Have a favorite trail recipe or technique you'd like to share? Please do! We also like reviews of various trail food products out there. The Backcountry Food Topix forum is the place to discuss all things related to food and nourishment while in the Sierra wilderness (as well as favorite trail head eateries).
...or any flavor! Lara Bars qualify (imho) for the Colin Fletcher Seal of Approval: they "resemble food." Funny: I just ordered a case from my local food co-op co-conspirator. Hoping to take them on the JMT with me this summer.
I found some fruit bars maybe 10 years ago, but the local natural foods co-op quit carrying them. Same name as some town in OR, Okanagum or something like that. Loved them. The ProBar was ok, like the rest, after a few, blah.
Mostly, when I take bars, I take a variety of bars so I don't have any one kind several days in a row. Clif, Balance, and Tigers milk mostly. The orignal flavor Tigers Milk bar is the best to me - I can eat more of those without getting tired of them.
I used to like Clif bars but something happened five or six years ago and they became inedible shoe goo for me, I just can't stand the taste of them anymore. Right now I'm snarfing down some Premier Protein bars that I found at Costco. They're targeted at the body-building set rather than at outdoors types, but they're yummy and nutritious and don't have a consistency similar to rubber. Probably wouldn't work well in super-hot temperatures but I haven't had a problem with them in any temperatures I've taken them out into thus far.
And yeah, that's my usual breakfast. I've never been a big breakfast eater -- at home I mostly just drink a big mug of coffee, and that's my breakfast. Instant hot cocoa with some instant coffee in it finishes up the trail breakfast for me.
I don’t know if it’s still there but I liked the Cutthroat Saloon in Markleeville, CA. It was kinda a biker bar on 89 where people pinned dollar bills on the walls and women would get free drinks if they pinned their bras up. You can get my favorite comfort food there after a long dry Sierra hike …… good cold beer!
As far as those energy bars, everthing I have ever had tasted like dry cardboard.
Bear Valley Pemmican bars are my favorite.
Or make Oatmeal Cookies.
Or purchase a Fruitcake, soak it in Brandy and slice it into single servings.
Or take Snickers bars in cool weather, check and compare the actual food values
Vs. price, The Snickers wins over all the commercial bars.
Or make Logan Bread with a bit more fruit. Actually the Bear Valley Bars
most resemble Logan Bread.
frediver wrote:Bear Valley Pemmican bars are my favorite.
...Or purchase a Fruitcake, soak it in Brandy and slice it into single servings.
...
Surely at this time of year it shouldn't be necessary to purchase a fruitcake! I think a little careful dumpster diving is likely to turn up an arbitrarily large number of discarded fruitcakes...
frediver wrote:Bear Valley Pemmican bars are my favorite.
...Or purchase a Fruitcake, soak it in Brandy and slice it into single servings.
...
Surely at this time of year it shouldn't be necessary to purchase a fruitcake! I think a little careful dumpster diving is likely to turn up an arbitrarily large number of discarded fruitcakes...
LOL...I LOVE fruitcake! I think this is a GREAT idea!! (using it in place of bars... not the dumpster-diving idea ) You just send me your discarded fruitcakes B2 - YUM!
Funny. When I first saw this thread, my first thoughts turned to a place to get alcohol. Don't have a go-to spot in the high-country in this regard. I'm kind of a beer guy, so it would be more like favorite pub anyway and my longtime favorite, Dixon's of South Lake Tahoe, changed hands, declined, then closed (at least I didn't see the original location when I drove by there after my Desolation "night run" back in September).
As far as bars that fit in the mouth, my go-to bar is the oatmeal raisin Clif Bar. 'Tis a bit sweet and chewy but it works when I'm up there and working hard. I will do the chocolately ones on occasion and I like them but I find the caffeine content is high enough that I if I consume one of those in the afternoon I have trouble sleeping later (morning is OK, though).
Speaking of fruitcake, a death march tradition of mine is to bake a loaf of banana nut bread (at home) and consume it over the first two days of the trip. Now the banana bread is much esteemed in our family even at sea level, let alone at altitude. This led to one "tragic" moment on a trip my wife and I took up the spectacular Lake Genevieve outlet slot canyon above Convict Canyon (this is a trip that eventually went over the crest to Ram Lakes--not really a true death march). We stopped to rest on a scree-covered sloping bench on the walls of the slot canyon and took out the loaf of banana bread to slice. It sort of plopped out and started rolling, escaped a desperate lunge, then vaulted into space... My wife and I nearly cried. I think we were imagining the taste of the banana bread we lost for the rest of that day.
Luna bars are pretty tasty, and I also like Larabars. Don't really care for Clif. My favorite, though are Bear Valley "mealpack" bars - 420 calories and 3.75oz, all at the price of a single Clif bar. They last for years (I carried over some from an earlier hike and they still were fine the next year. well, I was hungry and at that point any bar is good :-)
) You just send me your discarded fruitcakes B2 - YUM!
