Date: 2009-12-13
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Miles today: 0.0

Over the last couple of weeks I have read and been told by a few backpackers that when it come to food, it is all about calories. And to a large measure they are correct. A backpacker burns as much as 6,000 calories a day. However your body is a high performance engine. It will burn whatever you put in it. If you use high performance fuel it will perform at a high level. If you give it junk food, it will perform for awhile but eventually it will lose performance. Sure on the AT you can duck into town and eat a couple of times a week. And if you run across me on the trail I will have a stack of Oreos and peanut butter. I will however be trying to consume healthy foods including milk (powdered), cheese, meats, nuts, whole grains and any fruits and vegetables I can find in stores along the trail. My favorite fruits to cook with are tomatoes. They are a great addition to most any meal. The Uwarrie Trip was a great experience. I ended up with four boys and another adult. The weather forecast was for temps in the 20¢s and a cold rain. After much thought I decided it was not prudent to have the Troop out in that kind of weather. Since I had a head cold, it was also not in my interest. We decided on one night instead of two to avoid the rain. We arrived at the Jumping Off Trailhead at about 8 PM. The temperatures were in the upper twenties and we had a one mile hike to where we were spending the night. The hike was all up hill. At the top of Dark Mountain we set up shelters. I ended up carrying a Ray Jardine tarp and found a comfortable spot just behind a ridge to sleep. After a big chug of cough syrup I drifted off to sleep under my 20 degree GoLite Ultra. I woke up about 4 AM a little chilled and pulled on my jacket. The next time I woke up it was to the sound of two Scouts talking about the sun rise. I looked under the edge of my tarp to see beautiful red streaks across the sky. It reminded me of a morning at Wayah Gap a couple years ago. Martin and I hiked seventeen miles that day in pouring rain. We had left the food in the vehicle over night to prevent raccoon raids. So we hiked down and retrieved the food bags and found a place to cook breakfast. One of the requirements for this hike was to cook all meals on wood burning stoves. I had a bush buddy with me and instead of the traditional oatmeal I had decided on Apple Roll-ups. I poured olive oil in a pot with brown sugar, butter buds and a little water. I stirred in a half bag of cut-up dried apples and cooked until the apples were tender. The mixture was spooned over tortillas and cheddar cheese. There was only one problem. At below freezing temperatures the tortillas cracked, so I dumped it all in a cup and ate it. We then hiked north on the Uwharrie Trail passing Tower Road and Panther Branch Campsite. About noon we decided to spot and fix lunch. I had decided to experiment with a sweet potato. I cut into small chunks and cooked it with a package of Lipton Mushroom Soup. I added a package of salmon. It was hot and satisfying but needs a little tweaking. We headed back to the van after lunch. The boys made the mistake of putting me in front on the way back. Since my pack had only a little water and a small baggie of jerky the only weight was my gear at eleven pounds. It was an easy stroll. I woke up this morning to rain and temperatures just above freezing. I¢m glad I¢m not outside but I know that March 15th is coming and rain or shine I¢ll get up and hike.