Why Pro-Bar, why?

We have a wide variety of food bars for snacks and emergency food. Some I like more than others, but it's mostly personal preference.

One morning I totally slept through my alarm and grabbed a peanutbutter chocolate chip Pro-Bar as I ran out the door. First bite tastes SPICY!

I tried more after drinking half my fancy coffee (it was that or be hungry, and my co-workers don't deserve that), and it wasn't spicy anymore, but it did have a really unpleasant aftertaste.

Reading the label, this thing has rosemary in it.

I like rosemary. Usually.

I apparently really don't like rosemary in my peanutbutter and chocolate-chip food.

Have you ever been surprised by your energy bar flavor? And you unexpectedly liked? Any you unexpectedly didn't like?

Dried Hummus

Lunch is always tricky. We don’t care to go on snacks evenly spaced throughout the day (though some arguments for that method are tempting).

One day we saw hummus powder at a grocery store and decided to try it. We often eat hummus and stuff in a pita, so it seemed a good choice (we have best luck with food that’s like our at-home food).

The prep work we needed was to find a measuring vessel. The particular hummus we got is 1 part powder to 2 parts water. I had, on a whim, gotten Squishy shot cups, and one of those made a perfect measuring cup. 

So powder. Then water. And… this is like dirty water. As we pondered this, and then realized it just wasn’t done rehydrating. Waited a few minutes and it made an acceptable pita filling. 

It has a lot finer texture than fresh hummus, which is a slight mark against it for both of us. The flavor was fine. We will certainly make it again, though in the future we may dry our own rather than purchasing. 

Have you tried dried hummus? What did you think?

Lunch

Lunches are some of the hardest meals to figure out. Boo still can’t eat and walk at the same time, so snacking all day instead of stopping for lunch is right out. Sometimes we have a hot lunch, sometimes we don’t. What Boo eats varies a lot. Here are some things she’s eaten for lunch on hikes. 

Hard-Boiled Eggs

She’s been a fan of hard boiled eggs for a while. They’re good to fill her belly and stick with her, and I don’t mind eating her leftovers. The shell must be carried out, and if she’s already too hungry, there’s no quick sugar boost, but as a planned meal or snack, they’re awesome. 

Wraps

Some tortillas, meat, veggies of choice (tomatoes, greens, cucumbers), maybe a mustard packet. Pack the ingredients, build at lunch time. Awesome for unplanned dayhikes that have to start at the grocery store anyway. 

Stuff in Pitas

We often have a pita with a pouch of tuna. We have had dehydrated hummus, which was fine after it sat a few minutes. Much like wraps, almost anything can go into a pita.

Hot Lunch

Sometimes something hot is called for. We’re fond of couscous, and not just because it was the only camping food we knew when we started. I start her portion rehydrating before the water boils, so it’s not too hot for her when it’s ready. 

Calzones

One recent hike, Lee made calzones in the morning. We wrapped them in towels in our bags, and they were nicely warm for lunch. 

Smashed Sammiches

A traditional choice. Boo is fond of peanut butter and jelly. 

Random Plants

Though we try to keep this to a snack level, there is always the option to eat what plants are edible and allowed. We’ve been known to munch on dandelion greens, garlic mustard, and an assortment of berries.

What do your kids eat for lunch? Is it any different than what the adults eat?

 

Good Friday Hike

We had Friday off. What better way to fill it than taking a nice long hike? Boo has been agitating to hike “to the freeway” for months, and we haven’t had enough daylight or good weather at the same time. Friday… it looked good. Weather was sunny, warming up quickly after dawn, and it’s been dry enough most of the mud is walkable. 

Lee made calzones first thing in the morning, then wrapped them up in a towel to keep warm. I packed our big bags with what was to hand.

There were a number of trees across the trail to clamber over. Lots of hickory husks to collect. Plentiful benches for rests and snacks. We found a dead small mammal (mole?) that was very interesting. While most of the trail was dry enough, there were a couple places Boo almost lost her shoes.

Lee heard squirrel sound, “Wow, guys look!” There was a hawk chasing a squirrel! It swooped and missed a few times, the squirrel ran even faster than they usually do, ran over a bump, hawk disappeared behind the bump, brief kurfluffle, and silence. Wow.

Boo was thrilled when we first could see the freeway. She was even more excited when we dropped down and saw the new tunnel under the freeway. We were expecting her to look into the tunnel and be done with it. But she really wanted to go through. OK then. She held Lee’s hand the whole way through, and almost lost her shoes in the mud at the far end. 

After the tunnel is a bridge, and that’s where the trail currently ends. So we ate our lunch. The calzones were still warm, and oh my gosh they were good. Oranges, raisins, and Sweet Tarts finished the meal. 

As Lee and I put our packs back on, Boo was already halfway back to the tunnel. This time she bopped through without a hand. 

Funny thing about spring hikes. It’s sunny and warm, but there’s no leaves on the trees! Poor Boo was so desperate for shade she crawled under a bench at one stop, and eventually ended up wearing Lee’s hat. 

The trail had softened up during the day, and walking down the north sides of the hills was slippery slidey. Boo ended up falling a few times. 

Another hiker passed us as Boo was flagging. She perked right up and started running. So another motivator for my kiddo is a friendly stranger. Who doesn’t mind getting their ear talked off…. 

We did four miles in about 4 hours. Boo was tuckered out, but after an hour of quiet time at home, she played outside and rode her bike until dinner, so we could have gotten another mile or two out of her with judicious breaks and feeding.

What is your favorite and least favorite part of spring hiking?

Dairy-Free, Kid Friendly Trail Mix

Trail mix is easy to buy at the store. Unless we want trail mix that all three of us will eat. Lee can’t eat dairy. I am allergic to apricots. I don’t care for peanuts much, and Boo doesn’t like nuts at all.

So we mix our own. 

It’s a complicated process of going to the store, buying a bag of everything we like, and dumping it together. Each bath we try a new protein thing in hopes Boo will like it (and knowing that kids’ tastes change as they get older and get more molars). 

We try to keep approximately even amounts of nuts/seeds and dried fruit. 

For sweet, we put in dairy-free chocolate chips. These make a sticky mess if it’s going to be warm or sunny. We have pondered vegan M&M-type candies for less mess when it’s warmer, but haven’t gotten around to actually trying them. 

Dried Fruit: raisins, craisins, blueberries, apples, strawberries, cherries.

Nuts and Seeds: walnuts, pecans, cashews, sunflowers, almonds, pine nuts, pumpkin seeds. 

We will sometimes throw in pita chips or whatever crunchy chip/cracker thing catches our interest.

Dried fruit can get expensive, so we try to buy things in season and dry our own. This is difficult, as we tend to devour fresh fruit even when we could have sworn we had more than we could eat…

What do you like in trail mix? What don't you eat?

Lee’s Maplewood Thai-Ish Dinner

This is a tasty Thai-inspired meal that Lee made up.



Ingredients: 

1 bag of coleslaw mix
1 package noodles  (whatever dry Asian style you prefer. These were cellophane rice noodles.  Next time I will probably use a thicker rice noodle)

Sauce
1tbs soy sauce
1tbs peanut butter
2tbs rice vinegar
1/2 tbs dark sesame oil
1/4 tsp sriracha
1/2 tsp ginger
1 tsp garlic

Toppings
peanuts
sesame seeds

At Home: 

Dehydrate the coleslaw mix – it gets really small.

Pre-break the noodles into bite-sized pieces (shorter than the shortest dimension of your bag). The noodles are needle-sharp and will poke holes in the bag very easily.

Mix the sauce and put in a container of your choice. We used a squeeze tube, which worked nicely.

Containerize the toppings – we twisted them into a bit of plastic wrap.

 Put everything into a freezer Ziplock-type bag, and write how much water you’ll need (based on the noodle packaging).

 
 In Camp:

 Remove the sauce and topping containers.



Add sauce to bag (with coleslaw and noodles)

 

Add water. Mix, mix, mix.

 

 If you poked holes all over your bag, transfer everything to bowl before too much drips out.

Garnish with toppings.

Enjoy.

This was very yummy.  Pretty spicy, adjust the seasonings to your taste. Dehydrated cabbage stays crunchy when it's rehydrated, which is a nice change.

Feeding a Hiking Kid

So you may have noticed that kids eat differently than adults. Sometimes they hoover everything in sight. Sometimes they survive on fresh air and sunshine. Sometimes they eat what is offered, sometimes they will only eat peanut butter sandwiches three times a day.

Even accounting for those things, kids eat more hiking and camping than at home.

Boo will eat constantly while hiking if we let her, but her most common fuels are dried fruit and hard-boiled-eggs. Dried fruits are easy and cheap if you have a dehydrator and buy seasonally, or easy and not cheap if you buy them. She won't eat nuts and has trouble with jerky, but will inhale eggs, so that's our snack protein of choice.

Kid claims to be hungry? Feed her.

Kid flagging? Feed her.

Kid cold? Feed her.

Kid hot? Feed her.



Kid in need of a nap? Feed her.



Kid needs motivation? Feed her.



Kid whiny? Feed her.



Starting a hike? Feed her.



Ending a hike? Feed her.

She fell down and is crying inconsolably? Feed her.

She sees a tasty invasive? Let her eat it.

My kiddo eats on the trail almost as much as she runs.

What do your kids snack on?

Siloam Springs

April 7-8, 2012

We’d been planning a shake-out hike with our Duluth backpacking crew for a while. It came down to Easter weekend at Siloam Springs. Lee and I had gone there last fall for my birthday. As a destination, it had several important features: we could drive there before the kids went critical in the car; the entire backpacking loop was 4 miles, which both kids could do; it had enough small interesting things to keep the kids occupied while being interesting enough for the adults. On the flip side, there was no water at the site. The weather was supposed to be high 60s during the day, 40 at night. A bit chilly for a little one perhaps. It wasn’t a huge destination hike, but it was perfect for our needs. 

Saturday we meet at 7:30. Three adult Ospreys, one “big” kid Osprey, and Boo’s little REI Sprig went into the Explorer’s trunk. I squeezed between the booster seats and officiated “I spy” and “are we there yet?” for 2.5 hours. 

Boo’s zip-offs, which were over 3” too long when we got them in December, just needed a roll at the waist to keep them off the ground. Her pack contained 17 oz of water in a bladder with tube, whistle, Z-bar, bike gloves, field guide pamphlets, 

We arrived, paid for a site (from the car campground hosts), and picked up trail “maps” from the office. J kept looking for the scale on the map so he knew how far things were, but there wasn’t one. It may not have even been to scale. Luckily, it’s pretty easy to not get lost. We parked by the west trailhead, took a pit stop, ate a snack (very important to feed the kids before hitting the trail), and we were off. 

We walked along the road to the eastern trailhead, and the kids eagerly perused the trailhead map. The east trailhead starts with a long hill. It’s not that steep, but it is long. Boo and J alternated running and stopping to look at sticks. We lost D only a few yards in to a flower he didn’t recognize. Nor was it in our “flowers of Illinois” pamphlet. Take a (few dozen) picture(s), look it up later. Boo found and discarded several hiking sticks. D stopped to take pictures of every dogwood we passed. The kids hike very erratically, stopping often, sprinting often, stopping to poke at things. Lee and I just stayed with the group, and we traveled like a well-oiled herd of cats. 

Near the end of the hill, Boo and J found something. “Hey, come look at this!” “What is it?” “I don’t know! It looks gross!” They had found a dried out morel mushroom. It looked like it had escaped from a mushroomer earlier. I was lamenting the loss when D came up. “That’s salvageable. It won’t be perfect, but it’ll perk up enough to eat if we soak it.” It was tucked into a mesh pocket on Boo’s bag.

The spring beauties and mayapples were blooming at the same time. It’s been a weird spring that way. D really wanted a picture of both. So we walked past a patch of mayapples he found ideal for his picture-taking purposes. “I’m going to have to drop my pack and be a real wildflower photographer here.” We all knew he was going to lay down in the dirt. As a good friend, I immediately got my camera ready. He set up his shot, I crouched down and tried to get a nicely composed shot of my own. I shifted… and fell over, turtled up by my pack. At this point, one can either curse and get mad, or laugh. I was already in a good mood. I laughed. He turned, saw me, and took a picture. 

We met a few mushroom hunters. Boo especially wanted to talk to all of them, and show off our poor shriveled mushroom. 

The kids were tired after the hill. J wasn’t used to his pack and was asking to stop for lunch every log or flat spot. I was walking with him at the back and finally told him that he could mention a spot once, and no more. We were looking for a lunch spot and he would have to be patient. As we fell farther and farther behind, and he complained more about how heavy his pack was, I took his 2 almost-full water bottles from his pack. With that weight reduction, we caught up and kept up to the rest of the group, and a few minutes later found a good stopping place. 

Coming around a curve along the top of a ridge, the view opened up over a steep hillside, with a stream and fields at the bottom. Just off the trail was a large log, perfect for a Lee and Boo to sit on to eat their lunch.

Boo ate a hard-boiled egg while I made tuna pitas for the two adults. J and D had packed themselves sandwiches. Turns out a packet of tuna is about 2 pitas worth, not 1, so we had some leftovers. Tuna pita, hard-boiled egg, some root veggie strings (what are they called?), and we were off. We might have lingered, but it was just exposed enough for a chilly breeze, and when the clouds started blocking some sun, it was time to keep moving or start digging for more layers. We moved.

After lunch, the kids had a lot more energy. We clambered down a rocky track to the soggy lowlands. Up in the hill we could see small cliffs and overhangs. We hiked through some mucky areas, and hopped a few rivulets. After a bit we came to the ruins of a stone building. A doorframe was still standing, but most of the other walls had fallen down. The whole park used to be a mineral springs resort thing.

After that, there was a shorter hill, but still tough for the kids. After lunch is not their best time. The trail flattened briefly, turned, and opened up to the fire lane. 

When Lee and I had been there last fall, the fire lane was very freshly bulldozed. Now, winter weather and spring vegetation had softened it into a boulevard of a trail, but more trail than construction zone. The kids were reaching the end of their lunch perk up, and the trail was still gently climbing. Boo held our hands and got a tow up. 

And then, “I see it! That white sign up ahead, that’s the campground!” The kids ran. After a pit stop, we carefully perused all four campsites and picked site 4. We shed our packs at the picnic table and started lazily clearing sticks from our chosen tent sites. “Did you feel that?” “A rain drop?” “…. Maybe….” The tent pitching took on some intensity. Not much, as it was barely raining, but we stopped dawdling.

Tents pitched, we tried to get Boo to rest. She was having nothing to do with it. Lee and I laid down, Boo escaped. The Krauses were being quiet in their tent. Boo sat quietly at the picnic table in the drizzle while we all rested. 

After the drizzle let up, we all emerged, had a snack, and took a hike. Because, well, why not? We explored down another trail, and got down to the river that borders the park. We discussed various ways to cross the river. Do we make a zip line? Do we take a boat across to build a bridge? Do we shoot a line across with a bow and arrow? Do we bring the goat or the fox or the chicken? After that rather interesting discussion, Boo declared she was too tired to continue and wanted to go back to camp. I said I’d take her, and before we’d gone ten steps, J was coming with us. DvA and Lee kept walking, and the kids and I walked back to camp.

The kids both whined a little going back up the hill, but I got them looking for navigation information points (blazes, signs, things that look familiar) and interesting things. J had been reading his survival guide during our nap time, and I had him tell me about what he’d read. Apparently the first chapter is “How to get un-lost”. “OK, what do you do if you get lost?” “…. Um, there’s a lot… it’s kinda complicated.” While that can be true, you are 8 and you need to remember the basic steps first. “Boo, what do you do if you are lost?” “Sit down or hug a tree, blow on your whistle three times.” J admitted that his book had said that, but a lot more stuff too. I was surprised that she remembered the “three whistles”, as I’d mentioned it once to J that morning. We do teach her and have her practice staying put and blowing her whistle, but we don’t expect her to remember it if she actually feels lost yet. 

And they both sprinted back to camp. J was excited to use his pocket knife to whittle. He’d had a whittling workshop with Cub Scouts where they carved on soap, but he hadn’t done any or much actual whittling on sticks. He had gotten permission to whittle with supervision, and I said OK. We reviewed the safety rules, and he remembered them all with just a little prompting. Boo was constantly wheedling for a snack until I hung the food. There are no bears, but it keeps the food out of reach of raccoons, other critters, and my kid.

Then he and Boo collected pinecones. They decided to pile them in the fire ring. Then they decided to gather sticks “for the fire”. I told them I didn’t think we were going to have a fire. They said they’d gather sticks anyway, just in case. And if we didn’t have a fire, it would be ready for the next people. Then Lee and DvA arrived. “Huh, looks like we’re having a fire tonight.” There were a couple very excited kids. They brought pine needles for tinder, and went increasingly farther afield in search of sticks. Luckily for them, the backpacking sites don’t seem to have very high usage so there are lots of good fire sticks around. 

Once the fire was going well, the adults started dinner. We use a Trangia Mini. This trip was our first with a GSI Dualist pot. We eat out of Squishy Bowls. DvA has a new canister alcohol stove of some sort. It has a reflector base. Lee wants one. I cleared a spot on the ground for our stove, and realized that we had to resize the windscreen for the new pot. So I folded the tinfoil down to fit under the pot handle. Lee cooked. The new pot has a strainer lid, so as the water boiled steam came out only on one side. It was pretty neat.



Dinner was tasty. The soup was a lot soupier than Lee usually makes, but it hit the spot on a rapidly cooling evening. Boo didn’t eat as much as we were expecting, but she doesn’t eat as big a dinner as other meals, so we didn’t worry about it. D fried up the morel for dessert, though both kids declined. More for the adults! 

We didn’t even try to get Boo to sleep before dusk. We had decided last fall that, since Boo always ends up in Lee’s sleeping bag anyway, and since we got new bags that zip together, we’d just stick her with us. She’ll be warm, it’s where she ends up anyway, and it’s less weight and expense than bringing her a bag. So I snuggled her up. She was wiggly and chatty. Typical over-tired. I may have fallen asleep before she did. 

“Birch. Birch, wake up.” “Unh.” “Will you take her potty?” “Unh? Oh, OK.”  I take her out of the tent, and she’s crying. “Shh, baby, shhhh.” She doesn’t calm down or wake up or stop whatever is making her cry as much as I was expecting. She must be tired and not happy to be out of routine. Or else cold, I’m pretty chilly. Mission accomplished, I snuggle back in, already more asleep than awake.

 “Birch. Birch, is the ibuprofen hung in the tree or can you get it?” I am suddenly a lot more awake. “She has a fever.” Luckily, the ibuprofen was in the tent, not in a tree. Lee works on calming her back to sleep while my mind crafts ever-more-improbable scenarios. When I’ve gotten to the worst-case I can think of, I finally sleep.

Dawn broke beautiful and chilly. The sun streaming through the pines took my breath away. I took the opportunity to play Easter Bunny, and hid 4 token eggs around the camp. Even having had ibuprofen a few hours earlier, Boo still had a fever (though she was doing better than in the night). So I started getting breakfast ready, while Boo and J found eggs. (And J only had 3 eggs to Boo’s 4…. Oops)



As usual we made Boo’s breakfast first. A packet of oatmeal, a cup of cocoa, a squeeze-pack of applesauce and the contents of her Easter Eggs.  And she barely ate any.

Lee and I had oatmeal with nuts, dried fruit, and chia seeds. Tea for Lee, coffee for me.

As we ate, Lee and I discussed our options. We felt that she probably could walk out. But we don’t want her first backpacking overnight to be a miserable death march. And she would get whiny. So we packed up my bag early and quickly (wet tent and all), and I hit the trail while the rest of them broke camp at a more reasonable pace. I could only do this because the trails are pretty straightforward, and I’d done this trail before. (I have not had to develop great navigational skills.) I went down to the truck fast. Once there, I grabbed a last big swig of water, took my fanny pack and the belt from my pack, and headed right back up the trail as fast as I could go. 

I got up most of the hill and about half the distance to camp before I spotted DvA coming around a bend. Boo’s trudging along holding Lee’s hand, looking miserable. Lee reports that Boo has been OK holding Lee’s or DvA’s hand, but had started to get whiny. She’s used to riding piggy-back (it’s the only way I can carry her anymore), so I knelt down and got her on my back. Then I carefully strapped my pack belt under her bottom and over my shortribs. Her legs were inside the belt over my hips. This would probably have been sufficient, except I was not convinced she wasn’t going to fall asleep. So the belt of the fanny pack went under both our armpits. That way she could relax, enjoy the ride as best she could, even sleep if she wanted. Once she was settled, I didn’t worry about leaving anyone behind. At 37 pounds, she’s significantly heavier than my pack, and the belt around my ribs got uncomfortable quickly. It was better than carrying her in my arms or on my shoulders, but it wasn’t anything I could do for hours on end. 

When we got to the car, I fed her some nibbles from the trail mix out of my pack. The rest of the crew arrived shortly, and we headed home. Boo missed three days of school. But she wanted to go backpacking again. Win. 

What was your first overnight like?