The lack of direction is an emotion that triggers innate fear in human beings. This fear is amplified with the relative period of time that this confusion is maintained. We had nine days, and no direction. The solution to the problem? Banana and peanut-butter sandwiches. According to our experience, the best solution to finding a solution is to sit down, relax and consume food. Essentially, don't fool yourself into thinking that the solution is always thinking. The next step is to drive towards the mountains, essentially, do something, don't continue to do nothing. We verified our essential rations: food? check! Water? We filled up at the gas station, check! Vehicle with "four on the floor?" Check! Craft Beer? Check! We headed south, the mountains were calling.
Spontaneity is oftentimes accompanied by the unknown, but yet satisfaction. This idea is an outlier in today's society. We were learning that just because you are driving, doesn't mean you have to know where. Social media, google, and other forms of navigational aids allow you to maintain adventures, in unknown areas, without significant lapses of time. My personal favorite is google. A simple search of "what to do in _____" and a quick search on google maps is a significant tool. However, there are better ways. For example, talking to the locals. This requires the ability to decipher their perspective on the desired location and to integrate this into the way you prefer to do things. A local may recommend a phenomenal location that is a must see, however; upon following up on the location, you may find out that it is far too yuppy for your tastes and doesn't satisfy your thirst for adventure or independence. Used in conjunction, google, google maps, and locals present an ideal reprittore of navigating tools. A quick search regarding our direction of travel was all that was necessary to facilitate the next adventure. We had no idea what was in store.
It isn't intuitive to say we reached our destination, when in reality we didn't have one, but we were there. Night was quickly approaching, but we were eager to explore. We quickly loaded our packs and took off up the mountain with high expectations regarding the country we would cover. The ski/snowshoe trail was hard packed. Since we lacked snowshoes, hiking the trail was only feasible where packed, unless you wanted to fall 5 feet through the snow crust.
The sun began to set, the wind picked up, our stomachs began to vocalize, and a hot cup a tea solidified the thought that it was time to bed down. We tried to find a wind protected location to ease the probability of a wind battered night. This punishment however, can not be reserved with the bipolar nature of the mountains. It was time to fire up the MSR stove to satisfy the desires of our nagging stomachs and kinetically impaired, frigid hands. We would be having a two course meal, consisting of cheap instant rice noodles supplemented with salmon, and instant mashed potatoes seasoned with gravy from Idahome.
First off, I am thoroughly impressed with MSR products. The MSR Whisperlite International is absolutely worth its weight in the mountains. This stove functions by using a liquid fuel system that is manually pressurized in the fuel bottle, and then vaporized in the generator tube near the burner head. In order to vaporize the liquid fuel, the stove must be preheated by burning a small volume of fuel in the priming cup. MSR recommends preheating for approximately 2 minutes to adequately vaporize the liquid fuel funning through the generator tube. Considering that this was one of the initial test trials of the stove, the sub zero weather complicated the preheating process. Initially, I blamed it on the stove, however; after preheating the stove for an exaggerated 5-10 minutes, we were cooking with an MSR! It was so cold that the priming flame wasn't able to push the liquid fuel to its desired gaseous phase, hence the difficulty. In retrospect, this was the obvious cause, upon pouring some water in the MSR titan tea kettle, it began to visibly freeze over. I had to place my nalgene bottle next to the burner just to prevent it from freezing so we had some liquid water to continue cooking.
Upon finishing our smoked salmon, I put some water on the stove to make some tea before bed. Our personal favorite is Evening in Missoula made by Missoula Tea and Spice Trading LLC. We laid in our hammocks drinking tea, and watching the stars. The moon illuminated the night sky, and we drifted to sleep with the universe slowly shifting through our thoughts and atmosphere, literally. Peaceful? Yes, until you are brutally awoken at 4 in the morning. The winds threatened to shred our hammocks, the snow began to fall, and the look on sleeping beauties face (Grant) was not comforting. The snow threatened to hide the illusive snowshoe trail through the 5 ft deep snow crust. We now had urgency to our morning routine. I have never packed so quickly. Our day had started. Interestingly, the topic that provoked conversation on our hurried walk down the mountain, was breakfast burritos. This initiated the next step to the adventure. When we made it to Bertha, I thawed the remaining iceberg in the tea kettle, which was the remainder of the previous nights tea. We set off in the search of breakfast burrito ingredients and a kicthen. We found both.
(Notice: Grants bacon-greased lighting hands)
(Notice: Grants superior avocado cutting capabilities)
The locals were not keen on dirtbags cooking in their town. We got glares, which gave us smiles. It was another day, minus senseless obligations. We explored the town, then set off. It was time to turn Idaho into Idahome. Cheers.
Gear Used, Dirtbag Reviewed.
Vehicle: Bertha (Dirtbag Approved)
Hammock: Kammok Roo with Python Straps (Dirtbag Approved - HEAVY)
Stove: MSR Whisperlite International and Camp Chef Teton Two-Burner Stove (Dirtbag Approved)
Pot: MSR titan tea kettle (Dirtbag Approved)
Skillet: MSR Ceramic Flex Skillet (DID NOT LIKE - WARPED AND DAMAGE TO CERAMIC COATING)
Mugs: Hydroflask (Dirtbag Approved)
Tea: Evening in Missoula (http://montanatea.com) (Dirtbag Approved)