Feed Me
Jenkins Shelter privy: 'Feed Me' Oh, how I regret not having a good camera on this trip. My brother Skip would love this -- it's his birthday, too.
5/22 - No bears in the morning. Buzz and Spaceman out early as the rest of us pack up after breakfast. Buzz had a tighter time limit on trail -- he had to be back at Tech in the Fall for classes - so we tried to figure where to meet in a week so I could pick him up when I was in the 'Burg. After that, he was off.
There was a rhythm to the morning for most everyone. Mine was invariably a bilge that needed attention. Hey, we all urinate. OK, we all pee. And for many hikers including me, it was the very first thing I wanted to do when I woke. Really weird. In the 'other world', I can contain myself for hours on end. Out here, basic body urges can come on with alarming urgency, no putting it off for extended stretches. So, after answering the call of the bladder, it was feeding time.
Breakfast was usually two or three packets of oatmeal, with a large dollop of honey, a granola or snickers bar, and a mug of tea or a package of jello dissolved in warm water, followed by whatever leftover water I had if there was a close by water source. Then, I could filter a full water bottle or two for the morning hike.
And once again -- always in the a.m. and just before I was ready to hoist the pack, that other biological result of a 5000 calorie/day diet would assert itself. The convenience of a privy made such necessities vastly more, um, comfortable.