Nerves of steel, not.

Thursday, 4:46 pm

By Kate

Jun

02

2005

The lad’s Dad took him out shopping last night for backpacking/hiking accessories. Like heavy-duty waterproof backpacking/hiking boots. And waterproof, lightweight over clothing. I know every sport requires specialized equipment, but wow. The guy at the shop told the lad to wear the boots nearly continuously until he’s ready to leave on his trip in a couple of weeks. They need to be broken in or he will be severely sorry. I’m not thrilled with these boots clunking around the house. They look like Herman Munster boots. And they have thick black rubber soles that leave marks on the floors. But better a few black marks on the floors than really, really sore and blistered feet on the first leg of a mountain hiking trip. That’s what I keep telling myself, anyway, while I’m cleaning up the black marks on the floors.

I browsed around the Grand Teton National Forest Parks Service site a while ago. The Bear Safety section caught my eye. If ever there was a publication to make a mother’s heart go flippity-flop, that would be it. I printed it out for the lad and told him to commit it to memory. I strongly suspect that Grizzly bears are included in this bear safety advice.

“Bear safety?” he asked. “Got it covered.”

He proceeded to tick off every point on the page and a few extras. “L’s parents have been training me for two years. They know what they’re doing and they don’t want to get attacked by a bear because I do something dumb. They don’t kid around about this stuff.”

I’m glad to hear. But that still doesn’t mean that my imagination won’t be running rampant while he’s gone. Still, better this than rock climbing up the sheer side of a mountain. He is still going to take the GPS Tracking device...his Dad’s idea. Not that I’m quibbling in the slightest.