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Layton • Gabe Adams, 11, writes with a pencil clutched between his chin and collar. When he wants a drink from the water fountain at Kaysville Elementary School, he scoots into the hallway on his mobile chair and taps the button with his shoulder.
But because he was born with neither arms nor legs, Gabe didn't know whether he could join his sixth-grade class on a big adventure: a four-mile trek into the Wasatch Mountains and back.
On Thursday, he did.
With the help of his 24-year-old brother, Brennan Adams, Gabe went on his first hike. Gabe stood more than 6 feet tall, perched above Brennan's shoulders in a large backpack made to carry a toddler.
Landon Adams, also a sixth-grader, walked alongside his brothers.
Adams Canyon had their name on it.
"This is my canyon," Brennan teased Gabe.
More than 100 Kaysville sixth-graders hit the trail, which leads to a dramatic waterfall, to study nature and spend some quiet time reflecting and writing.
Teacher Cindy Barney said the field trip tied into classroom lessons about microorganisms in water, writing poetry about the physical world and, well, courage.
The students have been reading Hatchet, a novel about a 13-year-old boy who winds up alone in the vast Canadian wilderness after a plane crash. The boy finds a tool that is key to his survival — a hatchet.
Gabe's family also hunted for a tool to help him brave the mountains. His mother, Janelle, considered whether Gabe could be pulled in a cart. But Brennan, familiar with the canyon's tricky terrain, ruled that out. They looked at buying a backpack. But two days before the hike, Janelle Adams, a mother of 14, decided the family couldn't afford it.
"When you have 14 kids, $200 is dear," she said.
But Kaysville Elementary stepped in and worked with the REI store in Salt Lake City to arrange a free backpack rental.
"I am excited," said Gabe, who was born in Brazil and was adopted, at 9 months old, by the Adams family. "We were still deciding [two days ago] if I was even going to go."
Gabe peered through orange scrub oak and green fir trees.
Brennan carried him across a creek, and Gabe spent some time taking notes on his surroundings.
The most striking sound, he said, was the rush of a nearby creek down the canyon. He also wrote the words "plants" and "nature."
Hiking, Gabe concluded, is "fun."
Carrying Gabe, who weighs 50 pounds, wasn't as awkward as Brennan thought it might be. The pack was comfortable, he said, albeit consistently heavy.
"I've hiked 50 pounds around before," he said. "But, usually, I get to eat some of those 50 pounds, so it's lighter on the way back."
Lizee Jensen, one of Gabe's 11-year-old friends, said it was "pretty awesome" that Gabe got to hike, too.
"They found a backpack so he gets to enjoy the wilderness as well as we do," she said. "I knew he was coming. I was just wondering how."