What's in my pack today?

It all started four days ago with a can of Vienna Sausage. Yes, the lovely concoction of chicken, pork, and beef in chicken broth. Yum. This was one of our "snack" options for lunch. Instead of packing along the can of scrumptious goodness for lunch, we decided to put it in other people's packs so that they could carry the weight and maybe attract some more bears. I was the lucky bearer of the can today and it has now been wrapped in a cloth measuring tape to go to the next lucky person.



Walking to the chopper yesterday, I swung my backpack over my shoulder and thought, "Damn this thing is heavy!" For the first half of the day my balance was off and I kept thinking, "What on earth is wrong with my pack? I must have packed it differently today." Well, at noon we get a radio call from my upcoming field partner. "Ask Greta how her pack is doing," he asked. I immediately went to the sleeping bag compartment at the bottom of my pack - the webbing and buckle had been unclipped and the zipper was slightly open which I thought was strange given that I had closed them that morning. BUT we had been walking through some pretty dense alder and I suppose it could have gotten caught on something. Opening the zipper, a 5-7 pound rock emerges from the bottom of my pack. SERIOUSLY?!?!?!? "I thought you might need something to weigh you down and give you more of a work out." If he wants to play this game, I'll dish it right back. Oh, it's on.