Conner on a smaller hike.
I woke him up from his slumber. Once he was coherent I tried to tell him in Chinese where we were going. I didn't know the word for hike, so I told him we were going for a walk. We got ready and set out, driving about five minutes from our home to the base of a precipice I've been wanting to climb. We set off into the wilderness. There was no trail, thick grass, lots of large rocks, and a highly sloped surface for much of it. I was very impressed with Conner. He held on to my backpack and kept up very well. He only stumbled a couple of times, no more than someone with sight might have.
It was a great bonding experience. We talked quite a bit. He kept saying how tall this hill was and how many big rocks there were. At one point he asked me if I had ever been here before. When I said, "no," he was clearly shocked. He said something that I'm sure translated roughly into, "What kind of crazy family have I been adopted into?!?"
We kept at it and made it to the top. This is a picture of our destination taken from the front porch of our home. Together we climbed up to the saddle on the left. Conner waited there while I climbed up to the peak between the two saddles.
Overall I think he enjoyed it. I told him how beautiful the views were. We stopped often to listen to different sounds, to feel the wind and smell the smells and to enjoy the silence. I asked him several times if he liked it and he said yes. On the other hand, I asked him several times if he wanted to do it again and he said, "No, no, no, no, no!!!" He's such a sweet kid.
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| View from the top |
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| I took this from the top of the peak, looking down into the saddle where Conner waited. Just to the right of the center you can see a small black dot. That's him:) |
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| A little shout out to Tiff:) |
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| We made it!!! |
Later that day when Grace and Cali came home, Conner told them all about it. Graci started cracking up and I asked her way. Barely able to contain her guffaws, she got this out. "You asked him…(giggle)…if he wanted…(more giggles)…to go on a short little walk…(uncontrollable giggles)…then you took him…(doubles over in laughter)…way up this huge hill! (Can't stop cracking up.)
It was about 3 miles round trip with a 1000 foot elevation gain. I guess they had a point:)
-Jer
