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Posted by Ballpark Frank (69.178.8.75) on 10:15:52 06/01/15
In Reply to: Maybe THE Number 1 activity on a bacpacking trip... posted by Dan M.
Whoa Dan M.,
Your comment spurred thoughts back to something that happened when I was 13 or 14. Three or four of us went backpacking in the Catskill Mountains; and for some screwy reason that I don't recall, ran out of food prematurely. On our last day, we had either no food or starvation rations for breakfast, then had to walk quite a few miles before meeting our ride home in the late afternoon.
Someone, and I can't remember if it was one of my trek compadres or the person that picked us up, had what was left of a loaf of brick oven white bread. It was just plain old white bread, but we wolfed it down like it was filet mignon. I remember thinking it was by far and away the best bread I had ever tasted. In fact, I remember it tasting somewhat sweet.
I got so enthusiastic about that bread that I pleaded with my mother to buy a loaf after I returned home. I made such a big deal out of that bread I set myself up for potential disappointment and embarrassment. Sure enough, the bread turned out to be just "plain old bread", and tasted exactly like "plain old bread". That was my first really memorable experience with the incredible impact of extended backcountry travel on appetite and taste perception.
Fast forward a bunch of decades, and we find ourselves in Yellowstone, home to the old Hamilton Stores, and their well-deserved reputation for serving up overly generous servings of Wilcoxen's ice cream. If I had a nickel for every time a backpacker or day hiker in Yellowstone fantasized about a post-hike ice cream cone, I could probably buy a stately villa in close proximity to the park.
This last observation prompts a comment about individual differences within groups. How many times have we been sharing our post-trek food or ice cream fantasies with the group, only to have one or more fellow hoofers tell us to shut up, because it is driving them crazy? Some of us can revel in the psychic misery, while others would rather not engage in it!
Ballpark
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