[pct-l] Trail Memories

[Hiker97 at aol.com (Hiker97@aol.com)]

So I am minding my own business and  hiking along on the PCT Section E 
expedition.  I am carrying (testing)  a TNF fanny pack turned around as a belly 
pack.  I have two water bottles  in the bottle containers on each side of the 
pouch.  I have the elastic  cord pulled tight around the container pouch, so the 
bottles do not fall out as  I walk.
 
As I am walking along I happen to  look down at the pouch and notice one of 
the full water bottles has slipped  out.  I stop and think I know where it 
would have fallen out about 1/4 mile  back.  I reluctantly take off my pack and 
lay it by the trail and head  back.  Sure enough, I find the bottle about where 
I expected to find  it.  Where I had taken a drink and gotten a new piece of 
gum to chew so I  could spit a lot like it is tobacco chew dip.
 
On the way back to my pack, I  notice that the elastic cord around the belly 
pack bottle containers could  easily be looped around the neck of the bottles 
to very securely hold them in  the pouch container.  This is probably how they 
were designed and I was  using them wrong.  Using them like a greenhorn or 
like a pilgrim.  I  feel very stupid as I see my pack and solar umbrella 
reflecting far up  ahead beside the trail.  
 
I have wasted my valuable hiking  time for nothing.
 
Your hiking buddy,  Switchback
Trail Flip-Flopper & Time Mismanager