The bottom line is that hiking is great for families, and the more you get young kids on the trail, the better. Before you know it, they’ll be ready to shoulder a load on an overnight trek. Get started planning your trip by exploring our trail offerings or using our Trip Planner tool. I bought this pack recently on a whim while shopping Walmart. I needed a day pack and didn’t really have lots of time to search at REI for the various styles provided having only gone to one store. This daypack ended up being the cheapest after a quick perusal.
As always, make sure to bring the “Ten Essentials”, extra food and water, sunscreen etc. Be aware, this is a daypack, intended for lighter loads and shorter distances. It isn’t built to be on your back 8 hours a day, and it won’t support 25 pounds.
Sometimes it’s a single trail or we combine multiple trails at a state park. During these longer hikes I found it useful to have a large hiking bag and not just a school backpack. Generally, you get what you pay for when you purchase cheap hiking gear. But I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of the Ozark Trail 45 Liter Backpacking Backpack.
I’ll be totally honest, I was not expecting this cooler to be as nice as it was. It’s easy to get caught up in brand perception and often times very difficult to break away from what you think you know about a brand. I used the word “think” intentionally, because what I thought I knew about Ozark Trail was ozark trail backpack not correct. Ozark Trail is proving to be a really solid competitor for outdoor products. This cooler has a number of features that you would find on more expensive coolers and a few that you won’t find. I spend a great deal of time on the water every summer boating and fishing in Northern Michigan.
Having a separate rain fly for a 2- or 3- person tent makes sense because multiple people can split up the weight a little easier on longer hikes. With a 1-person tent, that doesn’t really make as much sense. After all, I was carrying the whole thing and so it might as well be connected. Essentially, the rain fly for the Ozark Trail was integrated into the tent directly.
It also includes loops to hang your trekking poles when not in use. On the outside you will find two side pockets and rigging that can be used to tighten the bag, hold extra gear, and an option to hold trekking poles. The pockets ozark trail canopy work great for holding 32 oz Nalgene bottles or 40 oz insulated water bottles. I suggest have equal weight on both sides or switch the weight around. I normally don’t need it, but it does a good job at tightening up the bag up.
The Tundra Haul features rubber clasps, which I really like, and hard plastic wheels. Yeti has clearly set themselves apart as the biggest player in the cooler space. Since they launched, they have carved out an incredible market share delivering products across the board from coolers to dog bowls. In the following paragraphs I share just a few design features that, in my opinion, make this a well-designed product. The Ozark Trail 1-Person Backpacking Tent is on the cheaper end of the spectrum.
In the colder seasons insulating layers are a must, and a good rain shell for you and rain fly for your tent are necessary year-round. Of course it has no side water holsters, or lid pocket, or hipbelt strap, but I think that all contributes to its low weight. For the water bottles I just use Platypus .5 liter and 1 liter flat style bottles, which you can fit in the main body of the pack on top of your other gear. Today I immediately loaded it up and went out for a few hours. For water and OJ I use Vapur anti bottles which aren’t bulky at all. My glucose meter and keys went in the small outside pocket.
If you need a large pack, or are heading on a days-long adventure, this pack won’t work for you. My favorite way to keep kids happy on hikes is to invite their friends. It’s amazing how much complaining happens on a hike with only one family. But if you add another family with at least one kid in roughly the same age range, like magic the hike seems to get shorter and the climbs easier for everyone involved.
Camp at Highway DD trailhead near the section’s start or Harper Spring around the 15 mile-mark. 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? I’ve carried it in bad weather, including rain and snow. Some days this bag was heavier than I would have chosen it to be. However, it took a pretty good beating and has held up.