gbeane wrote:I have a 1.5 year old son (born exactly 18 months ago today, boy that has flown by). We've been taking him out hiking and snowshoeing since he was about a month old. He loves it, and I hope he still does once he is older (and daddy isn't carrying him any more). He also seems to like spending time at the family camp (gas lights, no running water). I've just started taking up rock climbing (this winter, so all my time has been in a gym so far), and hopefully that will be something we can do together when he is older.
There was this one traumatizing hiking incident, but he forgave me pretty quickly - I was hiking with him in the fall in Acadia National Park, he was small (born in August, a month early) so he was still in the chest carrier, but had graduated to facing forward. I took a spill and caught myself with my hands with his face about an inch from the ground. When I was going down all I could picture was a broken nose at best, but he escaped without injury. That was one of the worst feelings in the world.
Yes, I was carrying my kids in these carriers all the time too when they were little. We went out basically every weekend. We did many really long hikes with a lot of elevation gain with these carriers. It was fun. Once they were old enough to walk by themselves they gradually lost interest over the years until they completely stopped enjoying it (at least that's what they tell me before the hikes) when they were around 8 years old.
I am glad that incident did not cause any injuries to your baby. I was worried about that many times myself.