Into the Backcountry

By Chyrle Bonk

Not on my new sleeping bag!” I exclaimed, as my husband Scott helped to change our son’s diaper in our tent in Dworshak State Park in the middle of the night.

Anyone who has changed a baby boy’s diaper knows his propensity to arc liquid as soon as the dirty diaper is removed.

“Don’t worry, it’s synthetic down,” Scott replied. “It’ll dry fast.”

Easy for him to say. This was the first night of many we would spend in a tent with our infant son, and we were taking a crash course on the challenges of backpacking with children.

When Scott and I first got together, our love for hiking and backpacking was a common thread that took us all over northern Idaho. Most weekends in the summer and fall, we could be found on a trail somewhere in the backcountry. It was easy to plan a trip in fifteen minutes, quickly pack, and then be camping at the trailhead later that evening.