About a decade ago we had backpacked into the middle of Baxter State Park. I was
making supper when a guy walked up to the next lean to. He was barefoot,
wearing jeans and had a huge knife on his belt in a fringed holster.
He had no pack of any kind....
I knew it was too late to get back to a car; so I asked him where his pack was. He said "All a man needs is a good knife". Despite being in my 40's I had never read a Louis Lamour novel. He piled up a bunch of leaves in his lean to and said goodnight.
I'm an early riser. I woke up before dawn, at roughly 4:30 am. It had been a cold night, August here is no guarantee against temps in
the low 40's, and it felt cold even in my 4 pound bag (admittedly old and less effective than it once had been)...
When I camped, I always brought gourmet coffee in foil packs, really good stuff. I'd also bring canned milk, so I could have coffee just like I had at home. I brewed up a pot and went over with a cup to give to him, but he was gone. All that was there was a big pile of leaves.
Poor bastard must have froze his ass off and left in the middle of the night. Later someone told me about western novels....