Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Hike to Hot Springs

There is something perfect about hiking to a hot spring. The 10-mile journey is enough to make you sore, and then the soak in the tub, in the wilderness, helps feel relief. This reminded me of the "lost penny found" argument for the existence of pain - there is little as rewarding as a pain removed.

At the spring I met an acupuncturist. In retrospect this profession must have some of the same rewards for the patients. I have never tried acupuncture but perhaps I will someday. The hike back left me with bruises on my knee and ankle, because I was distracted by sucking my thumb (literally, I cut it chopping pears for the dessert) and fell.

Great camping recipes (that may have tasted so good because of hunger brought on by carrying a heavy backpack over 10 miles of up and down and fording a cold river):

1. Prosciutto Wrapped Pear
-very simple to make, but watch out with the knife!

2. Campstove Melange
Ingredients:
Pre-cooked lentils
Pasta
Oregano
Garlic
Onion
Prosciutto
Parmesan
Salt
Bread (optional)

Cook everything together over a campstove and then toast the bread if you lack utensils.

3. Intense Chocolate
Ingredients:
1 ziploc bag of dark chocolate chips
1/2 can sweetened condensed milk
water (but not too much)
Pear slices (optional)

Melt the chocolate in the milk. Use as fondue to dip the pear slices, or simply drink up.

4. Breakfast Melange
Ingredients:
Leftover Intense Chocolate
oats
1/2 can sweetened condensed milk
water (but not too much)
ground coffee

It would have been a good idea to bring quick-rolled oats. We ran out of gas...

5. Lazy Iced Tea
Steep about 4 bags of Earl Grey tea in a canister of pump-filtered river water. Tastes great after a couple of hours... Carefully squeeze out the bags and remove before drinking.

TIP: Bring whole pears and a knife. I've seen people take sliced fruit in ziplocs instead. Trust me, that tastes awful after a few hours on the trail. A sturdy knife can double as a can opener, and mine has a corkscrew attachment as well. Bring bandaids if, like me, you are clumsy.

Thoughts along the trip: Does a tree in the forest make a sound when it falls and there is nobody to hear it? Seems obvious to me that if there are atmospheric molecules to move then a sound is made. How about on a distant planet or the moon? Only if there is enough atmosphere. How can people even wonder about this question? I suppose it all depends on your definition of sound.

The leaves on the burnt trees by the river made a very interesting sound in the breeze, crackling against each other like a raffia curtain.

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