...and one catches on fire.

3ETSers by merriwether, on Flickr
Three ETSers: ClarkTX, me (Blast), and John.

So, ClarkTX and I are out in the woods miles from nowhere when we run into a group of hikers. After chatting a bit one of them pipes up and asks if I'm Blast!! I get asked if I'm Merriwether a lot, but being spotted as Blast caught me by surprise. John and his hiking group were down from Dallas, ClarkTX and I were up from Houston. We met on the 4C Trail in the Davy Crockett National Forest. John posts on here occasionally, but his screen name escapes me other than it's "John-Something".

Yes, I lived up to my name that night while we were all together cooking supper. I thought my Trianga Swiss alcohol stove had run out of fuel and to check I held my hand over it (alcohol has an invisible flame). No heat was felt so I poured in more alcohol. WHOOMFF!! Suddenly my hand shoe, pants leg, shirt and ground was on fire.

People thought it was pretty funny.

Not exactly the impression I wanted to make, but oh well.

Some more pictures:

Between the hurricane and the drought, between 15% and 30% of the tree in Texas have died...and then fell over.

Hurricane by merriwether, on Flickr

A pretty...and deadly...stream. The ground water here is contaminated with naturally-occurring mercury and other heavy metals. You have to carry all your water.

Stream by merriwether, on Flickr

ClarkTX, ready for action.

ClarkTX by merriwether, on Flickr

Best hiking dog, ever. His backpack and sleeping bag were really cool.

PackinDog by merriwether, on Flickr

Blast's home away from home> a US military bivybag and a homemade, ripstop nylon tarp.

BlastsHome by merriwether, on Flickr

Everyone else was in Eureka! Spitfire bivy tents.

Camp by merriwether, on Flickr

One person carried in 28oz of giant marshmallows.

Marshmallows by merriwether, on Flickr

Blast.

Burn1 by merriwether, on Flickr

Blast again.

Burn2 by merriwether, on Flickr

I had nothing to do with the +600 acres of burning woods. The forest service was doing a controlled burn, I swear!
-Blast