High Sierra Topix

I never took meat into the back country. I wanted to leave all the room inside for fish. As for other stuff, I'd just eat it at home.

The best backpacking meal I ever had was in 1989 with my wife Deb. We had taken a 4 day 3 night trip to a remote little lake out of Florence Lk. With the trip being shorter and the lake being just below the "fire line," I had packed in what are called "campin taters" at our house and we hoped to add some trout. These campin taters consisted of 2 spuds, a yellow onion, a red and green bell pepper, and some garlic seasoned with some seasoned salt and pepper. Wrapped em in foil and in the fire they went.

Luck was with us and this was one of those days that we actually caught a fish as intended for dinner, a very nice 13+ " golden. I had actually intended on keeping 2 smaller fish, but this one took my spinner deep and went belly up, so he was dinner. The fish was to big for my skillet, so we wrapped it in foil after flavoring it with some garlic salt, stuffed it with a little bit of the onion and some fresh rosemary I had brought along, and drizzled it with some oil and a little water. Wrapped it up and in the fire with it as well.

The end result was a meal even my wife still talks about. Both foil packages came out perfect. The campin taters were great with just the right browning for flavor. Man I never thought spuds could taste so good. But the fish........................, the fish was what made the meal, It was fantastic!! The most delicate, tasty, pinkish red meated trout I have ever had. We ate until we were completely stuffed. Man it was good!!! Fresh veggies and trout roasted on the coals and devoured by the warmth of the fire with my wife. Simply perfect!

Not really a best one-time meal, but I often like to make a grilled cheese sandwich the first night out, accompanied by a can of beer and some tomato soup. Trader Joe's Frying Cheese makes for a really, really good grilled cheese sandwich. The first day of packing in the Sierras is always the toughest for me, what with the travel fatigue, elevation gain, altitude acclimatization, lugging a full, heavy pack; a good hearty meal and a little beer goes down very nicely.

I took my wife (girlfriend at that time) up fish creek trail to the back side of Mt. San Gorgonio in 1990. We packed in two frozen steaks, bell peppers and onions.

We stumbled on what has now become one of our favs. We call it fiesta night. Dehydrated refried beans topped with chili cheese fritos with a side of dehydrated spanish rice (sometimes just mixed together) and instant pudding for desert.
The one meal that stands out in my memory was on the first Backpacking dinner my wife and I had when we first tried backpacking. She had heart surgery in January and after her recovery, we decided to give backpacking a try. We didn't get a chance to go until Oct. We made a trip into a lake we had visited on horseback before. Well it rained and then snowed on us as we arrived at the lake and set up camp. After it let up we were able to catch a half a dozen brookies. We grilled them over a campfire after seasoning them with lemon herb and garlic. For the life of me I can't remember what we had with those fish but the weather cleared , the sun came out in time for a pretty sunset and all was well with the world. That was fifteen years ago and we're still at it.

Couple years back we fished a big portion of the kern and brought along a canister of very coarse shichimi togarishi (japenese seven spice). The trick was grinding it myself and keeping the sesame and poppy seeds very coarse. I still haven't managed to make a better trout rub. I think that takes the cake.

At California's hottest hot spring I sous vided a pork tenderloin and some french carrots. Gave it a sear on the fire to finish. It's gonna come in second as I forget to bring something like lingonberry jam to give it a little more flavor.