It's slowly getting cold outside. Soon the snow will cover the trails and tracks in Desolation Wilderness and my car will no longer be able to make it to any of the trailheads. Carissa asked me today if we could go hiking one more time before it got too cold. "Really? Uh...yes. We can. We can go two more times if you want."
I hate to think about being stuck indoors for the winter. Truth is, if I were a real backpacker I could hike and camp in the snow. I guess I am a fake backpacker because there is no freakin way I am setting up camp in three plus feet of snow. I like reading about how to survive in the middle of nowhere during a snow storm, while I sit on my couch eating chips and salsa. I guess we had better hurry if we are going to avoid being a rescue story on the news.
The reality, however, is that there really isn't any way I am going to be able to sneak one last trip in this year. With work and school my calendar stays pretty full through the holidays. It's OK though. This season was a good one. I hiked in Yosemite for the first time. I hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. I went backpacking several times in Desolation Wilderness. I climbed Horsetail Falls with some students from church. No complaints about the amount of time I was able to be outside.
Oh, but it gets better.
The baby is due in May and I am hoping that by the end of the summer I will be able to convince Carissa to let me take him/her on a few short day trips. I can't wait to take my baby outside into the real world for the first time. While Carissa and I make plans to buy cribs and diapers and strollers, all I am really thinking about is one of those baby carriers that holds the baby on my chest so I can see it and talk to it as I walk. Is three months too early? I guess I have some research to do.
There are so many places I want to take the baby. Yosemite. Tahoe. Even the Appy Trail. How beautiful will it be to see the wide eyes of a little one as they take in the colors of the trees and the grass and the flowers for the first time? How amazing will it be to share those moments outside when God is so close that all you can do to respond is close your eyes and breathe in the clean air through your nose? I can't wait to see these things through the eyes of a child. My child.
