Chapter 5
Ansel took off after breakfast Monday morning, leaving everything except a couple of changes of clothes, his laptop, and his cameras behind. When Hugh asked why he wasn’t taking his sleeping bag, he said he didn’t plan on having to sleep rough, as it was only a twelve-hour hike if he kept up a good pace.
For the next few days, Hugh carried on as he had been before Ansel’s arrival. He moved the firewood they’d amassed into the tent on Tuesday, after spending the rest of Monday collecting more edible vegetation from the field. First, he set the goldenrod stems out to dry in the sun. Then after covering one of the shelves in the root cellar with a sliced open trash bag, he put the dried stems on it in bundles. The flowers and seeds went into one of the canning jars, as did more pi
