The Civil Engineering Officer, 1st Lt. Gene Smith, was the first person I met from the site. He and I made many trips to Frosty Mountain in the jeeps that were available for recreational purposes. On my first excursion, not long after I arrived, he and I took a jeep exploring on Mt. Baldy near Frosty. Actually, Baldy was truly more like a large hill than a mountain. There we ate a ptarmigan that Gene had shot for lunch. I was little disappointed he did not club it, as he had told me ptarmigan were so brainless that a person could walk up to them and hit them over the head with a stick. Ha! Anyway, Gene surprised me when he pulled out a can of Sterno and roasted that bird over a tiny flame from the can. I can't say that our ptarmigan was very tasty that way. A little salt and pepper would have helped a lot. Besides, I thought the "innards" of the bird smelled so awful when we dressed it that I couldn't stop smelling it! However, I did manage to choke down my portion to keep from offending Gene on our first trip exploring. After that experience with the ptarmigan the dehydrated, nasty food on my later backpacking trips in the lower 48 seemed like a luxury fit for a prince!