*Warning! Wall of Text ahead!*
In June of last year I went hiking for about a week in the Appalachian mountains with a number of rations to serve as my main source of food. I also went to the Gulf Coast that same month too. Since I didn't review the rations I decided to dump the photos here.
If the photographs appear sideways, I recommend clicking on them to get the best view.
The rations for the trip consisted of mostly US MREs, a single Lithuanian Dry Ration, and a VV MVD IRP. Notice the tent rain fly, sprawling out of my backpack. I never owned a hammock until recently. I got a cheap "2 person" hammock off ebay for $15 USD and a Emu strap for trees. I didn't buy a hammock rain fly because I thought I would't need such a device, needless to say I regret that decision. The tent rain fly made a terrible choice. It drooped down on me while i tried to sleep, trapping heat inside my hammock making my nights unbearable. If I slept without it, I ran into the problems of being cold, bit by bugs (damn mosquitoes to the deepest, darkest, and confined spaces of hell!) , and getting rained on. One day I was taking a leak at the end of the parking lot that was near our basecamp, which was near the edge of a hill (like everything else with the region). Looking don the hill I spot an abandoned fireplace that looks like it had only been used once. Small pieces of logs and wood laid nearby. Near the fire place was a small black bag with an Emu brand logo on it. Lo and behold, it was a hammock rain fly! I kid you guys not. It was brand new and unused. The para-cord ropes for the fly were still tied together, the steaks were in their bags, and the fly was folded up. It hadn't even been used, yet someone abandoned it. The campsite where I found it seemed to be set up be an amateur. The hill seemed to be a steep gradient and too close to the parking lot. the only other things I found were burnt trash in the fireplace. My guess is that the camper got scared left in a hurry, they couldn't have picked a worse spot.
Unfortunately, a package of crackers and an entree did not survive their trip to the US. When I got the IRP, it arrived in a box without any sort of packaging peanuts, Styrofoam, or anything.
I couldn't upload any panoramic photographs from my hiking trip onto the website, sadly, they're my only high quality photos I took before my cellphone's battery died
. The hiking was great, there were many cliffs and rock formations that provided ample views. The forestry remained mostly untouched by invasive vegetation such as honeysuckle. Often we would pick wild blueberries and eat them. When it rained and stormed, the towering trees and their canopies provided sufficient cover from sunlight and rain.Creeks provided sufficient amounts of fresh water. There was one area with a nice sized creek that locals and tourist would go to swim, a large boulder that seemed about 20+ feet (6.096 meters) tall served as a high dive for the creek. People swam and played in the water while horsefly would try to feast on them.
One day I feasted out of the VV MVD IRP I got. Despite the 2 casualties from shipping, I still made a feast out of the remainder of the food. During the day I snacked on the best fruit bar I have ever tasted. AN apricot fruit bar that caused my taste buds to dance. I need to find out where to buy them, I think I made a thread about it a while back
. At breakfast I ate Kasha, it was the first time I had buckwheat. It seemed odd at first but it certainly grew on me, to a point where I bought a a bag of it later. For dinner I sat upon a vista with endless trees at my view, I was told to eat away from everyone else due to the possibility of attracting bears with the amount of crumbs and food packages I might leave at the campsite. The wind proved to be a nuisance when lighting my fuel tablets. I almost used up all of my windproof (or are they water proof?) matches before igniting the tablet. Vegetable ragout, canned cheese, liver pate', beef/potato stew, a feast for a well spent day's end - despite the wind, ants, and pieces of broken glass on the trail left by previous ass hat litterbugs. The sunset was
gorgeous (the vista was at a gorge).
Edit-Cat tax
It was a great trip, I highly recommend camping in this region if any of you get the chance. The hills are high, the water was cool, the rock climbing was crazy, and the
ginger ale was cheap. Too bad that I couldn't share the couple panoramas that I took, and the fact that my phone had died. I have more photos from vacation in the gulf coast that are somewhat ration related if you guys want me to share. ~ Cheers!
