Trail food:Nutritional bars

Despite their high cost I find nutritional bars make good trail food for several reasons.

1. They offer a source of vitamins, protein, carbs, and fat.

2. They taste good enough to be sort of a treat but not so good that you would be likely to binge on them.

3. They are a convient food for when you don’t want to eat breakfast but just need to get hiking right away to avoid the heat.

4. They ride well in your pocket and are handy to have there when you need to eat something but you don’t want to stop, like when it is raining.

I usually pack 2 bars for every day I will be out on the trail.

If it will be really cold, be conscious that some bars freeze rock hard and will be impossible to eat.

How to confuse the mountain lion hunters and their stupid dogs.

On my walk, today, a man pulled over and told me that there are people tracking the mountain lions with dogs and killing them. He said we should carry cat poo with us when we hike and drop it where ever, to throw off the dogs. I don’t have any source of cat poo and I really wouldn’t want to carry it around even if I did but I thought I would pass on the advice.

The most arduous journey yet.

It snowed an incredible amount last night and it was still coming down hard this morning. We probably got a foot of new powder. I put my propane tank in my backpack, strapped on my skis and headed down through state land to the little store to get it filled. I commented to the woman at the store that all this snow felt kind of festive but she said “No, it’s kind of fucked up, is what it is”.

I used my snow shoes for the way back. Man, I was tired. With the skis and full propane tank it was probably close to 50 lbs. Trudging up hill through all that new powder was so hard that I wanted to lay down in the snow and rest for awhile. By the time I got back, the propane tank had made a sore spot on my lower back. I need a pack board. I was looking at Luxurylite pack board. It’s really light but it’s sort of expensive.  Cabelas has a pack board that might be a less expensive solution. They have packboards ranging in price from 70 dollars to 120.00.

Stale winter.

Well, here I am.  Spring’s coming.  A lot of the snow has melted but then the melt re-freezes.   So the road is a thick solid sheet of ice.  New dry snow fell today.  It doesn’t stick to the ice.  When I went for my walk I slipped  and fell a lot.  It’s like walking on cardboard across a waxed floor.

The Internet is seeming mundane and small.  Watching movies sometimes feels like a chore.   I’m antsy but not sure for what.

I’m only eating between 10am and noon, now.   It’s for health and for a discipline.  Every day is a mini fast and my body is responding well to it, although it seems to be filled with a lot of unfocused energy.   It’s hard to sit still.  Besides my 10-to noon eating thing I have also quit drinking coffee, for awhile, maybe forever.

My wood pile is really low; probably not another month worth left.

It’s been 3 months now since my truck has moved; I started it just to make sure it would start.

It’s been three months since I have washed my clothes or bedding.  I’m looking forward to the day  I can finally can get out and go to the laundry mat.

Some people plant, some people gather.

As spring approaches I turn my attention to what this year’s adventure will be. This has been the winter of the blog and Netflix DVD’s. I’m thinking about this summer being yet another PCT thru-hike. When I start thinking about being back on that trail my body starts humming and vibrating. A part of me thinks that that would be the best thing to do this summer. Another part of me remembers how hard it is: the heat, the pain, the stinking horses and their obnoxious riders, the cold and the rain, bear worries, etc. How can something so hard be so alluring? I think it must be something in a person’s intrinsic programing that makes some people want to start roaming as spring nears where as others start thinking about planting a garden.

Ear plugs

earplugs.jpgBecause sometimes the world is a loud place, ear plugs are a good thing to have in your pack when you are traveling. Some hikers also carry them, to block out loud snorers in the shelters or when the wind is whipping their tent around so much that it is hard to sleep.

The best ones, in my opinion, are the EAR Classic Yellow Disposable Foam Earplug, because they can be washed or gotten wet and they still work; once the smooth foam ones get wet they will never fit in your ears right again. To wash the yellow ones just put them in your pants pocket and throw in the washing machine and dryer. I have been using the same pair, for when I use my chainsaw, for over two years. I found single pairs for sell in a drug store. They weigh so little that my scale with a 1 gram readability doesn’t register any weight for them.

Xena and me.

Once I took a “Dealing with Difficult People” workshop. The instructor told the following story, I don’t remember why he told it, but it made me so mad that he probably thought I was a plant. The story the instructor told was: “Two men and one woman were marooned on an island surrounded by shark-infested waters. There is a rowboat. The woman asks the men to row her away. One says, ‘no’ and the other one says, ‘Yes if you have sex with me.”

I loudly asked, “Why didn’t she just row herself off?” And he said, “Because, it was surrounded by shark infested waters.”  I kept saying, “I don’t understand why she didn’t just take the boat.” And he kept saying, “Because she was afraid of the shark infested waters.”  This went on for most of the class.

After that class, my next job was running a skiff back and forth to a barge that was anchored in the Columbia. It was the middle of winter and the water and wind could be fierce some days. When I felt the need for some courage, I would think to my self, “Shark infested waters, yeeee ha!”  and plow ahead. Just like Xena and Tarzan have their cries, “Shark infested waters!”  has been my courage conjuring phrase ever since because it reminds me of the cost of fear.

Silver tea

cabin-945-1.jpgFor a delicious, healthy, hot beverage try a cup of silver tea. It’s cheap too, unless you are in Sweden, were it reportedly fetches at least the same price as a cup of Earl Grey.

My other cabin is water access only and I don’t own a boat, so if I would run out of coffee and tea I couldn’t go to the store and get more. I found that I was just as happy with some spruce needles in my hot water or even just a cup of silver tea(hot water).