Noah Loves Hiking
Noah has been in the backpack since he was able to keep his head up. He has never objected being placed in his Osprey carrier. His sun shirt from Patagonia is also a key element to beating the sunburn with his fair skin. He lives in it during the summer. He doesn’t mind the hood and even uses it as a sleep eye mask. He has spent more hours in that pack than I can count. We did a seven day horse packing trip through the Bob Marshall Wilderness and he rode the whole trip in that carrier. It movement of hiking and the backpack are kryptonite to him, putting him to seep 9/10 times. He literally can not help himself. I’ve tried to make him “nature mobiles” with pine cones and sticks to hang on the carrier. He hurls them off as fast as I can put them on and laughs in my face. If he wants you to move faster or shake him up and down, he will bounce up and down in the carrier. I used to get wrapped around the axel about not being able to talk with Noah. We talk, we just don’t use words. We recently went hiking near the Sun River. Since I have Lou now, someone else has to help carry Noah. We have a group of girls that babysit Noah and Lou. One in particular, Ansley, loves Noah to the ends of the earth. Her nickname for him is “Jones.” She was HIS babysitter before Lou came on the scene. Ansley watched Noah one day a week for the first year of his life. She’s 14 and a total stud. She is constantly working on her six-pack, trying to level up in Kung Fu, and getting ripped. She always offers to carry Noah when we go hiking together. She claims its to “get ripped” but I secretly feel like she just loves having Noah close to her. I’ll be curious as time goes on what Noah will think about hiking when he actually has to walk. I don’t think he will enjoy it quite as much, but I’m always down to be proven wrong. Or it will take us 3 hours to go 0.5 miles. Either way, I’m here for it. I’m going to miss seeing him sacked out in the carrier or smiling from ear to ear with joy or blowing raspberries throughout his journey. The Osprey carrier has been out most used piece of outdoor gear. It made it possible for me to feel like I could still go, do. I have taken Noah on countless hikes through all sorts of terrain. I will be bummed when he doesn’t fit in it anymore. I can only hope that we have instilled a love for getting intimate with nature in him. I hope that he will be driven to explore and remain curious about what he could see with his legs taking him there.
