A Casualty
Continued from prior post…
Yes, unfortunately, the picture that was part of the last post was the last image ever captured by my friend’s camera. He was kneeling at the edge of a small inlet into the lake, pumping out fresh water. When he stood up, the camera dropped into the water. We were able to retrieve the images from the memory card, but the camera could not be revived. We hoped that would be our only casualty on this trip.
Although it was tempting for me to continue sitting there by the stream, enjoying the moment in solitude, I knew there was still work to be done and it was getting colder by the minute as the darkness took over the small canyon where we were camping. So I made my way back to the camp site where my two friends were each already preparing their dinner. I did the same. It was another night of freeze-dried fare reconstituted with hot water. But it really did not matter what it was. There is some unquantifiable and not easily understood law of nature that anything eaten outdoors tastes much better than it would under any other circumstances—especially if you are camping. I am not sure why that is, but it almost always proves to be true. The only exception I have found, thus far, is freeze-dried eggs. Disgusting no matter where you are!
Given the fact this would be our final night on the trail, one of my friends brought along freeze-dried ice cream of all of us to enjoy after dinner. I had heard of such a thing before, but was never brave enough to try it. That evening, we all sat in a circle next to our tents and ate our dinners. We talked about the accomplishment, how we were feeling, some of what we had observed during the day, the plan for tomorrow, and just how great it was to be sitting a day’s hike from the nearest road, eating hot food under the stars just after accomplishing our main goal for the trip. It was just a great moment of three guys bonding in the great outdoors. Good stuff!
Once our main food had been consumed, we each moved on to the small package of freeze-dried ice cream we had been given. The package indicated no preparation was necessary. We were to simply open the plastic pouch and enjoy the ice cream that had been sitting inside of a Wal-Mart for who knows how long and then packed up the mountain in my friend’s backpack. It did not make sense to me. How could this be ice cream?
To be continued…
