Some people can go backpacking with nothing to eat but cold oatmeal, dried fruit, and trail mix. I am not one of them. I tried the room-temperature diet for three weeks during my sophomore year Spring Break, and I learned something from it: Hot food makes me happy.
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Scotland
I am hiking through the Isle of Skye, a place that shows up in Prometheus and Snow White in the form of swinging landscape shots that make audiences gasp. I am free from responsibilities, free from deadlines, free from finances. The sun is coming up across the water, and I know it will be a mostly-clear, mostly-warm day, which is perfect weather for backpacking. I sit on the hillside to memorize the view, and I reach into my backpack for my lunch.
Granola.
Two half-kilogram bags of Sainsbury’s granola. The same granola I ate for breakfast, and the same granola I will eat for dinner. It was yesterday’s dinner and the day before yesterday’s dinner, too, and even though I so wisely bought two different kinds of granola so I could have a choice between Tropical Medley and Chocolate Mix, neither one seems all that appetizing anymore. My one remaining apple and that squished half-loaf of bread look even less appealing.