The next day, the fog caused the island near our campsite to fade in and out of visibility. At low tide we walked over to it and ate lunch there among the big rocks.

At the end of the long hike, we settled on a campsite and sat down to eat. It was just getting too dark to see very much of anything when we started eating, so I don’t know what the food looked like, but I can still remember exactly how good it tasted. Grilled kebabs, hard-boiled eggs, and baked potatoes. There’s something about room-temperature food, eaten with your fingers, after a good deal of physical exertion far away from home. I can eat in every fancy French restaurant there is and I still won’t forget that meal.

Andrew, his girlfriend from Ukraine, her son, and I went camping on the Olympic Peninsula. After a long hike from civilization, we arrived at the coast, where we were greeted by these deer, who grazed past us unstartled.