Understand why you wrap it, but I miss that crispy bark too much. The chew and smoke flavor in the bark is my favorite part. I just spritz more often to keep things moist without steaming it soft.

My group has a simple rule we call the "two expansion limit." If a game needs more than two big boxes to feel good, it's probably not for us. We realized we were spending more time setting up and learning new rules than actually playing. That worn Ticket to Ride copy gets played because everyone knows it by heart, so the fun comes from the people, not the pieces. For us, a game is complete when the base game still gets picked off the shelf after a year. All the extra stuff just made our favorite games feel like a chore.

Oh, wait, that's actually a really important point. You need a water purifier for the JMT, not just a filter. A lot of the streams up there have viruses from all the people and animals. A normal filter only gets bacteria and stuff. I learned this the hard way a few years back.

My neighbor's flagpole argument last week was about his lawnmower.

Is it actually ruined though? That sounds like a pretty easy fix with a belt sander. Just take it down until the marks are gone.