May 21, 2021

By Mary Anderson

Food waiting to go into mail drops.

As I prepare much of the food I will eat for the next four months of my life I think about all sorts of things. Despite the difficult life place I am currently in, I am so blessed to have an abundance of food, even if it is dried spaghetti, dehydrated cheese, oats mixed with frozen orange juice before being dried into a hard lump, dried peanut butter and jelly, and dehydrated garlic.

I know how good these simple foods will taste when I am really hungry on the trail. They will become gourmet meals, and for much of the world’s population they are in fact just that.

I also think about the importance of feeding my soul as well as my body. It is one reason I will hike. Being immersed in that wilderness feeds my soul.

I will hopefully make some new friends out there and I will work to stay in connection with my old friends back home. They are what feeds my heart.