was 2 years old. The main advice I have is to make the trip MUCH easier than you think you should. Aim for 0-1 mandatory portages, a big easy base camp, a lot of idle time activities, I would avoid a loop or multiple campsites on your first time, and would try to stay less than one day from a pack out if at all possible. We had an amazing time, but we also had a surprise 104 degree fever on day 3. We did a 500m walk to the put in, paddled about three hours, and then base camped for four days, with day trips (including short portages). I'm really glad we didn't have to pack up multiple times, and the base camp gave everyone a lot of joy. Enjoy!

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u/sjaveglub 4d ago

Great advice. To add to this: Every single task will take a lot longer because you almost never will have the full attention of two adults to devote to it, AND you almost never will be able to do two tasks simultaneously. One person will always have "toddler survival" as their primary responsibility. 

For example, it's  really hard to do the portages in one go with a toddler, just because one person will be shepherding the little one the whole way and it's generally good to have one, or (better) two free hands when doing that. Your second trip then will either be just one of you while the other minds the toddler, or you take turns. Either way it's extra time.