Hiking with Kids

On the other hand, accessing the tent from the middle, or on the long side, gives one more degree of freedom. Assuming a symmetrical tent, like the Ozark Trail, my head could be placed at either end and both options would feel equally comfortable. In fact, my particular tent spot wasn’t completely flat so I quickly rotated my sleeping bag so that my feet weren’t above my head all night. It was pretty easy to make adjustments from the side door access.

After Middle Fork, head into the 29-mile Karkaghne section, which mixes sweeping wetland prairies and ridge-lined valley views through the Sutton Bluff Recreation Area. Keep an eye out for a short spur trail between Sutton Bluff campground and Highway TT which leads to Grasshopper Hollow, the largest fen (peat-forming wetland) in non-glaciated North America. Before you leave home be sure to let a friend or family member know where you’re going and what you’ll be doing. Indicate how many days you will be gone and approximately where you plan to stay each night.

For day hikes this is just as good as (and lighter than) my Osprey Daylite that retails for almost four times more. The first good design feature is the placement of the door on the side, and more specifically on the long side of the tent. I’ve tried tents with the door on one end and it is cumbersome. For the end-door variants, one has to toss their sleeping bag down the tent when getting ready for bed. Other items that you may want to keep at the foot of the sleeping area are also hard to access or reach if your head is near the door. For these styles, it seems most people want their head at the door side and so they have a constraint for which way the tent is set up if the ground is not flat.

Rounding out the exterior is a lid that features 4 cup holders and inch notches for measuring your catch of the day. Our sister site Alloutdoor.com recently reviewed a hiking backpack sold by Ozark Trail that ozark trail chair had an overall stellar performance and it triggered a question among our staff. Is Walmart’s Ozark Trail brand a true sleeper, putting out products that deserve much more attention among outdoorsmen?

ozark trail backpack

If you need a large pack, or are heading on a days-long adventure, this pack won’t work for you. This is the Russian Doll of the bag world, the bag going inside of the bigger bag. It also comes with a removable, drawstring style daypack. However, I have found that bag to be rather small, and instead, keep a collapsible daypack in the bottom of my pack instead.

Most parents and grandparents dream about sharing their passions with their kids. But what happens when your passion includes schlepping 30 pounds or more of gear through the tick-infested woods and sleeping on the ground for days on end? Like the Ozark Trail 45 Qt Rolling Thermocooler, the Pelican 45QW Elite Wheeled Cooler includes a lid with inch notches and also includes centimeters for those outside of the United States.

Fit and finish were pretty good — no loose seams or stitching. Stitches appeared evenly spaced and of uniform distance from the fabric edges. There is a lack of reinforcement on the pack’s taffeta bottom, though. Shoulder straps are lightweight ozark trail canopy mesh-lined with very little padding. I priced other internal frame daypacks before my trip and this was by far the cheapest. I took this pack on a 5-day mountain bike ride from Pittsburgh, Pa., to Washington, D.C., and it performed very well.

With that question being floated, we decided to travel down the path of discovery and start to take a closer look at Ozark Trail and some of their products. We just completed a review of the Ozark Trail Tumbler line, which is not only budget friendly but also well performing. Ultimately, the good design for this product was that it was sized right for what I needed, both in dimensions and weight. Not too small, but not too large (and thus wasteful) – a Goldilocks design. After all, I had to be sensitive to weight as we were required to carry our own water for 10 miles as there were no options for filtering during that stretch. In the following paragraphs I share just a few design features that, in my opinion, make this a well-designed product.

They were more camera bags and short-day sling bags designed to be warned for light duty walking or short hikes where all I need is water and place to store my wallet, phone, and trail snacks. It’s hard to guess which kids will take to hiking like a fish to water and which ones will beg off. My kids were toddlers the first time we went backpacking on a short, level trail where I carried everything and I knew they could do the hike with no problem. My four-year-old wanted to know when we could go again but my three-year-old was uninterested in another trip.

Similar to the Ozark Trail cooler, the Pelican features orange wheel rims and also has orange clasp accents. You can get this cooler in three colors, Tan which is featured here, as well as graphite and white. The other two colors will have different rims and accents, so if you don’t love the orange you have options. Pelican is a newer entry in to the world of rotomolded coolers and have taken their own spin on design and function.