We waited in the clearing for the sun's rays to hit us. Again. Slowly everyone got up and started moping around. Hungry. Though we clearly felt the Impact phase of the course was over, despite Steve not telling us so last night. We now just waited for them to get up (and hopefully give us some food).
Steve showed up, gathered us around and asked us if we were hungry. Duh. "Great news!!!" he says, "There is a really nice edible plant out here which will be the topic of our lecture this morning!" Crap. Really? The look of disappointment on people's faces is telling. But what are we going to to do? We follow him to the creek. And listen to him about some tiny plant which doesnt look like it could feed a pigeon, let alone 14 people (instructors included). Some people are taking notes. I want to throw a rock at them. Steve keeps talking, now about the plant's Latin name, and the edible properties of its roots or as he keeps referring to them, tubers. "What the f--k is a tuber?" is the only thought going through my head, other then throwing rocks at people that keep asking questions about the plant and taking notes. Finally, he says, ok, "lets dig them up and see what they look like." Fine. Whatever. Some helps him. They are yellow. And long. In fact, they are starting to look a lot like.....bananas!!! I look up and Steve is laughing his butt off. Blah. But ok, he has given us bananas. All is forgiven. And in retrospect, it was pretty funny.
The next 10 minutes are spent consuming what from now on shall be referred to as the "most delicious banana ever grown". Abram starts talking about how world banana crop is about to be wiped out. The urge to throw rocks is suddenly resurgent. I just want to enjoy my banana.
Steve brings by some drinks that taste like ice tea but he swears has some sort of nutritional value. I eat the entire banana followed by the drinks and then proceed to scrape off the banana peel with my knife and eat that too. Dont judge me. No food for a 100 hours, remember?
Then we "talk" about the Impact phase and how we felt during it. Dont care. Then he says we will stay here today and for us to practice starting our fire and relax for a few hours. I spend 30 minutes finishing up my fire set (though some people were pretty successful at starting their own fire) and grab my blanket (ough...blanket...the luxury of gods!) and pass out for a few hours. The banana did nothing for me. I am waiting for the "other food" to show up (I mean it must be coming, right?!?!)
I see Steve and Laurie dolling out some bags a few hundred feet away and I watch them intently. We finally get our food: A bag of GORP (peanuts and raisins), a bag of flour, a bag of oatmeal, brown sugar and dried milk. This is breakfast and lunch for the next 8 days. It looks tiny. They werent kidding when they said "about a 1000 calories a day." Man, the temptation to eat this all at once is pretty strong. :-) I do decide to treat myself and pour myself a day and a half (approximately) worth of GORP and throughly enjoy every peanut and raisin as Steve gives us (yet another) a lecture on aspens (which conspicuously look like birches).
We also got "group food" with groups chosen randomly. That is a bag bullion (as my group discovered, Eddie is obsessed with bullion), lentils, kimo (a rice like substance) and some onions, carrots (only last 3 days) and garlic. And a spices kit with salt, pepper and cinnamon. I realize that a) I hate cooking, especially after long hikes and b) I love to exercise so I offer my group a deal of a lifetime: I carry all the food (maybe about 10 lbs worth) and they do all the cooking when we get to the campsite. Deal and deal!!! (and I figure by day 6, 7, 8 my load is going to be light!
Then we get a lesson on topography map reading. Here we go. This is something I actually enjoyed for the next few weeks and was really into. Given that the next week was going to be Group Expedition, with us essentially leading and sweeping the group on our own, I was really into the lesson.
Then its dinner time! Ahh my deal already pays off. While my group is cooking I immediately start to read Ayn Rand's "The Fountainhead" and for the first time in days I felt a little relief and at peace from the stress and intensity of the course. I say stress, as I find myself snapping at Jeremy earlier in the day for wanting to bring more people into the other wiki-up where Adam, Nick, Mark and I decided to camp out for the night. I feel bad about the snapping and apologize to Jeremy the next day.
Its dark. We have fire for the first time. Everyone gathers around and with food in us (oh such a good stew) we actually make jokes and feel pretty good. Steve warns us of bears in the area and the next 30 minutes are spent hanging up two giant bags of everyone's food with an elaborate pulley system. And then bed!!!! By bed I of course mean: my wrapped up in my blanket on cold hard ground. No food for thought tonight. Just my blanket. And maybe a little bit of stew. Good night!
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