Backpacking Adventure

A couple of years ago, when Noah was just a wee 8 months, we took him backpacking at Havasupai. I, Karl, had been wanting to take him again, so on Memorial Day weekend I decided to take the extra time off to go with him up Rock Canyon. In our preparations, we soon realized that Noah was a bit too big to carry in my backpack...

So we decided to have Noah hike and that we would split the load fair and square. Although my fair and square load was 98% of the weight, Noah carried the most critical gear of all - two trucks, and a piece of PVC pipe that is his hammer. Actually, he also carried our water filter.

Noah wasn't so sure about backpacking once we got to the trailhead, but he soon got into the groove.


We hiked up close to Red Slab, checked out the mini cave, went up by the climbers, and then continued on up the canyon. We set up camp across the stream a little ways beyond the green gate, played cards, and drank some hot chocolate.


Right as we finished up our hot chocolate, a heavy cloud started dumping rain on us, so we went into the tent and slept well.


I wasn't too excited about camping anymore in the morning and was about to start crying for Mama and going home, but Noah convinced me to go up farther in the canyon so we could at least check out some of the best stuff in Rock Canyon - a big boulder, bridges, rocks to throw in the stream, etc.

We threw rocks in the stream for most of the morning.

Then I carved a knife and a screwdriver out of a branch, and Noah made an excellent grin.


We checked out some more climbing sites before packing up.

Noah picked the pace, and he picked most of the side routes we explored. Of course, Noah went easy on the pace for me. So I could keep up. He paused every 15 seconds to check out beetles, snails, bristletails, cool rocks, sticks, and anything else we came across, so I'd have a chance to rest. Nice of him.

Noah fit best in this picture on my shoulders, but he really did walk everywhere we went.


Next time, maybe Max can come.