Pat's Backcountry Beverage

Just finished setting up camp after an exhilarating hike under a gorgeous blue sky weather and a beautiful lake in plain view. Sprawled out by our camp and enjoying the fruits of our day's labor. Now if only my left hand (or right) is raising a nice bubbling beer to my tired-of-drinking-just-plain-water mouth. Life at the moment would be perfect.

But the beer had to be left behind. A weight sacrifice that had to be made in exchange for a tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, stove, food, blah, blah, blah and blah.

I first stumbled on Pat's Backcountry Beverage researching for ways to carry beer in my backpack. Cause I'll be honest, much as I love enjoying a good Pinot in the wilderness carried by my trusty Platypus or good ol' whiskey, rum or what-not liquor repackaged into a lighter flask, a good tasting beer is my comfort food in liquid form.

My failed tries of searching for
"pack-able" sodas

Carrying bottles was not an option. Even the thought of carrying the weight of those bottles after I have enjoyed their contents did not give reassuring joy. Plus the fact that they'd occupy so much space in a bear canister! I've considered cans, thrash-wise they were a better option. But with weight still in the factor, I'm only willing to carry 1 or 2 and they'd still take up too much in the canister! Plus, one would have to share that precious can with other beer-less hiking buds who'd be eyeing you vehemently lest you'd share a few sips of that brown ale you're enjoying. It is a long way down that cliff and then there's that deep, deep lake in front of you...

All my researching, I finally landed on Pat's Backcountry Beverage website (it looked different than how it beautifully looks now). And enjoyed much of their back story of how they ended up with their current product. It pretty much echoed all of my beer sentiments in backpacking. But on their story, they ended hiking back and heeding the call of the after-hike beers stored in their car!

After much deliberation, I took the plunge and purchased the carbonator kit from Amazon. The kit included the 1 Carbonator Bottle, 5 Activator packets and 1 foil packet of each flavor to make your own soda. They were still in the middle of getting their liquor license approved at that time, so beer sale was still on hold. That didn't deter me. I figured I'd have this carbonating thing cinched down by the time beer sales get approved.

Out of all the soda flavors included in the kit, Terra Cola, Ginger Trail, Rootbeer, Lemon Clime and PomaGranite, the Lemon Clime was an instant favorite.

It took a few tries and watching Pat's (original) video on how to use it and took it for a spin on a quick backpacking trip with the soda flavors,  before I got it down and I was ready for some beer! It was a bit of a wait that time, but made it in time for me to purchase a few for our High Sierra Trail trip.

They've got 2 different brews, the Pail Rail (a pale ale) and Black Hops (an IPA). Haven't got a chance to try the Black Hops, but the Pail Rail gets a thumbs up. After a few days and slogging in a few miles, a cold beer in the middle of the woods was nice to have.

Unlike the soda flavors, the beer concentrates are not available to purchase on their website nor at your local REI store. You'd be redirected to liquor stores in your area that carry them and can sell them retail directly to you, customers. Stopped on our way home from a camping trip in San Jacinto State Park at a Liquorama store in Upland, CA (the closest in my L.A. radius!). I had to ask for them though, since they don't put it out on the shelves. The guy who helped me out mentioned it was rare or I may be the first to ask for it, as they mostly fill up online orders of it.

I love how the sodas and beer concentrates come in little foil packets shaped like a bottle. They can perfectly fit to squish into available spaces inside the bear canister. Big plus! They're also small enough to secretly stash in you buddy's backpack and have it completely undetected! Another plus to be able to bring more!

Pat's Backcountry Beverage definitely earned its weight and space in my backpack!


Note: Please don't get into a drunken stupor in the back country. Dehydration is your big enemy!

Suffer now than regret later - the task of packing your meal.

I was tossed a topic to talk about and the subject was FOOD. I jumped at it, after all I love to eat, wilderness or not wilderness.

It falls at such a perfect timing that I am in my last three week window of planning for an upcoming backpacking trip. I'll be heading out with some of my usual hiking suspects to traverse the sierra nevada from the West to the East via the High Sierra Trail route and we've allowed ourselves 7 days to finish it, so that would mean about 21 meals plus extras. Yes, extra! My family has successfully instilled in us, growing up, what I like to call, The Hunger Fear.

Eating is a family tradition. Family get together always involve food, from the joyous birth of a new member of the family to the celebration of life of someone who has passed, my family will have a table spread out with all kinds of food - not just snacks, but actual meals!

To avoid that "Hunger Fear", my family has always been known to pack, cook, prepare extra amounts of food for any occasion, whatsoever. "At the end of the day, it is better to have left overs than get short of anything.", were my Nanay's (our grandma) words she has passed on to us.

But this is backpacking, extra weight is deemed like a sacrilege in the backpacking community. One will get stoned to virtual death in any public intarweb forum. Religious ultralight practioners will throw themselves into the fire before they'd even consider packing in any extra weight. So, how do I go about packing enough meals for a trip without abandoning my family's mantra.

Over the past few trips a few suffer-now-than-regret-later tasks to ensure a hunger-free trip have been developed and discovered.

Menu Planning 

As any "Suzy Homemaker" knows, just a week's worth of menu planning is tedious but a suffer-now-than-regret-later task. Having a meal planned for each day of your trip will make it easy to not over pack. And be able to gauge how much extra snacks and meals can you still bring.

And meal failures do occur even at the home front, but there will always be the "take out from down the street" to save us. However, in camping in a remote area, one does not have that fall back option. So every meal that is planned, should be tried and taste-tested before it can get the stamp of approval and earn a space in the bear canister.

Re-packaging

You know those shelf stable GoPinic meals you can carry anywhere? Yeah, strip that box open, examine the contents. Those individually packaged nuts, cookies and such? Strip those too and shove them all in one snack size ziplock. That just saved precious space on a trash bag that will be packed out. When you're gone for days with no town access, trash space is precious, too. Examine carefully all of what will be packed and get rid of any unnecessary packaging. It'll also save precious weight.

Can't find a pro-pak version of your favorite freeze-dried meal? A day as close enough to the trip as possible, poke a needle through your free-dried meal packaging to let the air out and tape over the hole after. That should make it easier to shove inside the bear canister or bag.

Foil pack versions.

Got that Chicken Alfredo thoughts in your tummy? Found the powder to make the sauce, pasta can be packed.. but unrefrigerated chicken? The foil-packed chicken chunks would be the answer to this. Remember to test out your menu at home first! Packaged chicken may not be for everyone. Tuna and salmon can also be found in foil packs, not just cans. And Spam! This processed food is a guilty pleasure, especially for breakfast.. or also lunch.. maybe even dinner. Ha! Happiness was off the roof that day I found those Spam singles in foil packs.

Mini groceries.

Find a local DYI gift basket store. They're the perfect spot to find mini/solo versions of a lot of things, from summer sausages, cheese, chocolate bars, cookies and even liquor and wine bottles. My local Cost Plus World Market is my gem for these things. Grateful that I will always have cheese stashed during multi-day trips and they'll last!

Want to read more about outdoors and food? Check out the Sierra Trading Post Social Hub: Food for the Outdoors: #Trailtime Favorites and see other posts on the much loved topic. Still can't get enough? Join some happy, food loving, outdoorsy chatty people on twitter on Thursday 7/17 at 3 p.m. PST by following the #Trailtime tag!

BioLite CampStove

Ever since I've first heard about this wondrous stove that can let you cook your food and charge your devices, I have wanted it. Add the fact that they originally make the HomeStove to donate and bring fuel and energy to developing areas, and by purchasing their CampStove™ models help fund that good deed, it added to that "want".

So I researched about it along with information as to where I can procure such a device. I'm usually hesitant of purchasing gear and gadgets that involved big $$$ via online shopping. I would need to physically see it, hold it, feel it.. and maybe even give it a little caress to hear it speak to me before I throw all my money at it.

I was thankful to find out that my local REI store carries it. So, off I went to see if we were meant to be together. My "want" changed into "need", as soon as my eyes set on its catchy orange color and a picture of a phone charging in its packing. However there were 2 factors keeping me from flying to the registers, after studying it: its weight and it's main fuel, the twigs! Go figure, why would I still want it, right? It is called a wood burning stove! Derp moment.

I backpack more often than I car camp, and with weighing slightly more than 2 lbs, there goes the weight issue. And where we usually end up cooking & pitching up tents, camp fires are restricted, which usually also means including word burning stoves. So, snapping back to reality and priorities, I reluctantly left the store empty handed.

A year, almost 2, later, I received one for Christmas! I didn't get to try it out immediately upon receiving it, but finally did during our volunteer clean up in Sequoia National Park when we decided to make it into a car camping trip, as well. Putting it together was a cinch. Attach here to there.. unfold legs.. set up on a flat sturdy area.. put twigs.. light up fire starter.. yadda yadda. What they forgot to mention, and so I'm putting it on here.. is to gather lots and lots and lots of twigs of all sizes (have I said lots, yet?) before ever starting. Otherwise you'd be going for several twig runs while hurrying to come back to your stove to not let the fire burn out, 'cause the flames sure do eat those little twigs fast! Think, Garfield with lasagna.

Cooking

We mostly heated water with it for our drinks, we didn't really cook that trip (we had free lunch and packed dinner from the volunteer event). But judging from the looks of how it works, it is practically similar to cooking in an open fire; it'll make your pot turn black. This reminded me of my childhood days cooking on one of those iron/steel charcoal/wood burning stoves, as some Filipino dishes are best made on a clay pot atop an open fire. Although with the BioLite Camp Stove, I'm a bit unsure how one will be able to cook a full meal with it since the fuel container is not that big and the twigs get burned faster. We were constantly adding more and more twigs to it as we continue to feed.

Charging

It works! We were able to fully charge Kari's iPhone 4. to give gauge, (And sorry, I only took note of the time & percentage once during the whole time it was charging) in 15 minutes, the BioLite Camp Stove was able to charge the phone by 8%.

What's my take?

Although, I wouldn't take this with me backpacking on multi-day trips because of its weight, this is still good for car camping trips for us. Plus, this is also perfect as a backup power if a long power outage ever occurs at home base (preppers anyone?). It sure was useful to some New Yorkers on the aftermath of hurricane Sandy.

Meal Planning With Great Outdoors Food

One of the most important things when we're planning a backpacking trip is food. And if you ask my family, who are usually my hiking partners, they'd just say: Is there anything else more important?! We love to eat. We'd shed anything we can cautiously shed in our packs just to make room for food, seriously… okay maybe alcohol, too.

Meal planning is fun, but it can be tedious and time consuming. And more often than not, we would end up over thinking and over packing on food. I think our fear to starve for a day (or any point in a day!) is beyond explanation. Ha!

Then I got directed to check out Great Outdoors Food. I thought I was in camping grocery heaven! It has a “Build Custom Meal” tool that lets you shop your way through a wide variety of camping food products while at the same time helps you be organized in gathering your food, watch your nutritional intake and police your wallet.

As you go through to build your custom meal, keep on clicking on those “Yes” or “Next” or “Skip” or “Add” buttons, all the data from the food you grab for your virtual shopping cart gets tallied and there’s a chart that shows you what you have already gather gathered and how much, be it in terms of nutritional value to how much your meal already costs.  It’s a great tool for those backpackers who are nutritional and budget conscious. Makes me wish my regular grocery shopping lets me do this!

You can label each meal that you create. I can see it being used to separate daily meals. It would be great to use when composing a resupply cache for those thru-hikes.  It can also be used to separate each meal for each person in your group or family and label each their names.

And at the end of your meal planning clicking extravaganza, you get to review you all the meals you have created in separate charts as exactly as how you've composed it. And they pack and ship them out to you the same way! All separated and labeled with the tally chart that you see when you’re shopping for your food. Great to double check what you've ordered!

Contents

I did enjoy shopping through their wide array of products, from freeze dried meals up to the last detail of condiments. I love the fact that I can purchase per piece of individual packets of certain things. Things that I know I will never use, if I ever buy them on my own, since they can only be bought in boxes of. Mayonnaises, sugar, creamers, salt, and pepper packets – I do confess, I usually get them for “free”. But hot sauce (in particular Cholula! Woot!), salad dressings, olive oil packets (I get these usually in mini bottles at Cost Plus World Market) and a cheddar cheese spread? Oh the possibilities.

I’m a bit partial to a certain company that produces freeze-dried food, mainly due to some taste testing we've previously done. If we’re packing freeze dried meals, we’d be packing Mountain House meals. Hopefully they’ll start carrying them sometime soon. But for now maybe it's time to try out the other company again. it has been a while.

Cost

Price-wise on the products, it’s pretty much within boundary. I’ve found some items they’d carry cheaper and some not. No biggie, I say things even out in the end. The individual packets I’d expect would cost slightly more than when purchased by the boxful, but that’s fine I’d rather pay a just few cents more than be stuck with a box of 97 packets of creamers.

Shipping

Then there is the shipping cost that also needs to be factored in which kind of balances out when I make a separate trip to the store just to purchase food for an upcoming trip. They offer priority mail via USPS to my CA zip code. And when I got to test the site out with the help of a coupon, shipping was fast. I placed my order on a Thursday and it was already in my mailbox by the time I came home from work on Monday.

In the end, I’m glad Great Outdoors Food was created. The helpfulness and ease of use of it is making me look forward for my big trip in summer, 9 days’ worth of meal planning for 3 people – bring it.

For more information or you'd like to check it out and look around, visit: www.greatoutdoorsfood.com

Update: ended up shopping? Enter gof20off coupon for 20% off. Enjoy!