Backpacking like a Caveman

For those of you who are on the Paleo-Zone wagon, a trip to the grocery store is no longer simple (or cheap). Your shopping cart is piled high with meat, veggies, fruit, and nuts, and you sigh as you realize it will only feed you for three days…if you’re lucky. When you pack a day’s worth of food (3 meals/2 snacks for most), you need a cooler that may even exceed the current limits of an airline carry-on bag.

So, what do you do when you have to plan a camping trip? Specifically, a backpacking trip where you pack in everything from shelter, clothes, gear, AND food? This last week, I had the opportunity to take a backpacking trip to beautiful Catalina Island.  We packed for 3-4 days, taking into account lack of refridgeration, minimizing overall weight, and omitting easily crushed foods.   The food list came down to:

Proteins: bison jerky, tuna packs, chicken breast packs, and Mountain High Scrambled Eggs w/Bacon & Scrambled Eggs w/Ham & Green Peppers
Carbs: apples, unsweetened applesauce, carrots, freeze dried strawberries, and pineapple cups
Fats: avocado (one survived, the other was crushed), Justin’s Honey Almond Butter (mmmmm), almonds, bacon bits (real bacon), trail mix (difficult to find without sugar, ie cranberries, raisins, choc chips, etc).

A little creativity (pepper, bacon, and Mrs. Dash) goes a long way to adding variety.  Granted, we’re starting to get into the realm of excess salt and preservatives, but it was a good trade-off compared to the carbs that would have been MUCH easier and compact to pack in (oatmeal, cous cous, rice, pasta). I was a little bitter lamenting this when trekking my pack in the hot mid-day sun (do you know how much weight 10 apples adds to your pack?!), but overall, there was never a carb crash and I know that the hike would have been much more difficult if fueled by dirty grains! 

WOD 07.07.09

Back Squat 5×3 (90% 1RM)

5 Rds:
10 Box Jumps (high!)
10 Hang Power Snatch (60% 1RM)