Multi-Night Menu and Mushroom Stories

Not that kind of mushroom...

Backpacking food is always tricky. I wish I was a little bit more adept at foraging just so I didn't have to carry a bunch of crap with me. Luckily I'm not stupid. Relying on foraging is not only a TERRIBLE idea, because there's no guarantee you will find anything, but it's not very environmentally conscientious to tear through an area and pick everything in sight. Ruins it for everybody else. Plus there's that slim chance you'll mix up Queen Anne's Lace with hemlock or something. Not good.

Even if you're thinking to yourself "Allison, don't be ridiculous I've been picking and eating wild stuff my whole life, that wouldn't happen to me." Well imaginary conversationalist, let me tell you something. Where I'm from in California there is a mushroom (amanita calyptroderma) commonly known as a "creamy top" or coccora that is (supposedly) very tasty. They are very close in appearance to another variety from Italy called Caesar's amanita which is also edible. So far everything is great, people from Europe and people who are fairly familiar with California fungi see it and think "Mmmm, tasty!" 

Here's where the trouble starts. There are two other types of mushrooms that are almost, almost identical to the creamy top (Amanita phalloides anAmanita ocreata). One of which is known, rather fondly, as the Death Cap (Amanita phalloides). Every 3 or 4 years some mycologist (person who studies mushrooms) would come out, and pick a creamy top and kill himself and his whole family. My point here is that relying on foraging is not smart for a bunch of reasons, but the foremost in my mind is, that even experts can make mistakes, and it's much better to eat a cliff bar if you're not 100% certain about something. Even if cliff bars are almost certainly flavored tree bark that's been masticated and regurgitated by a herd of camels.

Yeah, that's totally how they are made.

That tangential ramble brings me back to food for overnights. I won't discuss ultralight food because despite my dislike of carrying food, I am not at the point where I am willing to only eat dehydrated food.

For our overnight trip to Ingalls Creek this past weekend we are brought the following:

Breakfast: Instant cream of wheat, individual shelf stable creamers, raw sugar and instant hot apple cider

Snacks/Lunch: Almonds and dried cherries (some of which will be going in that cream of wheat), Cliff (Mojo) Bars

Dinner: Boil in a bag rice, instant Indian food from Trader Joe's, and vacuum packed chicken/tuna, freeze dried soup

You'll notice we only snack during lunch, we really don't like to stop and have lunch. It's one thing to snack on short breaks, but I don't like chilling for too long, otherwise I have a hard time getting started again. I feel like most people I know are similar in this way, 

If you want to read more about Coccora click here!