We were camping at Alice Lake one time, and the Girl’s friend–we’ll say Cressida–had come with us. We were hiking the Four Lakes trail, and I had my small backpack with the bag of hiking needs, you know, trail mix, water, my copy of Trees and Plants of Coastal British Columbia, stuff like that. Somehow we got onto having useful things in our pockets, too. I don’t remember what all there was, but each of us had something that might be construed as “useful on a hike.” So like, somebody had a Swiss Army Knife, which is obviously useful. I had lip balm, again, clear purpose… A paperclip! Excellent for holding samples of leaves, or in a pinch hanging something off your backpack. That sort of thing. Then Cressida says, “I have… a guitar pick.” And we laughed, and tried to come up with creative uses for a guitar pick on a hike. Then… we rounded a corner. Who should be coming toward us but a young couple, one of whom was playing a ukulele. And Cressida said, “Hey! Do you need a guitar pick?” And the fella said, “Sure!” And that was how, out of all the useful things we had with us on our hike, the guitar pick was the only one that actually was used.