Planning the Food for the Backpack Trip

---

Last night Camilo and Justin came for dinner and to discuss the upcoming hike. I’d started mapping out meals in preparation for our talk. (Just like a mom?)

Camilo thought that he and his boys would just have bologna or peanut butter sandwiches every night, Justin didn’t have much outlined. My outline was, of course, much more extensive: chicken curry over rice the first night, then other meals of pasta with sauce, warm quinoa salad, chili and sautéed salmon patties with mashed potatoes.

Camilo quickly decided that he’d go in with us for the curry and the pasta but was shocked when we told him he’d need to carry his own food. He had hiked when in the military but they had emphasized taking care of his feet; he hadn’t thought about how his food was going to get into the Sierra’s. We had quite a laugh about the McDonald’s he would be hiking to.

The food is a challenge as I wrote a couple of days ago, I’m gluten free and we have various foods dislikes to work with. Additionally, I want food that has lots of flavor. I will cut some basil, thyme, oregano and rosemary today to start drying.

When my boys were younger we had pots and pans for backpacking and a kitchen kit, all of which have disappeared. I loved the kit as it had everything in a pouch. I can make something like that up but just using the utensils from my own home kitchen. We have eating supplies in our picnic backpack along with wine glasses that we can use.

The kit also had clear plastic bottles with screw tops. Those were great since things like olive oil couldn’t leak out. I’ll be looking for those bottles as well as pots and pans today.

---