Brian's Return (Hatchet, #4)

by Gary Paulsen

1 small camp shovel. Here the concept of world politics helped him. The Soviet Union had come apart and one of the things its crumbling military complex had was surplus titanium. Some enterprising Russian had come up with the idea of making titanium—superlight and superstrong—camping shovels and Brian bought one through a catalog.

For a moment, standing there looking at the water, he actually thought, I’m behind schedule, and then remembered he had no schedule.