I keep wondering if I should drop the $2.50 per bar, or if I can spend about $5 and use what I already have in my cabinets to make a delicious, long lasting trail bar that kicks butt around 300+ calories in its little self. Here are some recipes to try from a message board on Backpacking Light (I haven't made ANY of them yet so they may be awesome or completely gross):


Alpine Trail Bars
12 Servings

1 cup unsalted butter
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 ¼ cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 ½ cups uncooked rolled oats
¾ cup chocolate chips
1 cup unsalted cashew pieces

With a hand or stand mixer, cream together butter and sugars, then blend in eggs and vanilla, then flour and baking soda.
With a spoon or spatula, stir in oats, chocolate and nuts.
Spread in a greased 13 x 9-inch pan, bake 25-30 minutes at 375F, let cool and cut into bars.

Nutritional Info:
Calories: 400
Fat:25 grams
Protein: 7 grams
Sodium: 125 mg
Potassium: 125
Fiber: 2 grams



Logan Bread 

2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup dried fruit bits
1/4 lb brown sugar
1-1/2 ounce dried milk powder
1/4 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 tablespoon salt
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup dark molasses
1/4 cup vegetable oil such as canola
1/4 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
-------------------------------
Mix everything together in a large bowl. The first time you try this, you will have a hard time getting it to mix on only a 1/2 cup of water, so you may have to add slightly more. However, mixing it wetter will lead to possible spoilage.

Preheat a 300 degree F oven. Note that this is not as hot as most baking recipes.

Turn the mixture into two greased 8x8-inch cake pans and spread it as evenly as possible. Bake for one hour. Remove from the oven, let cool for five minutes, and then invert the pans to remove the bread. Cut each bread loaf into 16 squares. The proper consistency is not rock-hard, and it is a little chewy.

Stack and air dry the squares for 24 hours. This gets rid of much of the excess moisture that might lead to spoilage. Store the squares in plastic sandwich bags and squeeze out as much of the air as possible. I normally get six squares into each sandwich bag, so the whole batch will require five or six bags, minus however much you ate during the cutting.

If you make this relatively dry, it will keep for months. It is best when eaten within a month or two. Refrigeration is unnecessary.


Amount Per Serving
Calories 77.8
Total Fat 2.1 g
Saturated Fat 0.3 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 0.3 g
Monounsaturated Fat 1.3 g
Cholesterol 0.1 mg
Sodium 69.2 mg
Potassium 62.5 mg
Total Carbohydrate 15.6 g
Dietary Fiber 1.2 g
Sugars 8.8 g
Protein 1.4 g




“BRICK” 2010 Model
Makes 12 bar
402cal/bar

Call them a chewy granola bar or an energy bar, either way, these are good! They freeze well also (wrap them up two bars to a bag for an easy trail snack out of the freezer.) Yes, they are high in fat, but if you are hiking hard, you will burn it off and they are better for you than a candy bar.

2 cups quick-cooking oats 1 cup all-purpose flour ¾ cup packed brown sugar
¾ cup dried cranberries (or whatever fruit you prefer!)
½ cup wheat germ
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ cup chopped pecans (or other nut of choice, unsalted)
½ cup cranberries
½ cup blueberries
½ cup coconut
½ cup chocolate chips
½ cup vegetable oil
½ cup honey
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Line a 13x9 inch pan with parchment paper.
3. In a large bowl, stir together oats, flour, brown sugar, craisins, wheat germ, salt, cinnamon, and pecans.
4. In a smaller bowl, thoroughly blend oil, honey, egg, and vanilla; pour into flour mixture, and mix by hand until the liquid is evenly distributed
5. I use rubber gloves for this.
6. Press evenly into the prepared baking pan. Make sure it is packed in tightly.
7. Bake 25-30 minutes in the oven or until the edges are golden.
8. Cool completely in pan before turning out onto a cutting board and cutting into bars.

Notes:
• These bars take well to using applesauce or baby prunes as part of the oil.
• Brown sugar Splenda® works well as a way to cut back on the sugar content for diabetics.
• Any nut can be used, and feel free to change the fruit or add chocolate chips, etc to the batter!

Nutrition Facts Per Bar

Calories 402.4
Total Fat 16.7 g
Saturated Fat 2.3 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 3.5 g
Monounsaturated Fat 9.8 g
Cholesterol 86.1 mg
Sodium 614.4 mg
Potassium 261.0 mg
Total Carbohydrate 61.0 g
Dietary Fiber 4.8 g
Sugars 35.7 g
Protein 9.7 g

Hi, my name is Sarah and I'm a foodie.

Whew, good to get that off my chest. But what to do with this fact while taking extended trips in the backcountry? I like good food, I like a light pack, and I like leaning back with a full tummy and licking my spoon clean because it was delicious. So begins my notes:

The By-Day Baggie

I just made that name up (I think). It's the idea of having everything you need for one day of food in a single bag and just working your way through the bag. They appeal to me for ease of packing/planning, ease of knowing what you have left, and calorie/nutrition tracking. I'm not sure if they create more garbage, bulk, and weight from the myriad of ziplock bags involved. Also, since I have a peanut allergy and will be bringing Sunbutter (not available in small packets) I would still have a small jar of it outside the baggies anyway. Still mualing over this one.

Wood Trekker has a great post on this concept, though it's probably more candy than I would take. These are his pictures of 2000 cal meal bags.

I'm really growing to love the National Park Service website. It's broken down by parks, lots of good free information, and so far I've found it to be a huge help. I'm exploring the possibility of spending a lot of my trip in the Shenandoah Nation Park (SNP) and jumping around from the AT to the other trails. Since I'll be there in July it seems silly to 'avoid' some of the waterfalls and swimming holes. Anyway, here's what I've discovered so far.

I've been wondering how to keep my Platypus water bladder clean, especially since I've been training for a few weeks and just filling/emptying it for the weight and sometimes it takes awhile to dry completely.

The simplest method seems to be to delude 1 tbsp in 2 liters of water, pour it into your water bladder, and let sit for 10 minutes. Rinse as many times as your level of OCD calls for and hang it to dry propped open as best you can. Making your bleach mixture outside the bladder is important... you don't ever want to pour the bleach in first then add water! Doing so would give the bleach time to bond to your bladder material and then leach back into your drinking water later. Gross.

Another simple method: denture cleaner such as Polident or Efferdent. Just fill your bladder to 2/3 capacity and add 1 tablet per liter of water. Not having dentures myself, I don't know if there is any kind of taste that will linger, but it probably wouldn't be worse than a lingering bleach flavor!

I'm 2.1 pounds over my goal weight on my pack, and I know exactly where they are: my tent. When I was buying my tent, I had to take several factors into consideration:

1. I'm kind of poor. I simply couldn't justify anything over $150, sad as it is.
2. My most frequent camping buddy is 5'11" and she doesn't seem to like tiny tents and/or snuggling with me. Must needs have slightly spacious two-man tent.
3. I wanted something in which I could stay dry, set up with frozen fingers, play card games while it rains, use a footprint/fly set up, and yes, please look cool.