Universal Hiker Standard
Where do you put your cell phone? Where do you put your wallet? Where do you put all the odds and ends that accumulate on a thru-hike? Where do you put your food? Well, there is a product out there, that hits the highest of quality standards of protection for all of these items. This product can hold poured out boxes of macaroni and cheese to condense the space in your pack. This product can hold the same macaroni and cheese empty packet of powdered sprinkled nectar from the gods once it is painfully empty, just as your soul has become. It is hard to express how many times we have licked the inside of a mac and cheese packet to get any sliver left of the powdered cheese-by product that tastes as if we were licking Olympus itself. As if the concept of all the Greek Gods were condensed into this cheese packet, which they were.... Yet, we digress! It can hold all of your electronics. It can hold anything that is loose in your pack and bring it home into a snug and compact pouch! We are not talking about a dry bag, which while great for this purpose as well, is limited in its capacity of uses. We of course are talking about the limitless uses of the Plastic Bag!
Is it the contents of the bag that hold all of our hopes and dreams or is it the bag itself?
Hiker Philosophy 101!
Empty Greek God cheese packets aside, plastic bags can hold anything that your mind is creative enough to fill it with. It is a pouch for your dreams, a pouch for your hopes, and a pouch to fill with your love manifested into physical form such as mac and cheese. As it fills, it in return fills you with overflowing happiness! The versatility of a plastic bag is infinite! It is overlooked many times when prepping for a hike, yet it is one of the most essential pieces of gear. Pick your Ziploc, go generic, go name brand, go homemade? Any way you chose, you will be adding an element to your hike that is essential!
Hikers have found literally infinite amount of uses for plastic bags. We have seen necklaces carried in some, pennies and nickels carried in some (not recommended super heavy!), electronics of all varieties, and then we have seen a hiker stare into the emptiness of a plastic bag that used to be filled with food and shed tears as their heart is broken again. Due to the uses and versatility of plastic bags being infinite it also means that the highs and lows of a plastic bag are also infinite. You will be filled with joy and love when they are filled. Then when the inevitable time comes near the end of a section, and you find yourself licking the Greek God dust of mac and cheese dust off of the inside, you will find yourself being the same hiker looking through that clear and transparent plastic bag as if you look hard enough and deep enough it will fill again. It is empty and now so is your soul, so shed a tear with us, shed many tears, it is okay to share in this consistent love and loss cycle, we understand it, there is no shame in having love and lost. "It is better to have love and lost, than never have loved at all."
