California Adventures: Fuel for the Trail

Adventure was calling us this summer, and this time it meant spending two weeks living out of a van and intentionally wandering across every conceivable type of terrain California’s National Parks could throw our way every day, from morning till nightfall.

I was attempting to prepare us for long stretches of our 1600+ mile journey where we would be without access to restaurants and grocery stores.  Fresh foods would be a liability because the ice would go fast from the heat roasting the thin-walled cooler supplied with our van, and we would need to resupply constantly.  Meals we considered staples at home would spoil in the Californi

a summer heat wave.  It’s for this reason that hiking and backpacking food tends to trend toward unhealthy high-sugar snacks and grain-heavy meals, but Rachel and I ditched grains and excess sugar years ago.

We needed another option.

“Maybe I could try pre-packaging our own food!”  I thought dehydrating meals might be the way to go, but my experiments with our dehydrator had not been extensive, nor very fruitful.  And the food would have to be fully cooked after it was rehydrated—a potentially cumbersome process during a light and fast moving trip.

The only realistic option left was freeze-dried food.  Just add boiling water and done.  And, if we got in a pinch, we could just pour cold water in the bag (a real possibility if fire restrictions in one of the National Parks changed to include all open flame). There was only one problem; the freeze-dried meals we tried in the past were filled with gluten, dairy, and other additives.

Thinking there had to be a better Paleo (or at least gluten free) alternative, I headed up to our office, typed “paleo freeze dried meals” into the Google search bar, and hit enter.

When Rachel got home that evening, I was so excited to show her what I had found.

“Hon, you GOTTA check this out!  There’s this company that makes actual PALEO freeze dried meals!”

She was just as impressed as I was.  PaleoMealsToGo almost seemed too good to be true.  Apparently, owner Ty Soukup went through the same experience we had faced, and he vowed to do something about it.

We were very thankful he did.

I read multiple reviews and even watched a YouTube video or three.  I scoured the ingredients and finally decided that this would be the way to go.  We arranged to have our order shipped to our friend’s apartment in LA so we could pick it up when we got there.

The nondescript shipping box and paper lunch bag styling of the food packets gave no hints of the awesomeness we would find inside.

We figured we would like at least some of them.  It was practically a given since we bought every dinner meal they had, and seriously, how could their Coconut Berry breakfast be bad?

As it turns out, those slices of berries, warmly coated in coconut and flax seeds, were like slices of heaven at 4:30 in the morning.  I fancy myself a pretty darn good cook, and I definitely enjoy being in the kitchen.  But spending a ton of time making an involved breakfast is the LAST thing you feel like doing in the pitch black morning after a miserable night’s sleep and twenty minutes before starting a big hike.

Simply boiling water and waiting for the meal to heat while we packed our bags, and STILL being able to eat a hearty, awesomely tasty, and nutritionally excellent meal?  Now that’s something I can get on board with.

My favorite dinner had to be the Bedrock Beef Chili.  The bold flavors and mild heat were wonderfully comforting, like something I’d make at home.  Rachel couldn’t make up her mind between the Canyon Chicken Chili, a slightly lighter colored but no less flavored entrée, and the pineapple-y goodness of the sweet and savory Caldera Chicken Curry.  The pre-hike Cliffside Coconut Berry was such a wonderful breakfast (that kept us going all morning!) I am utterly determined to replicate it in my kitchen at home.

When we’d get back to our campervan in the evening, the sun would inevitably be setting by the time I’d get the stove set up, so we hardly got the chance to actually see our meals until a week into our trip.  But when we did, they even looked great!  If our day’s outing hadn’t been too intense, we were often full enough just splitting one meal.  Unlike other freeze-dried meals, these bad boys were chock-full of meat and vegetables in every titanium spork-full.  PaleoMealsToGo even came in handy at the airport on the journey home!  When we ordered coffee, we just asked for an extra cup of hot water and made a delicious lunch while we sipped our cuppa and watched the planes take off.

If only airline food was this good…

Simultaneously making coffee and breakfast. Score!

Enjoying dinner by the LED water jug lantern.

The best part, we could enjoy breakfast, lunch, and dinner wherever we parked!