My first thru-hike in 2018 always brings to mind that first night on Springer Mountain. We all gathered around the hiker TV and talked about food and calories. It was very cold. The kind of cold that makes a hiker dread taking his gloves off to light his stove. This is kind of like a tribute but I am not a good writer of stories. We all were talking about the calories we needed daily and the calorie content of the mountain house freeze dried meals. I will never forget the one hiker that claimed he had it all figured out. He proudly boasted that he was going to hike the entire trail by eating Mc Donald's cheeseburgers every day. He pulled out a soggy McDonald's cheeseburger that he had carried all the way up the approach trail. Everyone laughed at him and tried to kindly express concerns for his choices. This hiker's solution to cooking was no cooking at all. I would love to meet this hiker again just to ask him if he ever completed the entire trail on the McDonald's Cheeseburger Diet. Is it possible that any hiker could accomplish such a goal?