Now you may be asking why this is Vancouver Part II. Don’t be alarmed. You haven’t missed anything. This is because today’s events represent one of those “great moments in parenthood” that need to be shared immediately. Even though this is the final day of our trip, the events of today will haunt us for some time. I promise that more stories and photos will follow shortly.
High above the town of Squamish is a monolith of granite named “The Chief,” a 2300ft granite dome that was formally the base of a volcano. But this isn’t the volcano my title refers to. Keep reading. Due to a serious lack of climbing gear and a baby sitter Kristin and I decided to use our final day to hike to the top of the chief. The trail nearly goes straight up the backside of the mountain between a mountain stream and a small cliff face. It was quite steep and the trail has been manicured with rock or wooden stairs and several ladders up high.
Carrig was the star of the mountain. This weekend is “Victoria Day” and lots of people were on holiday. We even had random folks asking to take our picture because they were so surprised to see us up there. In addition, Carrig got a round of applause at the top by three woman that we had followed up (yes, just Carrig. Not the guy carrying him). But, it wasn’t until the way down that the fun started.
Just a quick aside, for non-parents or those that may have blurred some of these memories out: breast-fed babies don’t have daily bowel movements. It can vary widely, but Carrig is on a 3-5 day routine. He has also just recently jumped up in the amount of food that he takes in per day.
So we had been hiking for a couple of hours and it was time to feed and change the babe. We descended out of the winds and found some shelter along the side of the trail. While feeding him Kristin felt a little rumble down under. No biggie…so far. Commence changing. The first diaper comes off and Carrig’s face goes blank. This was the first warning. There was not a second…with a few rumbles a soft flow of yellow-brown lava began the bubble up.
So here is the scene: Kristin and I perched on the side of a windy hill, ~50 degrees, 10ft off of a busy trail, our backpack about 15ft away. Carrig is in his only warm clothing and getting it “dirty” would spell disaster. The first diaper fills…I run to get a second. This one fills…on to a third. Between diapers Kristin is forced to “cup poop in a napkin” to prevent it from flowing over poor Carrig’s clothing (her words). Now, nearly out of wipes and down to our last diaper it stops. During this time at least 15 people walked by as Kristin’s gagged and as I ran frantically back and forth to the backpack. Rains coming. We can barely clean the poor kid but now need to get down off the mountain. Off we go.
You thought it was over didn’t you. Nope.
Once back to the car we realized that Carrig still have something in the chute for us. This had now soaked through the diaper, up his back, and therefore, also across my stomach and chest. Just lovely.
So lessons learned. 1) Always carry extra…everything. Regardless of how long you will be gone for, carry extra. 2) For the baby and for yourself. 3) I am not sure. Something will come to me. We must have learned more than this from today’s events.
And to end on a laughable note, here is the aftermath back at the car.
Clearly this was an exhausting day for him too.
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