FREE gear from L.L. Bean you say?

[gregpphoto]

So cheeecckkkk this out you krazy kats: L.L. Bean is doing a daily giveaway, you write a short essay describing the adventure you want to take and what gear you need (up to $500). So I wrote about my upcoming SCA internship and how food is of utmost importance to a hiker, and that I'd like an MSR Dragonfly stove and a Bugaboo 4-person cookset to share amongst the crew (and to keep it when the season is over!)

Lo and behold, my plea for communal cooking worked! I won me a stove and a cookset totaling about $250 worth! Must have pulled at their heart strings with the whole "im doing volunteer trail work for five months and I want to be the cool kid at camp who shares his goodies with everyone"

If anyone wants to enter heres the link https://100.llbean.com/gear-giveaway/

[WIAPilot]

Awesome! And Congrats! You should post your essay. I bet that it is amazing and I know that I'd love to read it!

[gregpphoto]

Awesome! And Congrats! You should post your essay. I bet that it is amazing and I know that I'd love to read it!

I'm not sure if you're being sincere or patronizing me lol but either way here ya go!





I am the luckiest person alive. How can someone who's total sum of possessions barely fills a compact sedan and who's finances are reminiscent of the later stages of a monopoly game gone wrong say such a thing? For one, I have been granted the opportunity of a lifetime, as far as I'm concerned, beginning in June of this year. It is the culmination of a life of wild wandering dreams. I along with nineteen other dedicated souls will be performing trail crew work as part of a five-month long Student Conservation Association internship in the wonderful mountains of the Adriondacks.


"Adirondack" is a devolved version of an Iroquois word meaning "tree eater" and was originally meant as an insult; only an inadequate hunter would resort to eating the bark of trees to survive. I find that the lightweight hiking foods of today to have the same flavor, and often, the same consistency as what those unfortunate atirú:taks would have eaten in lean times. It only follows logically that I am overjoyed at the prospect of outrageous luxuries like risen bread, fresh fruits and vegetables, and breakfast that doesn't consist exclusively of ramen or oatmeal (or both!) that await my palette. I find time and time again, without fail, the most important thing to a hiker, other than two blister-free feet, is food. Food, glorious food! Fish from stream to coals to belly and nothing else in between. Delectable goodies like salami and crackers adorned with hunks of delicious cheddar. Eggs so fresh they haven't even been laid yet. The brass tacks of it is this: I ask not for the food my peers and I will crave but rather the tools to prepare and eat it. Give a man a pouch of dehydrated beef stroganoff and he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to cook a soufflé in the backcountry, and he'll eat for life.


The tools I wish to acquire are a cook set and a stove that can be shared with my fellow crew members. The Bugaboo Camper Cook System would be most ideal since it is designed for the exact amount of persons (four) that make up each of the five crews. To cook all the precious vittles, I trust an MSR Dragonfly stove with an MSR 22 oz. fuel bottle would make for a great kit. And since the makeup of the four-person crews rotates throughout the season, everyone will have a chance to use this gear. If I am chosen to receive these items, the stomachs of twenty of the hardest working men and women ever to set foot on a trail will be eternally grateful for your support.


Sincerely,


Gregory Petliski
SCA Adirondack Program, 2012

[Wise Old Owl]

Cool thread FYI Backpacker has something similar inside the log in area, - but the gear is slightly used.

[Odd Man Out]

I submitted my essay yesterday. Fingers crossed. It says in the rules you can submit an essay every month. I'll start thinking of another story for June.

[WIAPilot]

That was a great essay! Good work!