Tony, Mark, the author and Craig. I am holding the blue journal book from which these accounts are taken.
“It was raining with a low ceiling when we woke. Tony had joined us during the night and now Mark and Sharon. We all read and Tony had… a beer for breakfast. All we had was peppermints. No one left the tent until the afternoon when it stopped raining. We all set up a pool for when the plane comes. We heard one go over today… Saw muskrats.“
Sadly, no one was to win the pool. No plane came.
Early on in the adventure we all sat around and compared the frivolous luxury items we all brought. Some said alcohol, some said coffee, etc. When I suggested my paperback book, the Alaskans looked at me like I was crazy. As it turned out books were indispensable escapes in the final tent-bound days of the trip. I had the Hollow Hills to take me to Arthurian England. If I recall correctly Dave delved into the dystopia of The Stand by Stephen King.
At one point late into our foodless, forced fast, Craig started to laugh a bit maniacally and Dave and I exchanged worried looks. Craig told us he had just read a 5 page description of a deli spread. That sealed it: I wasn’t reading Craig’s book after I finished mine.
“We just had a soup and are all outside. I’m wearing wet pants w/no shoes. A beaver swims in the ‘lake.’ The water is brackish. We are making beans with franks (for 2). We an now see some blue sky. The colors have changed dramatically – it is truly fall now. The bush that smells like juniper is red. The birches are gold. One nice aspect of this wilderness is there are no jets overhead.”
