Noah Hopkins

My name is Noah Hopkins, and I love the outdoors. From a young age my parents made sure I was outdoors more than in, even if it was just taking the dogs on a short walk around the neighborhood. Weekends were filled with hikes up and around Stone Mountain, fishing wherever my dad could find a minnow, and paddling or even simply wading wherever I found enough water to do so. As I grew up, this love of nature stuck right with me, and soon I was hiking two and three day stretches of the Appalachian Trail, with and without my Scout Troop. Getting involved in scouting is, in my opinion, one of the best experiences you can have as you grow from a child to a young adult. Through scouting I was exposed to innumerable camping and hiking experiences, some of which in some truly beautiful areas. I have spent two weeks at a time sailing through the Florida Keys, hiking and canoeing through the boundary waters area of Canada and backpacking through the deserts and mountains of New Mexico. Both of these experiences were truly life changing and showed me other parts of the United States than the grey concrete of Atlanta that I call my home. Another thing I came to love as I grew up was fishing. Both my father and grandfather are avid fisherman, so they made sure that I was never far from a rod, reel, or tackle box. One of my favorite fishing experiences was in the seventh grade, when the three of us flew down to the Amazon River for a week and a half of peacock bass fishing. While in Brasil I saw so many incredible things, from pythons to 200-pound catfish to howler monkeys, I still talk about them in my writing now. My experiences traveling, be it through scouts or as a vacation, are where I find much of my inspiration for my writing.