Do It Yourself –dehydrated backpacker’s meals

Face it, whether you are a cyclist, backpacker, or just a compact camper, the commercially prepared freeze dried meals have been along on a trip or two.  Equally as often, you have not been too happy with the meal that resulted, as it failed in quantity, flavor, color, or texture.  I will never forget an experience with some chicken dish, I think it was sweet & sour with rice?  It looked like a puppy had barfed in the container, and the puppy barf might have tasted better.  (No, I have never tasted puppy barf, don’t intend to, and I also gagged at the taste of that stuff.)

Seriously though, on the trail, when you are depending on the meals you have brought along, having something be a total “FAIL” is more than disappointing, it can be a trip ruining disaster or worse.  We have to depend on what we have brought along, and it has been a huge investment in terms of labor and weight to get to the point of adding the boiling water.  Even with the amount of importance that trail food can have, that does not mean we need to have invested our life savings in the food for a two week hike.

Learning to make your own meals has a very steep learning curve.  I’ve tried doing a few things myself, with mixed results.  Then, today I read the most amazing book.  All of that trial and error experimenting has gone out the window, now I have a guide book to get me where I want to go without suspiciously sampling Meal X ever again.  It’s well written, has clear recipes, and solid information.  I’ll admit I have not tried any of the recipes yet (my dehydrator is still packed in a box…somewhere) but I have  no doubts that they are very accurate.

In addition, it allows us to take control of the contents.  My husband and I both need low-sodium meals, and that’s not something that has been addressed by companies such as Mountain House, even though I was told over a  year ago that low sodium meals were in the works.  Unlike many hikers, we no longer need high calorie meals either–due to health problems, we are not physically able to burn off 8,000 calories in a day.  Whether its on a bike or on foot, we now have a much more leisurely approach to the whole process, and our bodies demand we take the time to smell the flowers, experience the moment, and watch the birds flying by a lot more often than we did at twenty-something.  Even with that, we also can’t pack 60 pound packs over mountain tops, and weight is probably more important for us than ever before, as our strength is decreasing as well as our endurance.  Armed with these recipes, we can make the adjustments to the recipes to stick to our medical diets without worries.

So what is this mysteriously wonderful book?  It’s called Backpack Gourmet by Linda Frederick Yaffe.  It’s not new–it’s been out for over a decade, but I just read it via Kindle.  Thankfully, it’s not focused on faddish foods that will make us grimace at the ingredients, but remains just as relevant today as it was when it was initially published.  It’s also the very first book that I can honestly say, hey, here is a really good recipe book to use as a starting point to preparing good, inexpensive packable meals for backpacking, bicycle camping, or any other time we’d want to pack along fast and easy meals.

On that note though, I’m going to leave you taking a look at the book and trying to get your hands on a copy while I go hunt for the location of my dehydrator and vacuum sealer.  I have a feeling that vacuum sealing some of these meals before storing them will make them a lot easier to pack AND store.

Dear Name Brand Tent Manufacturer:

After a lifetime of real life camping experiences, usually with kids and foul weather involved, I have a few things to say about tents.  First of all, I’ve never seen a tent that could have possibly been designed by a mom who did much single-parent camping with her kids.  I did, and I had some very entertaining  incidents that could have been avoided with tent designs.

There have been some great advances, like Coleman’s “hinged” door.  That took long enough, guys.  But…let’s make it better?  Put a decent overhang so when I’m standing there with a three year old who had to make a bathroom at 3 am in the pouring rain, and I’m opening that door…I’m not drenching the kid who was still asleep and waking them up so I can do a repeat run to the restrooms down the hill.  I also don’t want to have to soak up a quart of water every time we go in or out, the rain is bad enough, thank you very much!  Not any of the so-called “family” tents have a decent overhang and an easy-to-open-with-one-hand-and-a-load door.

I’m really good at improvising when it comes to setting up a tent alone or with the help of a six year old, whether it boils down to carrying a roll of cheap masking tape to hold parts together that don’t want to stay together or finally tossing that rain fly over the top of the tent  and getting it into place.  I’ve set up tents that everyone swore couldn’t be done by one person alone…and I’ve done it in less than an hour alone too, even in the dark, wind, rain, etc. with whining kids as a background.  Sewn in directions are great, especially for that first trip in the spring, when I have forgotten how it goes together.  Let’s make it better.  Remember that color coding stuff?  You know what I mean…the stuff that NEVER matches the directions?  Skip it–I can’t see it in the dark anyhow.  Try to make all of the poles identical and that one oddball so odd that there is NO WAY I can mistake it in the dark for a regular pole.  Offer more integrated frames, but only after you guys figure out how to make them bullet proof.  If the queen of do-it-yourself-in-the-dark-and-rain has trouble setting up or taking them down…or has joints that freeze in the cold or with grit in them, it isn’t a real family tent.

Oh and that “mud mat”…whoever thought that stupid thing up should be beaten…with a giant mud mat.  It’s a mud mat all right, guaranteed to make a muddy mess in your tent.  I learned…fold it under the tent where it won’t catch and hold dirt and rain.  It’s even better as a mud mat as the rain pours in front of the door onto it and you’re trying to get into the tent without drenching everyone and everything…it can easily hold an inch or two of water to ensure your shoes are thoroughly soaked.

Gear pockets…they are great.  They are also horribly inconvenient.  Why not have a gear pocket near the door so I can keep my cellphone dry AND get to it if it rings?  It would be a great place for my keys too, by the way, instead of either in a corner or up over the center of the tent.

While we’re at it…there’s the electric port issue.  More family tents than ever are being used in campgrounds with electricity.  Perhaps offering one on each end would be a nice thing so we had options if our cord wasn’t a 100′ extension cord?

Another thing, I don’t know why no one offers this, but many families camp for all 3 seasons, and year round here in the South.  Why not offer an optional “cold weather” fly that was full coverage to cut down on drafts while still offering some options for ventilation?  I’d love to be able to get by with only ONE tent, instead of a whole assortment of tents and me trying to guess what kind of weather we are going to have.  While we’re at it…what good is a tent with a full mesh roof if we have to have the rain fly on for even a heavy dew?  Camping in the South is usually impossible in a tent in the summer–just plain too hot and too many rain showers.  Maybe a “bikini” version for us Southerners in the hot and humid South would be nice too!

Then there is the issue of rooms and doors.  A number of tents offer two or more rooms, along with two doors.  Then the rocket scientists designing the two doors puts them side by side.  Now what kind of a deal is that?  Put on on each side, for crying out loud!  Give us OPTIONS when we’re setting up.

Don’t forget the colors.  Now I realize that mountaineers and climbers and backpackers may like the bright colored tents to increase visibility in emergency situations, but face it…nobody takes a big family style tent on the side of a mountain, that’s not what they are meant for.  I don’t want to look at a sea of obscenely neon colors to pick out mine, I want a nice “outdoorsy” looking tent, in green or tan or even camo pattern…not red or orange or blue!

Sometimes when I’m camping, I’m roughing it.  Sometimes I’m not.  Sometimes I’m having a luxurious budget friendly vacation and my tent is my “motel room”.  Either way, the same tent should be able to handle it, rain or shine.  I don’t want to pay a lot, but I don’t want a “disposable” tent that is shot after a single season.  (I have owned them and yes, they were “name brand” tents.)

• If you have to cut corners, cut them on the rain flies by offering options for purchase, such as high UV protection (sun sensitivities!) or full coverage for cold weather or dry ventilation in summer, etc.  Also, figure out a way to clearly mark the fly so it is easy to get on right the first time!
• Make the “gear pockets” personalized by providing several strips of velcro and a velcro strip on the pocket so we can put it where we want it and need it.
• Those room dividers…how about running them full sized or not bothering at all?  What good is a room divider that starts at my knees and ends below my shoulders to begin with?  Maybe velcro to the floor and tie to the walls/roof?  How about a walk-through along one wall too?
• Don’t forget the doors…one on each side AND an overhang over at least one of them, clearly marked on the rain fly too!  Let’s hinge one of them too!
• More windows that can be closed!
• Bags that will really hold the tent, poles, fly, stakes, spare stakes AND hammer!
• How about a matching screen shelter for dining that could actually attach to the tent?  This seems like a no-brainer, guys!

While we’re thinking about better, maybe they would start off better if they were made in America instead of China?  At least we would know where to send the hate mail when we got poorly made gear!

Ahh if only tent manufacturers would send their designers on a trip with me, they’d get an earful, but we might actually get tents we loved all the time.

 

Mountain House winner!

Freeze dried food.  Most of us conjure up an image of mysterious glop with a lot of salt and not much other flavor.  The reality though is nothing like that, at least with Mountain House foods.  Recently, we bought a selection of Mountain House foods to use for a bicycle trip, and while most of them saw no service on that trip, we did decide to try one at home, for the ultimate in taste tests.

I was intensely curious about the concept of “chicken breasts with rib meat & mashed potatoes” especially when described as “two grilled, seasoned chicken breasts with rib meat, mashed potatoes with herbs & chives.”

Seriously, how good could this possibly be?  It’s a freeze dried entree for 2, not a frozen dinner.  Frozen dinners offering “chicken breast with rib meat” usually turn out to be dismal offerings of indistinct texture resembling that of foam rubber.  Surely a freeze dried dinner would be worse.

Boy, was I wrong!

The directions have the cook remove the oxygen packet and the packet of mashed potatoes, setting those aside.  The boiling water is added to the envelope, on top of the chicken breasts, and they are submerged with the envelope zipped closed for 2-3 minutes.  Then, the chicken breasts are removed, and the potatoes are mixed with their water and allowed to stand for another couple of minutes, and I put the chicken on top to keep it warm.  So, about ten minutes from putting the water on to heat, we had dinner.

The chicken was delicious, and definitely real.  No questions about that, and the flavor came through with flying colors along with the correct texture.  Grill marks on top added to the effect too.  The mashed potatoes had excellent flavor too.  No complaints from either of us on that count.

This entree has about 210 calories for each portion.  That’s not a lot of calories if you are working or hiking hard, so the portions are not extravagant in size.  More concerning is the 800 mg of sodium–that’s a LOT of sodium!  Not that it tasted excessively salty, but even so, the sodium is there.  I did email the Mountain House company via their website about the high sodium content of their meals, and asked for a low sodium line.  I received a prompt reply as well, indicating that the new low sodium line was already in production, and should be released soon.  Just keep checking their website!

Unfortunately, there seems to be a supply issue with Mountain House right now, and that has fueled all of the conspiracy theorists into believing that the government has bought up the supply.  According to the Mountain House website, that is not the case.  They were asked for a quote, but no order had been placed, and the quote is a standard operating procedure, not a prelude to a definite order.  What is causing the actual supply issue is a mystery, but it could in fact be related to a revamping of their line to reduce sodium, increase variety, etc.  Even a change in packaging could temporarily cause a supply and demand problem.  In addition, this is spring and this is when companies are gearing up for the summer hiking & camping season…so there is even more demand!  I hope the supply issues are solved soon–most of my favorite suppliers seem to be out of stock or back ordered on a number of selections from Mountain House.  Currently, my sole source of Mountain House meals is from local stores with some stock on hand.

After trying this entree at home, I feel more comfortable about counting on Mountain House on the trail and in camp for quality meals without fuss.  Food is an important moral builder, as well as fuel for doing the things we love to do, and nothing can make a trip more miserable than unpleasant or inedible food.  Convenience is nice too, because I may not mind being the camp cook on some trips, on other trips I’m just as busy as everyone else, and I have little desire to spend hours each day preparing food.

For the emergency preparedness crowd, food is equally important.  Tasty food does a lot to maintain morale, and if its familiar in nature, its less likely to be regarded with suspicion.  This entree wins on this front too.  It’s delicious, “normal” looking, and does not have any odd or exotic flavors.  It’s lightweight and easy to prepare too.  It’s an excellent choice to include in your emergency backpack!

 

 

Maiden voyage and approval of the Aosom cargo trailer

Red Dog in Aosom bike cargo trailer

Today, I finally managed to squeeze in a test ride with the Aosom cargo trailer in tow.  Empty, it was unnoticeable behind me until it hit a bump and the noise startled me.  I felt like someone was sneaking up on me!  With a toddler sitting in it, I noticed her weight, especially since she was sitting completely to the rear in the trailer.  It made me realize that loading weight to the rear alone might be counterproductive.

Next came the real test.  Putting Red Dog into the trailer and securing her for a test run and initial training on riding in the trailer.  This was also the most hazardous portion of the entire process.  Not only was there a possibility of me wrecking on the bike because of her movement, but also that she could be injured too.  I also swiped the floor mat from the van, which was nearly a perfect fit for the floor of the trailer, giving Red Dog a non-skid surface to stand on rather than slick metal.

To minimize injury and movement, I used three leashes.  One went from each front corner to her collar, was looped through and then secured on the trailer again.  In the back, I fastened another leash in one rear corner, looped it through her collar, then secured it to the opposite side of the rear of the trailer.  It didn’t look like she could move much, and I was right.  I also knew that she’d sit there fine with the trailer not moving, but the real test would occur as I started off on the bike, the point when I’m also at my least stable.

My method of securing her in the trailer worked.  I’d not recommend that kind of arrangement for a long ride, but for the short up-and-down-the-street-beside-the-house routine to start her training, it was fine.  She could not move, although twice I did have to dismount and return a stray front leg to the interior of the trailer.  After about five minutes, she quit attempting to jump out, apparently realizing it was a futile effort.  However, her escape attempts did resume for the first few minutes on round 2 of the training session, after she’d disembarked, had some cookies, and then reloaded for another ride.  Still, she did well, and its obvious that she’ll appreciate the trailer after trotting a few miles alongside the bike.

I’m going to love the trailer–for a lot of things.  It’s a fantastic addition, and we’re talking about taking it into the bayou on the bikes for a bit of fishing.  It will easily carry the gear and a cooler too!  (We’d have to leave Red home for that much to fit)  At just under $100 for the trailer, including shipping, it’s a bargain and the trailer seems fairly well made.  Despite a 35 lb. weight on its own, it rolls behind the bicycle so easily I didn’t notice it was there.  With a toddler, the weight was noticed, but not much of an effort except during starting.  With Red Dog, I’ll get a tougher work out, I’m sure.  I definitely noticed her weight in the trailer, but she weighs in at 65 lbs.  That’s a substantial amount of weight for a novice cyclist, and the equivalent for a full weekend of camping gear.  (Tent, stove, bedroll, backpack, food, water, walking stick, etc.)  I could still manage to ride with it, although on a hill it would be much more difficult to pedal up–and might result in me pushing the bike/trailer combo more often.  One advantage to using it with a dog, if I have a long uphill climb, I can always get her to get out and use her own steam, unlike standard cargo loads!

Portable potty solution-the Tote-able Toilet Seat & Lid

We are just like everyone else, we are continually bombarded with ads promising us the moon with a particular product, and when we buy it, all too often we are highly disappointed.  And, just like everyone else, we’ve discovered that often we get exactly what we pay for, so that “bargain” turns out to be disastrous.

Every once in a while, we find something that is inexpensive and actually WORKS.  That’s a red letter day!

A huge problem for anyone who is primitive camping is the toilet situation.  We want to be environmentally responsible, we want to be smart, and we want to be comfortable with our choices.  I don’t know anyone who’s happy when the discover they have found the perfect camping spot…but the entire surrounding  area is littered with used toilet paper!

Granted, there are better ways to dispose of toilet tissue than leaving the used product laying around on top of the ground, but that’s really a whole blog post on what better options really are.  With a group, or with even a single person who isn’t thrilled with the idea of squatting over a shallow hole in the ground…the portable potty is the better option.  On a boat, it can become even a bigger problem as often running to the toilet becomes an impossible request and there are no holes to be dug for quick disposal.  You have to have a portable toilet, or you spend way too much time trying to find a place to land or beach your boat to handle the problem.

There are a lot of portable toilets on the market, and a lot of them are not cheap solutions to the problem either.  For boaters, where weight is a very serious issue, along with the footprint of space required, some solutions become new problems.  Face it, many of us don’t need flushing toilets with hidden holding tanks.  We want a cheap, effective solution, even if it isn’t pretty.

What about a solution with a price tag UNDER $10????

Sound impossible?  Nope.  I have personally bought and tested one from Emergency Essentials.  It’s called the “Tote-able Toilet Seat & Lid” and costs just $8.95.  For $14.95, you can also buy it with the bucket and two packages of enzymes.  I opted for the cheaper version, and bought a 6 gallon bucket from Lowe’s for $3 to go with it.

It’s a simple solution.  The bucket gets a plastic liner (aka tall kitchen garbage bag) and the seat/lid combo is snapped down.  To use it, the lid is lifted, and the seat is exposed.  After use, the lid is returned to the closed position, and it actually SNAPS into place.  A gasket in the lid then holds the contents and the odors inside.  Seriously, you do not smell a thing with that lid closed, and it did not spill even when clumsy me knocked it over.  It’s the perfect solution for the fishing boat, the camp, and even when there is a toilet emergency and the normal toilet is not available for whatever reason.  The plastic liner can be doubled to reduce chances of leakage, and if there are concerns about liquid contents, cat litter is a great and inexpensive absorbent to use inside the liner.  (Just add a cup after use, or alternatively, pour a few cups into the bottom of the plastic liner to absorb liquids.)

The bucket toilet isn’t a new idea.  It’s been around a long time, and has seen use on many boats and camps.  In third worlds, they are a luxury.  For most of us, they qualify as gross.  They are prone to spilling, they stink to high heaven, and insects are attracted to the same aromas that are repulsive to us.  Who wants to spend the day in a 16′ boat with a rank bucket of poo?

The Tote-able toilet keeps the costs down where we don’t mind spending that much for the solution, even if we use it just a few times a year.  It seals tightly enough to eliminate odor and attracting insects.  It’s a simple solution that doesn’t leave us studying a manual to operate the toilet every time we need to take it out.  Best of all, it works.

So if you are looking for a cheap and simple solution to the potty situation, this one met our criteria and delivered the solution with flying colors.

Buying gear-in search of a preemie sized life jacket

One of the Get Ready Go bunch recently had a baby.  Way early.  Now while their darling daughter is doing fine and has come home, the realization that we can’t find a life jacket of suitable size for the little darling.  Now Coast Guard regulations require her to wear one at all times, but where on earth can such a thing be found?

The great thing about the internet is the speed at which thousands of stores can be accessed and their inventory searched for our heart’s desire.  I’m not sure yet how these would actually work for such a tiny baby-she only measures 18 inches and weighs in at a whopping 5 lbs.

There’s a life jacket advertised to fit 0-30 lbs.  (This one here, at only $9.95!)  Sportsman’s Guide carries a Stearns’ vest at $14.95.  I’m not real sure about that size rating…most of them advertise that they fit 8-30 lbs.  How can a life vest that will fit a 30 lb baby possibly be sized down to fit the tiny body of a 5 lb baby?  Her entire body will slide through the neck of a t-shirt sized to fit a 6 month old baby.

Maybe the desire to find a life vest designed for a preemie or newborn seems odd to a lot of people, but we happen to be in the middle of a vast expanse of water and watery-land known as swamps.  Boats are as much a way of life as sidewalks are to other parts of the country.  To banish the baby, and her mother, from the usual activities because of the lack of a life jacket seems harsh, especially since this baby won’t likely make the 8 lb mark until sometime in the New Year.  That means the mother can’t go either, as the baby is breast fed and eats every 3 hours around the clock.

For those who live in this watery portion of the South, boats are used like cars for a lot of activities.  It is quite likely that a Sunday picnic is apt to involve a boat ride to a favorite island, and even some fishing camps are accessible only by boat.  That means that they cannot legally go to those places because of the lack of this magical life vest.  It also means that a paranoid first time mother is nervously looking at the calendar and her tiny daughter too.  Safety is also part of the equation.  That 30 lb life vest might LEGALLY meet the Coast Guard requirements, but it isn’t really going to fit the baby and will leave her at more of a risk for a physical injury than they are likely to need that life jacket for a watery hazard.

Preemie and newborn gear is available in all sorts of useless but cute configurations.  Seriously, who needs a pair of designer tennis shoes to fit a 10 lb baby?  They can’t even walk yet!  How about a baseball cap for your newborn?  Maybe some camo cargo pants?  The only cargo a newborn is going to carry is the load delivered to the diaper!

I don’t know if this is the first time anyone has dared speak up about a boat ride for a tiny baby or not.  Some people have looked askance at us even inquiring as to the availability of such a thing.  We aren’t planning a speed boat rip through the Mississippi Sound!  We were thinking more a ride on the Pascagoula River on a nice warm sunny day, with a little fishing.  It appears that by the time we find the appropriate gear, the baby will likely be an adult, long past the stage of needing a preemie life jacket.

Still, part of my mind goes back to the story of Moses floating in the basket of bull rushes.  Tiny babies can only not swim, but can’t keep their body temperature up either, not for extended periods of time in the water.  Wouldn’t a more effective safety device for a small infant be the use of a weighted and flotation equipped carrier instead of depending on an ill fitting life vest?  It would be much easier to devise a carrier that would automatically erect itself while carrying the under 15 or 20 lb infant than to devise a one-size-fits-em-all life vest, and once the infant is old enough to be active (crawling, sitting up, etc.) then the life vest would be appropriate.

So come on, all you life vest inventors and manufacturers out there…get on the stick and come up with something that would actually work instead of something ridiculous but legal.

Outdoor gear advertisers & spammers

I am absolutely amazed at the number of comments that this blog attracts from people wanting to advertise their company or product, written in a manner that they are deemed “spam.”  So, for all of you out there who want me to advertise your products on this blog or on my website, I’m going to offer you a solution.

I’m not even being sarcastic, this is sincere.  IF you are a legitimate vendor with a real business, and not someone trying to make a quick buck off of unsuspecting buyers, I want you to send me some very specific information.  Part of it is also requiring that you speak English and are capable of reading this post, which may not be particularly fair in some people’s eyes, but I think it is entirely fair since that’s the language I speak & write, and the language that this blog is written in.

I want your website, a list of your products/brands carried, and a brief paragraph telling me why I should want to list you on my lists of websites and vendors.  If you have something unique, tell me about it.  If you offer a unique service, I’d love to hear about that too.  If you are the owner of a website, and would like me to link to your website because of the information that you could offer to readers of this blog, send me that email!  If you have a product that you would like us to review, that is a possibility too, but send the email first.  We don’t want you to waste money sending us a product that doesn’t fit the type of camping and outdoor activities that we participate in and advocate for others.  (Examples are things like mountain climbing gear-we are a bit short on mountains on the Mississippi Delta, and I don’t have any immediate plans to schedule a mountain trip at this point.)  We do a lot of different things, and while we don’t go mountain climbing, I am supposed to learn the basics of rappelling this year.  Yeah, imagine that…a fat middle aged woman hanging upside down off of a cliff…it ain’t pretty, folks! Especially if it scares me enough (I’m deathly afraid of heights) that I end up peeing my pants…upside down.  That’s one outdoor adventure that doesn’t sound appealing, to be honest, but…I agreed to it, and I’m going to go through with it.  I figure its safer than free climbing on a rock face, and I’ve tried that too.  I will not, and I repeat that one more time, I will NOT agree to bungee jump.  No way, no how, and I’ll freely admit in public that I’m too chicken to try it.  There is NOTHING appealing about bungee jumping to me!  That also goes for sky diving.  I may have a sister who loves it, but I have sense.  I cannot see any good reason to deliberately jump out of a perfectly good airplane for the “fun” of it.  I have friends who have done it, for fun and/or for military training.  I’m not a soldier, I’m too old and too fat.  No thank you…I like the ground under my feet!

See now that I’ve digressed enough that any insincere spam type person has given up, I’m going to give my email address.  Make SURE you put “Get Ready GO blog” in the subject line to prevent ending up in THAT spam folder too!  The email address you can send this letter to is (take out the spaces, you know the routine) giascott (at symbol) gmail dot com.

In the meantime, all you spammers out there, you may as well give it up.  You get deleted, that’s all.  If you can’t be bothered with reading a whole entry and following directions, I can’t be bothered with your spam comments, plain and simple.

Gear review, novice camper program, and camp cookery

Just recently, I posted a new review of the Pocket Stove from Sportsman’s Guide.  This little stove is a real charmer, and got an overall very favorable review.  It’s a great back up stove, or first-stove-on-a-shoestring investment.  Take a look at the webpage.

Get Ready GO is also embarking on its first public service sort of program-we’ve long talked of doing this, and are now more actively engaging in the early steps to get it off the ground.  We don’t have a name for it, but its primarily to encourage young families, single parents, & other novices to try camping without having to make a huge investment.  Our first endeavor will be setting up a trip to a state campground in Louisiana or Mississippi.  If you are interested in being one of the mentors, have a tent or other gear to donate, or either know someone or would like to try camping yourself–please, email us!

The next order of business really is about camp cookery.  I’ve done some serious reading of camping recipes and I have been horrified.  It seems it requires either immense quantities of gear (like cast iron dutch ovens) or were foods that might be looked at oddly by starving people–truly dreadful recipes.  I realize that I’m critical-I write about food as it is, and have a long history with camp cookery.  My first camp cookery days weren’t good–as a minimalist, it took well over a decade before people quit inquiring about exactly what food I was taking.  (I had taken a can of fruit cocktail and a package of hotdogs for 3 people for an overnight trip. We had to eat the fruit cocktail so we could cook the hotdogs-plus the scrawny crawfish that supplemented it-for our dinner.  Breakfast was a “Texas Milk shake” otherwise known as a tall glass of wide open spaces.)  These days, I’m more often chided for excessive food in the food box than I am for minimalism, but there are few things I can’t cook in a camp situation that I can at home.  There are some I won’t attempt without extra equipment, but that’s another story.

If you want to know what my absolute favorite camp meal is, here it is, and directions on how to do it.

Start fishing a good rainbow trout stream just about daylight, when its so cold in the mountain air that you need a jacket on and you can likely see your breath.  While you are fishing, start a cook fire–it’s always best cooked over a small campfire!   Start the hot water for your coffee, tea, cocoa or whatever hot drink you desire.  Catch yourself a trout or two or three, and make your companions do so as well, but too much conversation with the dawn will disturb your reverence for the moment.  Clean the fish right there, as a piece or two of bacon begins sizzling in a skillet on the fire.  As soon as enough fat has rendered out of the bacon to do the fish nicely, put them skin, scales & all in the pan.  Cook just until the flesh is done, slide it onto your plate as you set your coffee aside, and pull away the skin for the best tasting piece of trout you will ever eat as the sun comes over the canyon wall and starts to sparkle on the water.  Steam rises from your coffee and from your delicious breakfast, and you listen to the water moving past you and the birds beginning to sing.  I’m certain that you just found a piece of heaven in that moment.