“Hunger is the Best Sauce”- Edward Abbey.

We‘ve all been there. Tired after hiking all day, your stomach is growling, and the only thing you can think of is that sweet relief felt when you finally get off trail, and dig into dinner.

You have been less of a “happy camper” for the past few miles and your friends are beginning to take note. Perhaps, your communication style has diminished to only short answers and grunts. Maybe you have stopped taking note of the scenery that surrounds you. It could even be, that you have begun to ask “what in the world am I doing out in the middle of nowhere in the first place?” You are HANGRY, and that has taken the fun right out of your day outdoors, but it doesn’t have to be this way!

Our days outside are often ones we cherish, and work hard to make possible. So why let something like hunger get in the way of having the best time you can, outside? What if instead of having that classic hikers’ conversation on what the first meal in town will be, you instead took comfort in the fact that, the meal on your back will give your body what it’s looking for and leave you feeling satisfied. Instead of talking about leaving the trail early to eat ‘some real food”, you talked instead about staying a few extra hours to catch the sunset. Imagine that rather than depriving your body of what it needs, on a day that you might burn 2–3 times more calories than normal, you gave yourself healthy “fuel” to carry on the whole day through.

Photo: Carson National Forest Wilderness Rangers Ben Mortensen (left) and Rhett Spencer (right) on Gavilan Trail 60 in the Columbine-Hondo Wilderness Area, already feeling ready to eat.

Nutrition, no matter the scenario is important. Whether you are in the front country or 20 miles into the backcountry, the food we eat matters, and more than that, it’s fun to mix it up and experiment so that we don’t wind up eating the same meal every time we head out **cough cough** clif bars **cough**. Therefore, as a supplement to our regular outdoor outings this season, Rhett and I have chosen to embark on a food blogging journey, to both help ourselves improve our backcountry nutritional habits, and to perhaps lend an example to others interested in trying it as well.

We’ll try new recipes every trip we go on, and we will be sharing them with you all here, on our blog ‘Hunger is the Best Sauce’, on a weekly-ish basis. Tune in to read more of our recipes and thoughts on backcountry nutrition as the season rolls on.