| Emma Swartz atop her throne on a family bike tour BIKE TOURING WITH TODDLERS
Your life as touring cyclists doesn't have to end when you start a family. In fact, taking the kids along can enhance the experience
By Andy Swartz
Bicycle touring with kids is a great way to enjoy outdoor adventures together. Too many new parents give up the activities they love. This article
might motivate you to take that bike trip you've been dreaming of, and it might just be better with the little ones along than it would have been without!
Maybe you think touring with any child is simply dangerous and irresponsible – I won't attempt to rebut your concerns. For those who decide the benefits outweigh any risks, I do hope this article is helpful in outlining how to have a safe, enjoyable bicycle tour with little ones.
Grandparents will worry but even staying home is risky. So is vacationing by car. Instilling an early love of bicycling and the outdoors in children can provide a lifetime of rewards.
The "Make it Fun" Approach
Pre–tour rides provide essential training and conditioning. For you it is training; for the kids, it's conditioning. Each child's unique personality
makes some kids more easy going and adaptable about bike trips. Some infants or toddlers might never make good cycle tourists, but starting them young can make a huge difference. Our kids started riding as infants in their car seat strapped into a Burley D'Lite trailer. We took many sub–two–hour rides, with plenty of snacks and books or a toy. Many of our evening and weekend rides at home include a playground or ice–cream
stop. Kids will learn to associate bike rides with adventure and fun. They recognize and appreciate quality family time. When they are older, they might beg you to tour!
Travel time is nap time, so plan to ride when the child is napping. Our daughter took two naps a day until she was two, and our son and daughter, ages 2 and 4 now, share the same nap schedule to this day.
Our trip routine goes like this: Rise and shine, breakfast snack while
breaking camp, short ride (maybe one hour) to a restaurant for a large breakfast/brunch, playground or beach, lunch, afternoon ride (two–plus hours, kids napping), make camp and snack, play time, dinner, play time, bed time. This matches the kids' at–home routine, except breakfast and mid–morning snack are switched. It yields about four hours of riding. Pick a route with plenty of beaches and parks, and stop at schools or church playgrounds as needed.
Route Planning – Don't Just Wing It
Good route planning takes time and diligence. We choose rural, low–traffic routes dotted with small towns to ensure plenty of services and lodging options along the way. The upper Midwest is chock full of family–friendly
rail trails with plenty of amenities. These trails are a great, safe choice for a tour.
Adults on self–supported tours have a tendency to wing it sometimes. On a prekid tour in the mountains of Norway, my wife, Kristin, and I arrived in towns only a few minutes after the grocery stores closed at 4:30 p.m. two days in a row. Forced to shop at a petrol station store, we selected "fish balls" for dinner once, then fried them over our camp stove. Kristin ate
only one bite and dubbed them the Norwegian equivalent of Spam. Know where on the route the grocery stores and campgrounds are located, and when they close. My kids wouldn't eat fish balls, either.
Oregon state parks have unreservable hiker/biker campsites that never fill up and are more private and pleasant than the standard sites. Michigan state parks never turn away a cyclist arriving after dark. We seek these advantages because we aren't guaranteed daily distances with little ones
along.
On one week–long trip, riding single bikes with panniers with our 16–month–old daughter in the trailer, we averaged 43 miles per day. Last summer we pulled our son (11 months then) and daughter (3 years) behind our tandem for four days and averaged 33 miles per day. These are lower averages than from our pre–kid tours, but we saw plenty of scenery and attractions. We love living outdoors around the clock while on tour, so
how far we go doesn't really matter. The kids certainly won't want to brag about 100–mile days at daycare.
Know how to repair you bikes. A mechanical failure, that might be a mere inconvenience for adults, could be big problem when kids are along. What if you never make it to a water source or campsite because you're stuck on a mosquito–infested roadside trying to hitch a ride to the nearest bike shop before it closes?
Sleep – Who Needs It?
The thought of riding all day, then not sleeping well at night, is enough to give anyone second thoughts. Since our daughter had camped very little before her first tour as a 16–month–old, we put the tent up in our yard several times. She and her pals had a blast playing in it. We'll never forget
the first night of our Oregon tour. We were invited to camp on a lush lawn and offered hot showers at a flower farm. After setting up camp, eating and showering, mom and dad were ready to sleep. Little Emma had a relaxing day riding a train and then in the trailer. She hadn't slept in a tent since infancy, but had played in one often. She bounced off the tent walls for an hour before passing out! Having learned our lesson, our son napped
in a tent in his room for several days before his first tour as an 11–month–old.
If your infant or toddler sleeps alone at home, consider taking some naps together in your bed. This can help condition everyone to sleeping together in the confines of a tent. Our kids tent on a Thermarest pad, an airline–sized pillow, a child's sleeping bag, and their own personal blanket or comfort item. The small pillow is useful for on–the–go naps in the trailer.
Try a tour without camping first. Maybe a "credit card tour" is the ideal start for little ones. Get the fun of touring and traveling, without the extra workload of camping. We considered this for a trip along the Michigan coastline, but decided against. Our goal was to experience the beaches and get as much fresh air as possible. We knew we could not afford waterfront accommodations anyhow. Be willing to duck into a motel when a storm is expected, when the camping equipment is wet, or when
everyone needs a real bath.
Safety First
Taking CPR and first aid classes is wise. If you choose remote, low–traffic roads, you need to be more self–reliant. A mobile phone is a good idea and could even be a lifesaver when the kids are along. Create an
emergency plan. Know where the nearest hospital is. Have contingency or bail–out plans at all points on your route. Can friends or family come pick you or the kid up if there is a problem? Are you willing to ship the bikes home and stay in one place or rent a car if things don't work out?
Be as visible as possible. Use a flag. Flags allow passing vehicles to see you sooner when overtaking you in hilly terrain. Use plenty of reflectors,
bright clothing, and flashing taillights. We keep our fluorescent orange, water–resistant pannier covers on at all times to increase visibility.
When you go will also affect your child's health and safety. Choose a time of year or location where temperatures are moderate. Daytime highs in the 60's or 70's and lows in the 40's or 50's are ideal. The 80's and 90's can present real comfort and safety problems for the tykes. A hot kid is a
cranky kid. Kids don't regulate their fluid intake like an adult can so parents should be vigilant against dehydration in hot or humid weather.
We typically choose early June, before school is out and summer tourism traffic swells. The weather is usually comfortable for kids and adults. We find September is also nice in the Midwest.
Packing & Equipment – Necessary Evils
The experienced tourist knows packing well is essential to an enjoyable tour. Achieving the balance between too much and too little is more important with kids along. A crying kid will motivate you to quickly grab a needed item, so the challenge is to always know where the item is and access it quickly. Find ways to save time and minimize the gear and equipment needed.
After duct tape, the single most critical piece of equipment you can bring along is a folding plastic booster seat with tray and tie–down straps. Setting up camp or cooking a meal is actually possible if the toddler is munching on a snack and strapped into a booster seat. We strap the seat to the middle plank on a picnic table. From here, the toddler can see the activity and is easily watched by the adults. These boosters cost under $20 and weigh about two pounds.
As with any tour, each item you pack should have a purpose. Forgetting certain items, like diapers, is more critical than other items, of course. We used a long list of gear for a recent four–day tour up the Michigan coast from Ludington to Traverse City. Fortunately, kids' clothes don't take much space because you need a lot of changes of clothes!
Diapers? Just use disposable. Sunscreen, hats, sunglasses are critical.
Veteran cycling friends showed this trick to us: Use safety pins and a piece of cloth to create an adjustable sun screen when pinned to the screen front of trailer. Flip it up and pin it down when not needed. Use it when going into direct sun or during naps. Don't make your infant or toddler squint or endure direct sun.
Some of the most fun toys are quite light. Colored chalk, beach balls, small books, inflatable arm swim floats, small squirt guns, balloons and bubbles
are universal favorites. It's easy to stop at a thrift store or garage sale to improve toy variety along the route.
Breast–feeding infants on tour is easier than dealing with bottles. If your child requires a hot bottle, gradually get him used to a warm one before the tour. Cold bottles are even fewer hassles. The bottle temperature issue alone may dictate where and how you have meals and sleep. We don't take a camp stove but you might need one to warm milk. We use a
soft–side cooler to keep milk and other perishables in; ice is easy to obtain, as needed.
How to carry an infant or toddler? Trailers are preferred over an attached child carrier. They provide more space and comfort for kids – with quick access to snacks and toys and protection from weather. They hold more gear, too. We have successfully taken our Burley trailer on airlines as a standard piece of luggage. To do this, remove any reflectors or flaashers
that could be damaged in transit. Then, simply remove the wheels, place them in the trailer, fold it up, and zip–tie it closed with the largest, strongest ties you can find. Of course you'll need a sharp blade to cut them off at your destination.
Pulling the trailer behind a tandem works well; you have two "engines" for one freight car. It's also easy and safe for the stoker to make voice and eye contact with the kids while moving. We feel a greater sense of family
unity on one vehicle. Singing silly songs works better, too!
When touring, we are a curiosity. Other bicycle tourists want to photograph that nutty family on wheels. Touring with little ones can inspire and delight those you meet along the way. Many tourists have stopped at a farm to ask for a water and been treated to some homemade pie or a good dose of local lore and knowledge. Try that with kids sometime. On one
occasion, we were treated to a nice place to pitch the tent, hot showers, and show–and–tell with all the farm animals. Kids are the universal ice breaker.
Kids may just be the ideal cycle tourists. Can it be that different from the human or horse–powered journeys our ancestors took? The Inuit birth children on dog sleds while on hunting trips over the ice pack. If you embrace the bicycle touring mindset and love parenting, touring together
will create some of your fondest family memories. It will also challenge and improve your parenting skills. It has for us. Oh, and pulling that trailer just might make you a stronger rider, too.
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