Overview

My wife and I had taken our toddler car camping several times, but were eager to try out an overnight backpacking trip. Opted to head out to Cooper Canyon Trail Camp for a low-consequence low-distance test run.

Toddler is mostly potty trained which helped a lot.

TL;DR - You have to carry a 2.5 year old (and their stuff) about 90% of the time.

Logistics

Left the house after nap time and parked our car at Cloudburst Summit along the Angeles Crest Highway in the late afternoon.

Conditions

Hot and dry. Highs in the upper 80s, lows in the upper 50s.

The Trip

To get to camp, you can take a wide, nicely-graded fire road, or walk along the PCT/SMT. We were optimistic that toddler would do a bit of hiking, so we went with the easier road. After a solid .15 miles however, toddler declared "too much walking" and we strapped them up onto the carrier.

Lesson #1 - You will carry the toddler more than you think

The following 1.25 miles to camp were thus quick and uneventful.

Cooper Canyon was not badly impacted by the 2020 Bobcat Fire. The sites are all still beautifully shaded with flat areas to set up shelters. There are bear boxes and fire rings (check current fire restrictions before using). The stream was flowing really nicely even so late in the summer. There is even a pit toilet. Quite a luxurious back country trail camp.

We quickly set up the shelters in the fading light, had dinner, enjoyed a small campfire, then got some mediocre sleep.

Lesson #2 - Need to put a softer/flat foam pad on top of the eggshell sleeping pad for toddler.

Lesson #3 - Need to put toddler in a sleeping bag to help prevent rolling around/off the pad while sleeping.

We woke up with the sun and had a quick breakfast. Strapped the toddler on mom and some snacks/water on dad and hiked over to check out Cooper Canyon Falls. I hadn't been since 2018 or so, during some of CA's worst drought. But after the past several years of really wet winters, the waterfall was truly impressive.

We didn't want to scramble down to play in the pool, which requires a loose and steep descent aided by ropes, so we enjoyed the views from up top for a bit leaving. We stopped to play in some of the larger pools at the main creek crossing on the way back to camp.

Once we got to camp, we had second breakfast, and then packed up quickly. We knew it was just going to get hotter and the entire way out was uphill. This time, we put both packs on dad (front and back) because toddler would ultimately be napping on the hike back up.

It was sunny and exposed and we rested in the shade a few times on the way up.

We knew this trip would be a learning experience for us as we had to figure out how to backpack with the new family dynamic. Overall, it was a great success. We learned a few key things, and the kiddo had a great time (as did we).