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Ten Best Backpacking Foods

Maybe your favorite backpacking foods are is a freeze-dried dinners. There really is no "best" backpacking food. There are reasons to bring certain foods, though. Here are ten foods, and the reasons you might want to consider them.

1. Nuts. This is one of the most calorie-packed foods you can take. That means less weight to carry. With lots of protein and other nutritional benefits, nuts are one of the best backpacking foods.

2. Olive oil. Add a little to your soups or dip bread in it. The best of the oils health-wise, you can eat it before sleeping, to stay warm, because fats generate heat when digested.

3. Trail mixes. Any mix with raisins and nuts is great for backpacking. Vitamins, minerals, protein, and the best reason - convenience.

4. Corn products. Tortilla chips or corn nuts are convenient, and they don't seem to cause the tiredness that potato chips and other simple carbohydrates can cause.

5. Ramen noodles. When you need a hot meal fast, there isn't much that's better.

6. Instant coffee. A necessity for caffeine addicts, and it's good to have a stimulant available for emergencies.

7. Wild edible berries. Learn to identify a few, and you'll have a nutritious excuse for a break along the trail.

8. Instant sports drinks. Pour a little in your water bottle and shake. Replacing electrolytes doesn't get more convenient.

9. Instant refried beans. When you want sustained energy, eat beans.

10. Your favorites. Having your favorite foods can help salvage a rainy backpacking trip spent in the tent.

Always consider the nature of the trip when you choose your backpacking foods. Hot meals are muchmore important in cold climates, and convenience is king, if you want to make miles. A bottle of rum might even be appropriate, if it's a trip with friends.

Steve Gillman is a long-time backpacker, and advocate of lightweight backpacking. His tips, photos, gear recommendations, and a free book can be found at http://www.The-Ultralight-Site.com

Motor Home Boondocking for Beginners

What's the fun in driving your motor home to a crowded campground on the edge of a city (exactly the kind of place we'd all like to escape!), plugging in and listening to your neighbors watch TV all night? We could have just stayed home for that.

If you have an RV, you really have to go out there and get away from it all. The great advantage of having one is that you can get far from civilization, but still have all the comforts of home. Instead of kids yelling outside, you can have the music of nature. Sounds like a good deal to me!

That's why boondocking has become so popular among motor home owners. Boondocking means going out and camping in complete wilderness! You can drive your RV right out into the woods, mountains, or deserts (whichever you prefer) and stay there where your nearest neighbor is miles away. You can do this at most national parks, and there are also campgrounds and recreation areas designed specifically for this activity, where you can stay for as little as $3 a night or pay a small annual fee.

Is it legal is always the first question that you might ask. The answer is yes or no, depending on where you decide to park your motor home. If you park where it's not okay, well, that's called "trespassing" I'm afraid and quite illegal.

Before you go on your trip, you should check to make sure that it's okay to boondock where you're headed. To give you an idea, there are yearly guides put out that you can pick up at bookstores and camping supply stores. You can also find up-to-date listings of areas online.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has designated wild areas all over the country where boondocking is permitted. This includes most national parks. There is one restriction, however, that you can only stay for up to 2 weeks. After that time, you just have to move, and exactly how far is far enough is open to debate.

There are lots of places for boondocking in the desert southwest. This is an area with lots of wild, natural places for the most part untouched by tourists. Most of the best locations are in Arizona and southern California.

Recently, some places have been set aside as boondocking campgrounds. Usually they have a small fee, something like a couple of dollars a night, or you can get a 6-month permit and stay there anytime. They still have the 2 week rule, but you can always "move" somewhere else and more or less stay in the same area. The 6 month permits cost as much as $150 in some places, but it's still cheaper than camping for that long, or paying rent.

There are now communities that meet at certain times of the year. These turn into big motor home festivals, with boondockers and RV drivers from all over the country getting together when it's too cold to camp up north or back east.

At some of these communities, they have activities, grocery stores and other businesses that open during the busy season. A few of these places include Quartzite, Arizona and Slab City, California, which is a ghost town when the boondockers aren't there.

But, wait a minute... I thought this was your chance to get away from it all? Well, that's true too. The best thing about boondocking is that you can set up anywhere and just let life crawl by. Nowhere to be, nothing to do, and no neighbors to listen to.

Boondocking is flourishing in the unsettled parts of the country. It allows you to take your motor home and get away from the bustle of the city. At Bankston Motor Homes, you can select the motor home you want and get away. http://www.bankstonmotorhomes.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Andrew_Stratton

Michigan Outdoors - Hidden Places

In Michigan, being outdoors can mean relaxing on a sandy beach or getting lost in the wilderness. One of the hidden places described below will let you do both. Here are three places that you haven't seen in magazine articles and guide books.

Michigan Outdoors - Rivers

You can float the Manistee River from Baxter Bridge (the next crossing down from Hwy 131) north of Cadillac, all day without seeing a house or a road. The majority of the route is in the Manistee National Forest, where you can camp without permits. The Manistee isn't a river full of exciting rapids (at least not on this stretch). It is a river for relaxing.

A few years back, we used to park where Road 17 crosses the river, and hike upstream with a small day pack loaded with snacks, water, a saw, hatchet, and rope. By early afternoon we would build a raft of dead trees cut to length. We spent the following hours floating back to the car. We called it Tom Sawyer Day, and on six of these trips I have never passed another canoe or boat on the river.

Michigan Outdoors - Beaches

Probably you have heard of or been to the Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore (and the dunes), and the other sandy spots along the east side of Lake Michigan. They are beautiful, and I highly recommend them, but what if you want a beach to yourself? Head north, to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

From Highway 2, a couple miles east of Rapid River, turn south on County road 513. Follow it until it splits, and take the road to Wilsey Bay. Where the road first comes to the water, it is a public access point. Leave your car here and walk a mile to the end of the road, and then along the rocky beach past the last house (stay below the high-water mark and it is legal to walk past private property).

Just past the house you enter the Hiawatha National Forest for the next seven miles of beach. The last time I camped out there, I never saw a person in two days. One morning I followed fresh black bear tracks along the sandy beach, and later explored the ruins of an old cabin. There are no roads into this area, and ATV's are not permitted. If you want forested wilderness, just walk away from the beach - and watch for wild blueberries in the forest clearings if it is August or September.

Michigan Outdoors - Really Hidden

You'll want a topographical map for this one. In Michigan's Upper Peninsula, north of Ishpeming, there is some wild and rough country. Driving out of Ishpeming, you'll wind through rocky lakes and woods. An hour north, on a sandy road, you'll come to a river with two-hundred foot high cliffs on the other side. I promised friends not to get more specific than this, so you'll have to work a bit to find it.

Continue a bit further, until the road gets too rough or the puddles too deep. Park the car and find a log to cross the small river on, then head uphill (you may need your hands to go up the wooded hillside). Beyond and on top of those cliffs and hills there are two lakes, just a thirty minute walk away, surrounded by a rocky wilderness, and with no trail going to them. My brother had a trout on the line in ten seconds the first time I took him there. Good luck!

Steve Gillman is a long-time backpacker, and advocate of lightweight backpacking. His tips, photos, gear recommendations, and a free book can be found at http://www.The-Ultralight-Site.com