This is not a pretty picture of me, but it's one that I'm proud of.
I've never been a boy scout or girl scout, but climbing up a mountain (hill? whatever Tablerock is...) with a child on my back earns me some kind of Single Mom Merit Badge.
Right?
I wish I would have written this blog a week and a half ago, when all of this was fresh in my mind. I'd composed most of this in my head while I was hiking. It was pretty good, too.
I hiked up Tablerock with a BIG group of single people from my church. My son wasn't the only kid there, but I'm fairly sure that at age 2 he was the youngest. I knew he'd want to try to walk the whole way, but brought a backpack for him to ride in, just in case.
It wasn't easy. I carried him on my back for most of the hike. It would have been more painful, but faster, to carry him the whole way. He liked walking...a little too much. And often he'd get distracted and want to take off to the side of the trail.
The last part of the Tablerock hike has these terrible switchbacks. I like to think that I'm in shape because I take the stairs up to the 3rd floor every day at work and sometimes I'll do a little yoga before bed. Yeah, I'm not. At least not in shape enough to hike uphill carrying 30 extra pounds without sweating like a PIG.
By that time I just wanted the hike to be over. OVER. I could see that almost everyone I came with was already up to the top. They'd been there a while. Part of me really wanted someone to look over the edge, see me struggling, and offer to help. Part of me didn't want that because I wanted to get to the top and say LOOK WHAT I DID ALL BY MYSELF.
I finally got to the top...turning the corner JUST as they were taking a big group picture. I know it's silly, but I felt so left out and forgotten. Embarrassed that I'd taken so long and there would be no photographic evidence that I was there with everyone else.
Fortunately, after climbing a mountain with a kid on your back, no one assumes that your bright red face is from shame and embarrassment.
Oh, and the toddler who couldn't keep up with me on the hike up? Ran the whole way down and my exhausted adult body couldn't keep up with him!
