Old Friends and Memories

Today would have been my dad’s sixty-first birthday. That’s hard to imagine! It’s equally hard to believe that he’s been gone two-and-a-half years.

One of the things Dad and I did together was backpacking in the mountains of Montana. I wanted to take another trip with Dad, but that didn’t happen. In fact, I think the last time we went on a trip together was about fifteen years ago. I haven’t been since the summer of 2003. Thankfully I have the opportunity to go again in a few weeks.

In preparation, I have been going through my backpacking equipment, along with a couple of boxes of stuff that Dad and I used, but kept at his house. I hadn’t gone through those boxes yet since there had been no need. This has been a good time for me. It’s like getting reacquainted with old friends. Let me introduce you to a few:

If my memory is correct, this is the very first stove we carried into the mountains. Usually we only cooked with an open fire, but as Montana began to have drought years there were times when we could not have a fire, so a stove was the only option for cooking. Thankfully modern stoves are much smaller and lighter (although much more expensive!). This one has gone to the place good stoves go… (is there such a place?).

These are a couple of coffee pots and the “backpackers New Testament.” The pot on the right is an old, old friend. In fact, I’m not sure how old it is. I began backpacking when I was 3 1/2, and I believe this pot was in use before that. That makes it more than thirty years old. Notice that the handle has been melted off, with only the stump remaining. And the glass top from the percolater is gone, replaced with a custom-carved-and-now-burned wooden replacement.

The pot on the left has only been on one or two trips. Give it a few years and it will attain the exalted status of the older one.

Every trip must include a public reading of Psalm 147, particularly these oft-applicable verses:

16 He gives snow like wool;
he scatters hoarfrost like ashes.
17 He hurls down his crystals of ice like crumbs;
who can stand before his cold?
18 He sends out his word, and melts them;
he makes his wind blow and the waters flow.

This is a progression of backpacking history. The taller container on the right — the “Hunter’s Special” — is an old container (the expiration date is 1975). That places it in use just a year after my birth. The taller container on the left is Dad’s attempt at modernization. It is an aluminum water container that was very light for its time. In front of that is a shorter plastic container. I remember one year when Dad cracked some eggs into this container so we could have real eggs for breakfast while in the mountains (my wife tells me that probably wasn’t safe, but I’m still alive!). In front on the right is a film cannister with the label “Java.” Dad carried instant coffee in this container (Interestingly, Dad seemed continually amused when us “kids” suffered from caffeine withdrawal, but he always had his “Java”).

I assume this is Dad’s toiletry collection. If so, this changed as he aged. First, he never carried a full toothbrush. He always cut the handle off to save an ounce or two of weight. Second, I cannot remember him taking along a razor, much less a small piece of broken mirror in a hand-made leather pouch complete with duct tape. I guess he needed more creature comforts as he aged!

Portions of our mess kits and cooking pans. Years ago (25?) We engraved the bottom of our aluminum cups. Dad’s (on the right) with LH and mine with my name.

This is my very first backpack. If I remember correctly I first used it when I was four, a year before the picture above was taken. I have a memory of several of the other guys being exasperated when I went into the mountains carrying seven pounds and came out carrying two (I was carrying a lot of food). As I grew into a larger pack this one became our day pack for short day-long trips while in the mountains.

As you can see, this is a storage box for “Backpak” items. Just like he did with many things backpacking, Dad shortened the word to make it “lighter.” You know–think in terms of ounces, not pounds. An extra letter just might weigh more…

I hope you’ve enjoyed meeting some of my old friends. Some of them will be in use again in a few weeks, and some newer friends will be introduced to these old friends. I can’t wait!