Yeah,

You must've been reading my mind (sans the .22 though).

I was just thinking about how I would spend all day tromping around the woods with barely anything gear other than my pocket knife and curiosity.

Those fond memories then drift over to the time:

I was so thirsty and with what I know now was probably a dehydration headache and was tempted to drink what ever I could find (I won't go into details as you may be eating your breakfast at this time),

got caught out in a thunderstorm that was the advanced guard of a cold front and I ended up with a very cold, very wet hike back home,

Got lost and just lucked out on finding a logging road back to the highway,

Blundered into a nudist colony and all the girls were so excited to see a "mountain man".... (Oh, wait! That really didn't happen, that was a dream I had when I was 15.... never mind)

Our "20 pounds" of gear is the badge of our wisdom from hard learned experience (at least that's what I'm telling myself and it generally makes me feel better).

Happy trails.....