Speaker 1: As a guide and hunter, I've spent thousands of days
Speaker 1: in the field. This show is about translating my hard
Speaker 1: won experiences into tips and tactics they'll get you closer
Speaker 1: to your ultimate goal success in the field. I'm Remy Warren.
Speaker 1: This is cutting the distance. When I think about hunting
Speaker 1: out West, there is an element that is different from
Speaker 1: hunting other places because there's this element of what we
Speaker 1: like to call backcountry hunting. Now, yes, you can hunt
Speaker 1: elk and deer and other animals from say a base
Speaker 1: camp or a motel sometimes or lodge, but there's an
Speaker 1: element of hunting that's very successful that involves going into
Speaker 1: the mountains with everything on your back and hunting that way.
Speaker 1: Not only is it a successful way to hunt, but
Speaker 1: just the experience that healf add something to the whole journey,
Speaker 1: to the whole process of the hunt. So a few
Speaker 1: weeks ago I kind of touched on back country water
Speaker 1: purification and filtration. So this week I want to continue
Speaker 1: that theme of back country prep. So when it comes
Speaker 1: time for this fall and if you decide you want
Speaker 1: to do a back country hunt, you'll have all the
Speaker 1: tools necessary to pull off a successful trip. So we
Speaker 1: already talked about water. I want to talk about back
Speaker 1: country nutrition and food packing your bag for a prolonged
Speaker 1: trip into the mountains. I mean, I know it can
Speaker 1: seem like a task. So I just want to go
Speaker 1: through my process when it comes to meal planning for
Speaker 1: back country hunt in a way that's really easy and
Speaker 1: repeatable for any length of trip, no matter where you're going,
Speaker 1: and then just give some suggestions on possible things to bring. Now,
Speaker 1: before we do that, I want to share a story
Speaker 1: of a trip where I hunted a little bit longer
Speaker 1: than my food supply. On this particular hunt, it should
Speaker 1: have probably started out as an archery hunt. Now, I
Speaker 1: say that because we ended up drawing accidentally the wrong tags. Now,
Speaker 1: in Nevada, me and my brother had always applied as
Speaker 1: a party for archery tags. It's like an August hunt.
Speaker 1: Sometimes my dad would jump in on the party with us,
Speaker 1: sometimes a friend or my other brother. So I actually
Speaker 1: was going to be out of town, so I did
Speaker 1: all my other applications, left the deer application, which I
Speaker 1: was kind of in charge of most of the time,
Speaker 1: and let them decide what we're gonna do. So we figured, well,
Speaker 1: there's this area that we archery hunt. We've got the
Speaker 1: tags almost every year as residents, so it was a
Speaker 1: pretty decent area. We just really liked to the area
Speaker 1: and we figured, okay, let's just put in for that
Speaker 1: for archery. So my brother Jason did the application. This year,
Speaker 1: it comes back, we can check our results and here's
Speaker 1: this early rifle tag that we drawn. Like what happened? Man,
Speaker 1: He'd accidentally put the early rifle choice instead of the
Speaker 1: art tree choice, which was no big deal. We still
Speaker 1: drew tags, but we were looking forward to that archery hunt.
Speaker 1: And the trouble with that early October rifle tag is
Speaker 1: it just it is a difficult hunt. Although you do
Speaker 1: have a rifle, you see a lot fewer deer because
Speaker 1: that time of year that they can be in the timber,
Speaker 1: it's after they're all bachelored up. They're very spread out,
Speaker 1: so it just can be a more difficult, challenging hunt. Now,
Speaker 1: it was actually one of my favorite hunts because it
Speaker 1: was it was cool because my dad, my two brothers,
Speaker 1: and myself all had tags in the same area. So
Speaker 1: we went out the first weekend. We did a little
Speaker 1: bit of scouting beforehand, got a big camp set up,
Speaker 1: and then just kind of hunted around. We weren't seeing
Speaker 1: very many bucks, and we weren't seeing very many bucks
Speaker 1: with any size, a few doughes. It was just it's very,
Speaker 1: very slow year. So we just decided, well, the first
Speaker 1: good looking bucks that we see will take. And I
Speaker 1: had a lot more time than those guys, so I
Speaker 1: figured I'll help them out. We'll see how many deer
Speaker 1: we can get, and then if I have to, I thought,
Speaker 1: maybe it'll get a little bit better as the season
Speaker 1: goes on and I can do a little bit of
Speaker 1: solo hunting or whatever. So my dad and my brother
Speaker 1: Ryan ended up getting a couple of decent bucks, and
Speaker 1: then they had to go back. So I just said
Speaker 1: I was gonna do kind of like a solo hunt
Speaker 1: until a little bit later, just on my own and
Speaker 1: see if I couldn't find a good deer. Now, I thought,
Speaker 1: all right, I know this area really well. There's this
Speaker 1: backcountry portion of the unit that I figured nobody's going
Speaker 1: to be hunting in. I'm not seeing deer where I'm at,
Speaker 1: so I might as well just pack up and just
Speaker 1: go in there for a few days and see what
Speaker 1: I can find. That that seemed like the best plan
Speaker 1: at the time, and it was so I pack up
Speaker 1: my bag, I grabbed some food. I figured, okay, I
Speaker 1: should be able to figure it out within three days.
Speaker 1: So I kind of just planned for three days and
Speaker 1: I start my trek in. Now, this area is pretty
Speaker 1: high altitude. It's a big, kind of like wilderness type area,
Speaker 1: so there's no roads through it, and there's a lot
Speaker 1: of elevation, big canyons and stuff. So the first day
Speaker 1: I pack up my stuff, I plan on getting to
Speaker 1: where I want to go camping it. I would say,
Speaker 1: I don't know, a lot of miles and maybe four
Speaker 1: thousand feet in elevation gain by the time I get there,
Speaker 1: So it's a pretty good day. Anytime you're doing three thousand,
Speaker 1: two thousand, three thousand up to that four thousand amount
Speaker 1: of elevation gain, you're really exerting yourself, especially with a
Speaker 1: heavy pack on the way in. So I pack in,
Speaker 1: get back there, set up, start glassing. I turn up
Speaker 1: zero deer and I'm thinking, all right, this just isn't
Speaker 1: gonna work. So the next morning I get up by
Speaker 1: glass still zero deer. So I decid, all right, I
Speaker 1: gotta go further deeper, go check another canyon. So I
Speaker 1: keep hiking and it's another long day, get back there again,
Speaker 1: look around nothing, And now I'm like, all right, I'm
Speaker 1: already back here, two days worth of travel. I might
Speaker 1: as well hunt this one other spot back here. So
Speaker 1: another big day and still pretty much no dear. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's just like, where are these animals at I'd exerted
Speaker 1: a lot of energy, I'd spent a lot of time,
Speaker 1: and I hadn't seen anything. So I thought, well, I
Speaker 1: can walk all the way back to camp, which I
Speaker 1: had kind of planned on about three days worth of food.
Speaker 1: So I was getting towards the tail end of my
Speaker 1: food supply, and I also had just been burning thousands
Speaker 1: and thousands of calories every day the amount of food
Speaker 1: that I brought, I was working in a deficit even
Speaker 1: on the days that I did have food, so some
Speaker 1: snacks I'd saved over and hadn't really eaten everything. So
Speaker 1: I had a little bit of extra food supply and
Speaker 1: just thought, man, I think I'm fine. I feel okay.
Speaker 1: I just exerted a lot of energy, but I don't
Speaker 1: want to leave just yet. I'm already back here. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna start hunting my way back towards the vehicle, but
Speaker 1: I just put in so many miles and there's got
Speaker 1: to be a buck in here somewhere. So long story short,
Speaker 1: about day five is when I finally spot a buck.
Speaker 1: Now I'd gone in with about three days worth of food,
Speaker 1: but I'd rationed and definitely at this point was running
Speaker 1: in a major deficit. I was feeling pretty weak. I
Speaker 1: didn't have the energy like I did when I first started.
Speaker 1: I mean, I stopped. It's a fairly disgusting story, but
Speaker 1: I pretty much stopped going the bathroom because I just
Speaker 1: had nothing left in my system. I had no more
Speaker 1: energy to expend. I was just I was pretty spent,
Speaker 1: and I definitely felt the effects of it. And it
Speaker 1: really showed me how important keeping up your energy levels
Speaker 1: and your food levels are. I was burning thousands of calories,
Speaker 1: and I was probably burning close to five thousand calories
Speaker 1: a day and putting in less than two. So I
Speaker 1: was just running on a deficit the whole time. However,
Speaker 1: on the way down, I spotted a buck, a nice
Speaker 1: three by three across the canyon. He went and bedded,
Speaker 1: and I actually kind of lost him in the trees
Speaker 1: for a little bit. So I just set up across
Speaker 1: the canyon, got set up and waited. I spotted and
Speaker 1: bedded in the trees, got everything set up, waited on
Speaker 1: the buck. When I finally got a shot, took the shot,
Speaker 1: and the buck was down nice three by three uck.
Speaker 1: It was actually one of the better bucks that I
Speaker 1: had seen that trip. I was filming it myself for
Speaker 1: Solo Hunter, and you can definitely see in that episode
Speaker 1: was one of the first seasons that we did. But man,
Speaker 1: I was hurting. I was I was in calorie deficit mode.
Speaker 1: I was really burning on my reserves and just pushing through.
Speaker 1: I got to the deer, cut him up, whicher died up.
Speaker 1: A storm started moving in. Actually, I was just so hungry.
Speaker 1: I ate some of the heart raw and that gave
Speaker 1: me a boost of adrenaline from being successful the storm
Speaker 1: coming in and getting some fresh meat. Now I may
Speaker 1: not suggest you do the same, but that was just
Speaker 1: like a boost of energy and excitement that fueled me
Speaker 1: back to the truck, which, luckily, although it was a
Speaker 1: long distance, was for the most part downhill from there.
Speaker 1: I think I should probably preface this entire portion of
Speaker 1: the Advice podcast by stating the fact that I am not,
Speaker 1: by any means a nutritionists, so just keep that in mind. However,
Speaker 1: I do have a lot of experience keeping my energy
Speaker 1: levels up in the back country. I've spent hundreds countless
Speaker 1: days living out of a backpack. I've tried nearly every
Speaker 1: backpacking food, and many of them for long enough periods
Speaker 1: where it's just like, I'm completely sick of eating bars
Speaker 1: and other things. But what that has given me is
Speaker 1: a lot of insight on how to keep my energy
Speaker 1: levels up and some of the things that I think
Speaker 1: are important when it comes to meal planning and prep.
Speaker 1: I really think, especially if you're you're thinking about your
Speaker 1: first back country hunt, your first back country experience, you know,
Speaker 1: thinking about food to bring is a huge portion of it,
Speaker 1: and I think for a lot of people it's actually
Speaker 1: a deterrent. I see so many questions coming, Hey, what
Speaker 1: kind of food should I bring? How do I pack
Speaker 1: for the trip? You know, when you're when you're at home,
Speaker 1: we're out of a camp, it's easy. You don't have
Speaker 1: to worry about weight, you don't have to worry about space.
Speaker 1: You just kind of eat when you're hungry, and you
Speaker 1: always have surplus. But when you're going into the back
Speaker 1: country or in a backpacking style trip, everything you have
Speaker 1: you have to bring with you, and it has to
Speaker 1: be thought out beforehand. So I really think like mule
Speaker 1: prep comes down to carrying an adequate amount of calories,
Speaker 1: but then balancing that with the size and weight, and
Speaker 1: then really the important part is making it something that
Speaker 1: you're going to enjoy and we'll eat. You know, you
Speaker 1: can't gain calories and fuel your body if you aren't
Speaker 1: ingesting it. And I know that sounds basic and stupid,
Speaker 1: but there's so many times people will go in, they'll
Speaker 1: bring foods that they don't like, they won't eat them,
Speaker 1: and you start to shrink your stomach, and then you
Speaker 1: just start to run a deficit deficit deficit, and you
Speaker 1: burn out and you lose energy and you can't hunt.
Speaker 1: It's hard. So good meal planning in the back country
Speaker 1: and nutrition has as much to do with picking the
Speaker 1: right items, bringing the right amount, and then just the
Speaker 1: organization of it all. I really believe that actually the
Speaker 1: organization of your back country mule prep has as much
Speaker 1: to do or is just as important as the actual
Speaker 1: items that you end up taking. I already said it,
Speaker 1: but just to get the benefit from the food, you
Speaker 1: really have to eat it. And it's so funny to
Speaker 1: me how I see people planning their back country hunt
Speaker 1: or whatever, and it's like they take stuff that they
Speaker 1: wouldn't eat at home. Really, if you start to think about, Okay,
Speaker 1: you're gonna be going on a three day trip, a
Speaker 1: five day trip, a seven day trip, it doesn't matter
Speaker 1: the amount of days. If you're bringing something that you
Speaker 1: aren't going to eat at home or you don't really
Speaker 1: necessarily like. What makes you think that when you're out there,
Speaker 1: you're gonna like it and you're gonna eat it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: food taste better when you're hungry, but there's certain things
Speaker 1: that just no matter what you do to them, if
Speaker 1: you don't like it, don't bring it. I also think
Speaker 1: a back country trip is not the time to think
Speaker 1: about your diet. It's not the time to think about
Speaker 1: weight loss. You're gonna be running at a calorie deficit.
Speaker 1: You're gonna lose weight. Bring things you like, Bring things
Speaker 1: to have a lot of calories, and don't worry about
Speaker 1: whatever fad diet you're on at the time. In the
Speaker 1: back country is not the time to be worried about
Speaker 1: losing weight. It's the exact opposite of everything you do
Speaker 1: outside of the season. It's the thought of maintaining weight,
Speaker 1: keeping weight on having enough reserve and energy to continue
Speaker 1: to hunt hard day in and day out. So as
Speaker 1: I start to go through my process of planning the
Speaker 1: foods that I bring, you got to realize your everything
Speaker 1: is gonna go in your backpack and it's gonna go
Speaker 1: on your back. So you're balancing the size and weight
Speaker 1: thing with also, Okay, what foods are going to give
Speaker 1: me the most calories perouns. Where I like to start
Speaker 1: is I like to think about what I'm packing as
Speaker 1: I strive for my goal of three thousand calories per day. Now,
Speaker 1: when you're hiking, if you're hiking all day or whatever,
Speaker 1: you're probably gonna be burning four to five thousand calories,
Speaker 1: maybe even more um depends on the day. Just sedentary
Speaker 1: male adults, I think burned around calories or that's whatever.
Speaker 1: You know, they post different things, but the standards about
Speaker 1: dred calories, So you are going to be in a
Speaker 1: calorie deficit from the time you leave the trailhead. It's
Speaker 1: already a given. You already know that, but understanding that
Speaker 1: when you go into it, it really helps you plan
Speaker 1: and say, Okay, well this is what I'm encountering in
Speaker 1: this situation. Now, if you want to bring more food,
Speaker 1: you you obviously can, but this is just how I plan.
Speaker 1: So my goal is around that three thousand calorie mark. Now,
Speaker 1: if I can boost it up with certain snacks and
Speaker 1: other things, that's awesome, And for hard days, I like
Speaker 1: to try to hit five thousand calories if possible. So
Speaker 1: the way I pack is I start with that base
Speaker 1: of three thousand calories per day, and then I try
Speaker 1: to find foods that are really a high calorie per weight.
Speaker 1: So around that hundred calories per ounce is what I
Speaker 1: try to strive for. Because if you get that hundred
Speaker 1: calories per ounce, you're really talking about two pounds of
Speaker 1: food per day, and that just seems to be pretty
Speaker 1: standard of what when I weigh everything out before a trip,
Speaker 1: it always generally factors out to about that two pounds
Speaker 1: of food per day. Now, the meals that I take
Speaker 1: will go into it in a little bit, but the
Speaker 1: types of foods I take and the meals that I
Speaker 1: take a lot of them may maybe dehydrated, freeze dried
Speaker 1: other stuff, so you're saving on weight in space. But
Speaker 1: then some things I take that are just more like
Speaker 1: regular food that is easy to eat and may have
Speaker 1: fewer calories or whatever, but it it will fill me
Speaker 1: up and it's something that I enjoy eating. Now, let's
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about the organization of your meal planning. Okay,
Speaker 1: so we're gonna pick the amount of days that we're
Speaker 1: gonna go. Let's say it's it's five days. What are
Speaker 1: the meals that you're gonna have that day. You're gonna
Speaker 1: have a breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Pretty standard, and it's
Speaker 1: it's standard for what you do when you aren't in
Speaker 1: the back country, So we'll just continue that into your
Speaker 1: back country meal prep. The way that I like to
Speaker 1: organize my food is I like to ration myself in
Speaker 1: individual zip block type bags per day, so that way
Speaker 1: I know exactly how much in one glance, how much
Speaker 1: food I have. Yeah, it's gonna be a little bit
Speaker 1: more weight adding a couple of extra zip block bags
Speaker 1: here and there, But in the grand scheme of things,
Speaker 1: the organization helps me maintain and know how much food
Speaker 1: I have as well as kind of on some days
Speaker 1: prevents me from eating too much and on other days
Speaker 1: encourages me to eat more. So that way, I try
Speaker 1: to balance it out based on activity levels, but also
Speaker 1: knowing that I'm getting kind of my minimum each day,
Speaker 1: so I don't start running in an energy deficit. You know,
Speaker 1: the ability to hunt hard in the back country comes
Speaker 1: down to so many different things. But if you get
Speaker 1: tired and you can't give it your all, you probably
Speaker 1: aren't going to be successful. And that's why packing the
Speaker 1: right food, bringing the right amounts of food in and
Speaker 1: being organized with it is such a huge tool in
Speaker 1: success because you need that energy to keep going, to
Speaker 1: keep hunting hard, to stay focused. Especially when you're say three,
Speaker 1: four or five days out, those things start to drag on,
Speaker 1: you start to get war down, you start to not
Speaker 1: hunt its hard, and and sometimes you just start wasting
Speaker 1: your time. So to be more successful just being organized
Speaker 1: and having the right amount of food and just understanding
Speaker 1: you know. Then you know, I see so many people
Speaker 1: go and they get in a fear of not having
Speaker 1: enough food or they bring too much food. Just understanding
Speaker 1: this is what I have. I know I've got enough
Speaker 1: that I need to just keep me going and keep
Speaker 1: me at maintaining levels where I'm not dragging so I
Speaker 1: like to use the baggy system. I break it out
Speaker 1: into kind of like my breakfasts, my lunch, and my dinner.
Speaker 1: Now my dinner stuff I kind of keep all together.
Speaker 1: So that would be my Mountain house type meals, my
Speaker 1: peak refuel, my d hyde rated meals. That's generally what
Speaker 1: I use for dinner. So your snacks are what fuel
Speaker 1: you between meals, and then also can be a meal
Speaker 1: in itself as you're you're slowly eating all day. A
Speaker 1: friend of mine, who is an actual nutritionist, calls it
Speaker 1: front loading, so he always describes it as you want
Speaker 1: to take in your calories that you're gonna expend first.
Speaker 1: You don't want to be trying to refuel later because
Speaker 1: you're always going to be in an energy deficit that way.
Speaker 1: So I try to take my snacks and space them
Speaker 1: out throughout the day. And now what I do is
Speaker 1: I'll have uh sandwich bag that has my snacks for
Speaker 1: each day, UH larger bag for that that I could
Speaker 1: put some other stuff in. And then I generally keep
Speaker 1: all my dinner items and my breakfast items in one bag,
Speaker 1: but I just kind of have it per day. Okay,
Speaker 1: here's what I've got, let's break each meal down real quick,
Speaker 1: and then I'll talk about packing it all up. So
Speaker 1: we're gonna start with breakfast. You know, breakfast. A lot
Speaker 1: of guys take oatmeal. I take oatmeal. It's light, it
Speaker 1: doesn't have as many cal reas it's not as calorie
Speaker 1: dense as say granola. So granola is another great option
Speaker 1: to throw in for breakfast. I'm not really a big
Speaker 1: breakfast guy anyways, but it's nice to have something in
Speaker 1: your stomach if you're hungry in the mornings. I try
Speaker 1: to eat my breakfast a little bit later in the morning,
Speaker 1: but I also have my bars and other things to
Speaker 1: maintain in the mornings, and I eat a few more
Speaker 1: my snacks throughout the day. So we've got our breakfast,
Speaker 1: which could be say, your oatmeal or granola. And then
Speaker 1: you've got your snacks, which will be like your bars,
Speaker 1: that will be your nuts, that will be you know,
Speaker 1: snack type stuff um, shot blocks, gummies, jerky, anything like that,
Speaker 1: any kind of energy that you'd eat throughout the day.
Speaker 1: Then you've got your lunch. For lunch, you know, you
Speaker 1: could go with something that you've pretty packed, like a
Speaker 1: peanut butter and jelly tortilla. It could be cheese and
Speaker 1: salami and a bagel. It could be tuna packet or
Speaker 1: something to that effect. You know, something more substantial. It's
Speaker 1: some to look forward to in the middle of the
Speaker 1: day and give you a little bit more fuel for
Speaker 1: the rest of the day. And then after lunch, then
Speaker 1: you get back to your ten at night, you've got
Speaker 1: your dinner that's generally for me, some kind of maybe
Speaker 1: whatever snacks I didn't eat, and then a dehydrated meal,
Speaker 1: which could be you know, there's plenty of different companies
Speaker 1: out there that make dehydrated meals or noodles or something
Speaker 1: to that effect, and that's pretty standard backcountry fair food.
Speaker 1: Now let's talk about how I organize those different items.
Speaker 1: So what I like to do is I like to
Speaker 1: separate out each day in individual baggies. Now not necessarily
Speaker 1: my evening meals. Because of those, I kind of plan out.
Speaker 1: If I'm going five days, I'll take five or sometimes
Speaker 1: six dehydrated meals. That extra one could be for like
Speaker 1: a hard day or something like that. You also have
Speaker 1: to think about the way that you hunt, and the
Speaker 1: way that you hunt depends on wind and how you eat.
Speaker 1: So for the first day in you're gonna eat at
Speaker 1: the trailhead before you leave, so you don't necessarily need
Speaker 1: food for that. You're gonna try to eat as many calories,
Speaker 1: eat something good that has a lot of energy. That's
Speaker 1: good energy that can fuel you for the trip in.
Speaker 1: Now that next morning, you've just probably expended the majority
Speaker 1: of your energy, So I'll try to also bring safe
Speaker 1: for breakfast, a couple more like calorie dens, more filling,
Speaker 1: dehydrated meal type breakfast for a hard day or the
Speaker 1: day after hiking in. So instead of having granola that
Speaker 1: first morning, I might eat a mountain house biscuits and
Speaker 1: gravy meal or peak refuel breakfast skillet or something like that.
Speaker 1: Something is just more filling and kind of back fuel
Speaker 1: for the day that you just had. Or maybe you
Speaker 1: know you're gonna have a big day that day, so
Speaker 1: you eat a little bit more that day. So I'll
Speaker 1: always bring a couple extra booster breakfasts, and then I'll
Speaker 1: have just my standard breakfast for other days where I'm
Speaker 1: not working as hard or I'm not expending as much
Speaker 1: energy that day, so I don't need as much fuel.
Speaker 1: Now I break out my snacks and snacks are like
Speaker 1: the heat you call them snacks, but they are pretty
Speaker 1: much the mules that keep you fueled throughout the day.
Speaker 1: So those are going to be the things that are
Speaker 1: light and high end calories. Those are your your nuts,
Speaker 1: your bars, your all that kind of stuff. And I
Speaker 1: break out my snacks I try to go sometimes. The
Speaker 1: way that I buy them is just super easy. I
Speaker 1: go to the store and I think of planning on, okay,
Speaker 1: six items per day, and so I just buy a
Speaker 1: box of this, a box of that, a thing of this,
Speaker 1: and then when I get home, I take all those
Speaker 1: different boxes that I bought and I separated them out
Speaker 1: into individual like what are they court bags? So I'll
Speaker 1: take those court bags out. I'll set five out, one
Speaker 1: for each day, and then I'll grab one snack from
Speaker 1: each separate container per day. So I'll try to put
Speaker 1: five or six individual snacks in that day baggy. And
Speaker 1: that's just the easy way to do it. If you
Speaker 1: want to count out the calories and all that I
Speaker 1: found over the years, it's pretty much average is out
Speaker 1: about right. That that is the right amount of calories
Speaker 1: that you need for those snacks, And it's just easy
Speaker 1: to do it that way. So I'll buy a bunch
Speaker 1: of random stuff that I like, things that I'll eat.
Speaker 1: I'll get a Snickers bar, I'll get some kind of
Speaker 1: I used to use power bar type bars or cliff bars,
Speaker 1: stuff like that. I've personally eaten too many cliff bars
Speaker 1: in my life. I can't eat another one. But those
Speaker 1: are really calorie dense, good backcountry snacks. So stuff like that,
Speaker 1: you'll you'll do one of those one and you'll start
Speaker 1: mixing and matching and all, you know, gummy snacks, whatever
Speaker 1: you like. You just get a good assortments snacks and
Speaker 1: do five or six snacks per day in your day bags.
Speaker 1: Then I'll put all those snack bags into a one
Speaker 1: gallon like zip block if it fits, depending on how
Speaker 1: many days I'm going, So each day I can grab
Speaker 1: that snack bag, put that in my pack, leave everything
Speaker 1: else at the tent if I'm not BIV whacking or whatever.
Speaker 1: So BIV whacking would be where I'm just carrying everything
Speaker 1: with me every day that that helps me break out
Speaker 1: what I'm eating each day. Then I'll do the same
Speaker 1: thing for lunch kind of. I'll have a couple extra
Speaker 1: larger ziploc bags that I take with me gallon size
Speaker 1: they'll be in there, and in that I'll put my
Speaker 1: lunch item, which will be either a peanut butter and
Speaker 1: jelly tortilla, it'll be a bagel and salami and cheese
Speaker 1: and so on. Some of the trips, you know, if
Speaker 1: it's really hot, you can front load with the first
Speaker 1: half of the trip eating more real what I call
Speaker 1: real food. So that would be your bagel, your cheese,
Speaker 1: your salami. Stuff that's not dehydrated, dried, or pressed into
Speaker 1: a bar. It's just food that it's just like you
Speaker 1: would eat at home. I like taking that because it's
Speaker 1: just it's easily digestible, it's taste good, and it's satisfying.
Speaker 1: It's satisfying, is something to look forward to throughout the day.
Speaker 1: So I'll do that and I'll say, okay, these are
Speaker 1: my five lunch items. Now the first three days, it's
Speaker 1: really easy to bring the depending on if it's even
Speaker 1: if it's kind of hot, you can do salami and
Speaker 1: cheese and bagels. If it's warm weather, you might be saying, okay,
Speaker 1: now the last two days in my day trip, that
Speaker 1: stuff may not last that long. So I'm gonna do
Speaker 1: instead of something else for lunch, maybe a tuna pack
Speaker 1: or something like that, and then a couple of extra
Speaker 1: bars for my lunch. Now, then you'll plan your dinner.
Speaker 1: So I'll go if i'm going five days, I generally
Speaker 1: go five mountain houses or dehydrated meals. You'll notice that
Speaker 1: there's not a lot of calories in in those, but
Speaker 1: they do fill you up really well. And then I'll
Speaker 1: throw in, say to like Ramen type packets as extra,
Speaker 1: or maybe just a spare mountain house or spare dehydrated
Speaker 1: meal something like that as Okay, I had a hard day,
Speaker 1: that's gonna be extra. And then I'll also throw in
Speaker 1: those couple of extra hearty breakfasts which could be eaten
Speaker 1: at night or in the morning on really hard days.
Speaker 1: So I like to bring a little bit of extra food,
Speaker 1: not necessarily for extra days, but just for extra boosts
Speaker 1: of fuel. Then as I go throughout the hunt, there's
Speaker 1: days that I'll take my ration out that's what I'm
Speaker 1: gonna eat that day. But there's some days where it's like, hey,
Speaker 1: I'm not working as hard today, I'm not really that hungry.
Speaker 1: I'll take this snack and push it over and put
Speaker 1: it into my spare snack bag. So when I do
Speaker 1: go on a big hike or move camp or do
Speaker 1: something like that. Okay, I got all this extra fuel
Speaker 1: that I can eat, or it could even be an
Speaker 1: extra day later on if I just have some days
Speaker 1: where I'm just getting up, not walking far from the
Speaker 1: tent and glassing all day. So those are just things
Speaker 1: you can do in the field to kind of maintain
Speaker 1: and have extra food and extra energy for when you
Speaker 1: need it. But one thing you want to keep in
Speaker 1: mind is you want to just maintain your levels and
Speaker 1: and continue to eat. Sometimes you have to force yourself
Speaker 1: to eat because after the first day, you're really hungry,
Speaker 1: you're eating a lot, and then you kind of get
Speaker 1: into the motory's stomach start shrinking and you just nothing
Speaker 1: sounds appealing, nothing sounds good, So you kind of slowly
Speaker 1: eating down, but you are You're still burning a lot
Speaker 1: of calories, and that's where you get yourself into trouble. Now,
Speaker 1: something that I always try to plan for is what
Speaker 1: I call boosters. There's two kinds of boosters, flavor boosters
Speaker 1: and calorie boosters. Flavor boosters help a lot in just
Speaker 1: making something a little more enjoyable so you eat more
Speaker 1: of it. If you've got the same dehydrated meal that
Speaker 1: you aren't super excited about. You know, you'll eat half
Speaker 1: of it and then it's just real hard to finish
Speaker 1: the whole thing. Sometimes, like my brother Jason has no
Speaker 1: problem finishing any of his food, but he's just a
Speaker 1: better eater than I am. Sometimes, So for me, I
Speaker 1: like to bring any kind of little flavor booster that
Speaker 1: just kind of spices it up a little bit, makes
Speaker 1: it taste more real and more enjoyable. That might be
Speaker 1: something like hot sauce packets. I'll grab some of those
Speaker 1: Mayo mustard packs from the deli counter so I could
Speaker 1: put that on my bagel with my cheese and salami
Speaker 1: for lunch time. Maybe even just like a parmesan cheese
Speaker 1: packet from a pizza thing, adding that to your lasagn
Speaker 1: you dehydrated meal or some kind of dehydrated meal, or
Speaker 1: maybe just throwing whatever your dehydrated meal is at night
Speaker 1: into a tortilla to make a burrito, like with a
Speaker 1: little bit at real cheese. That just makes it a
Speaker 1: little bit better, a little more enjoyable, a little easier,
Speaker 1: and more palatable, so you actually eat more so you
Speaker 1: have more energy to stay more efficient. Now, a calorie
Speaker 1: booster is just things that have high calories, like um
Speaker 1: oils or even just high calorie and fat content. So
Speaker 1: I use either a there's these single served packs of
Speaker 1: coconut oil. I'll dump one of those into my dehydrated
Speaker 1: meal every night. It just really helps with boosting the
Speaker 1: amount of calories something. I think those packs have like
Speaker 1: five extra calories, so for the weight, that's just the
Speaker 1: way to go. I'll put one of those in there,
Speaker 1: and I can use that oil to to fry up
Speaker 1: stuff or cook stuff if I need to later on.
Speaker 1: So I've got some kind of oil to cook up
Speaker 1: meat if I'm successful early in the trip, or say
Speaker 1: I'm l cunting in I shoot a grouse, I can
Speaker 1: cook those fry those grouse up in my jet boil
Speaker 1: if I'm somewhere I can't do a fire or something
Speaker 1: like that. So that's always awesome to have. And then
Speaker 1: even just like a nut butter, coconut butter, something like that,
Speaker 1: you can add to things or just eat as an
Speaker 1: extra shot in evening time to just boost your calorie intake.
Speaker 1: What I want to do now is just I've got
Speaker 1: a list of stuff here that I think is just
Speaker 1: kind of a fun little rundown of list. I've got
Speaker 1: some of my favorite food items, just some things that
Speaker 1: I never want to forget, and then just some things
Speaker 1: to avoid. So let's start with my five things I
Speaker 1: never want to forget in the back country. Number one
Speaker 1: a spoon. I like a long handle spoon too, because
Speaker 1: then I'm not it's just a weird thing. It's one
Speaker 1: of my creature comforts that I like. I like a
Speaker 1: long handled backpacking spoon. It's one thing that I've forgot
Speaker 1: a couple of times, and it's just been a pain
Speaker 1: in the ass. When you forget your spoon, you don't
Speaker 1: realize how important that little spoon is and how much
Speaker 1: better it just makes your life in the back country.
Speaker 1: Just simple things like, oh yeah, don't forget your spoon.
Speaker 1: That should be It's always on the top of my
Speaker 1: gear checklist. Don't forget my spoon. One thing that I
Speaker 1: really don't like not having. I always take my wilderness
Speaker 1: athlete like hydrate, recover and energy and focus. That's just
Speaker 1: drinks stuff to add to my water. Staying hydrated is huge,
Speaker 1: and we already talked about water filtration and stuff, but
Speaker 1: just the actual intake of water is so important, and
Speaker 1: I like having that something that gives me back electrolytes
Speaker 1: prevents cramping. And then also I like their energy and
Speaker 1: focus which has a little bit of caffeine. So the
Speaker 1: midday loll when you just start dragging, I mean having
Speaker 1: that extra boost of energy, that extra boost of vitamins
Speaker 1: and other things that you might not be getting from
Speaker 1: your food. I just know like having taken it and
Speaker 1: not taken it that really helps me keep going. And
Speaker 1: it's just something if I forget it, I just feel
Speaker 1: off because I just know how much it helps me.
Speaker 1: So that's just something for me personally that I really
Speaker 1: like having that drink mix and makes the water taste
Speaker 1: a little bit better. I drink more water that way.
Speaker 1: I can feel the benefits of the energy from it.
Speaker 1: So that's just something that's always in my kit. Now.
Speaker 1: There's people some people like savory, some people like sweet,
Speaker 1: some people like salty. I like something sweet. I always
Speaker 1: try to not forget something sweet. It just kind of
Speaker 1: makes it sometimes if you've got that little sweet snack
Speaker 1: that maybe you take a bite of, or just some
Speaker 1: kind of for me, if it's not hot out, maybe
Speaker 1: a piece of chocolate or something to finish my meal
Speaker 1: off to cap it off is satiates me. So I
Speaker 1: don't get into my into my snack bag too deep
Speaker 1: and just over eat the stuff that I'm saving for
Speaker 1: the next day. And then I always try to pack
Speaker 1: something that's really calorie dense. For the most part, I
Speaker 1: picked most of my snacks on things that I enjoy eating.
Speaker 1: But I do try to throw a couple of things
Speaker 1: in there that, hey, maybe I got to choke us
Speaker 1: down with a lot of water. Maybe I've I've eaten
Speaker 1: a lot of these type of bars, but I don't
Speaker 1: like them so much, but they've just got a ton
Speaker 1: of calories, and I try to keep those for Hey,
Speaker 1: I'm doing a pack out. Hey I'm going to do
Speaker 1: a push over that mountain. I try to front load
Speaker 1: with it where it's like this this real calorie dense food.
Speaker 1: It might not be the best thing, but I'm just
Speaker 1: gonna choke that down and and have that energy stored up.
Speaker 1: I try to eat it before I do something big.
Speaker 1: It's always easy year to front load and have that
Speaker 1: energy ahead of time, as opposed to expend the energy
Speaker 1: and try to play catch up. And then the fifth
Speaker 1: item that I don't want to forget just an extra
Speaker 1: bag to put my trash in. Now, that might be
Speaker 1: one of your day lunch sacks, but it's just really
Speaker 1: important and when you forget it, it just becomes a
Speaker 1: pain in the butt. For you'll have these dehydrated meals
Speaker 1: that are sloppy, you might have a tuna packet or
Speaker 1: some other things. You aren't going to leave those out there,
Speaker 1: and you don't want to, you know, getting nasty in
Speaker 1: your pack. So I just always try to bring an
Speaker 1: extra gallon sized zip block bag for my trash and
Speaker 1: keep that with me. It just keeps things clean, keeps
Speaker 1: things out of the way, and once you have it,
Speaker 1: you realize, oh, yeah, that was a good thing to remember.
Speaker 1: So those are my five things that I don't ever
Speaker 1: want to forget. Now I would say, here's here's just
Speaker 1: a rundown of some of my top fifteen snack food items.
Speaker 1: You know, these are take them, leave them. These are
Speaker 1: just things that over the years I've said, yeah, I
Speaker 1: really like this stuff for reasons of a I like
Speaker 1: the flavor of it, I like the text of it,
Speaker 1: I like the amount of calories of it. There's just
Speaker 1: a lot of reasons why I like these different foods,
Speaker 1: and I've tried a lot of different stuff, so there's
Speaker 1: probably a lot of things I don't have on here
Speaker 1: that I do like still, but i'd say, okay, number one,
Speaker 1: I like Snickers Bars. They're great except for when it's
Speaker 1: really hot or really cold there, but they've just got
Speaker 1: a lot of calories. They're tasty. I always try to
Speaker 1: throw a couple of Snickers Bars in there. That's just
Speaker 1: a personal thing. Um. Corn nuts. During lunchtime, you kind
Speaker 1: of want that salty crunch of maybe a chip or something,
Speaker 1: but chips don't really pack well. Corn Nuts are great
Speaker 1: and they seem to when you're board. If you've got
Speaker 1: those days where you're just glassing and if you're just
Speaker 1: kind of bored, you can eat one at a time.
Speaker 1: They last forever. They just seem like the snack that
Speaker 1: never ends, you know, when you're just in that snacky
Speaker 1: mode where you just want to eat something, but you
Speaker 1: don't want to burn through all your bars for the
Speaker 1: rest of the day. I found corn nuts really help
Speaker 1: with that. They can be pretty good. Different flavors as
Speaker 1: far as dehydrated meal, Oh, I love the Mountain House
Speaker 1: biscuits and gravy that's that's on my top list. It's
Speaker 1: just it's a great breakfast item. It's just sticks to
Speaker 1: your gut. You feel real full off. I know I
Speaker 1: got a big day coming up, or it just finished
Speaker 1: a big day. Maybe I was successful. Pack something back
Speaker 1: to the camp. The next morning the biscuits and gravy
Speaker 1: comes out, so I'll bring one or two of those
Speaker 1: for a week long trip. Oh this snack I just
Speaker 1: found last year. It's these untapped espresso waffles. Um, it's
Speaker 1: got like syrup and it's like a stropple waffle or whatever,
Speaker 1: but some kind of like little waffle in a packet
Speaker 1: trail snack. There's a bar I really like called this.
Speaker 1: Number five coconut Bobo bars. Those are pretty good. I
Speaker 1: don't know where I found those, just a gas station
Speaker 1: or um grocery store somewhere. I hope they still make them.
Speaker 1: I bottom a lot last year. They're pretty good for me.
Speaker 1: Number six fruit snacks. I know this sounds like a
Speaker 1: kid's lunch like, but these are these are things that
Speaker 1: I enjoy eating. So you see my list, it's not
Speaker 1: it's not all like super healthy crazy stuff. It's just
Speaker 1: normal foods that pack well probably have a good amount
Speaker 1: of calories. Now, you don't want all candy bars and
Speaker 1: other things, but these are just things that help fuel me,
Speaker 1: that I enjoy eating and that I take into the
Speaker 1: back country. Number seven shot blocks. I like those because
Speaker 1: they're you know, they've got the little bit of extra
Speaker 1: electra lights and stuff. Number eight tortillas to me, tortillas
Speaker 1: in the back country go hand in hand. They last forever.
Speaker 1: They add a little bit of a good flavor and texture.
Speaker 1: It's easy to put stuff in them for lunch time,
Speaker 1: and they're lightweight. They don't smash, they don't really get destroyed.
Speaker 1: Number nine This is one of my favorite dinner meals.
Speaker 1: It's a peak refuel sweet pork and rice. I like that.
Speaker 1: I like the little bit of sweet with it. It's
Speaker 1: not too sweet. It's good. Number ten this is my
Speaker 1: go to is a is a Raman type noodle. Now
Speaker 1: for me, there's this brand called Endomi meg Rang. It's
Speaker 1: you can you can get them on Amazon. I should.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna order a bunch of them before this podcast
Speaker 1: goes alive, because then people order them all up and
Speaker 1: I won't be able to get them. But um, it's
Speaker 1: more of like a you can make soup out of it.
Speaker 1: You can go stir fry noodle sometimes actually throw some
Speaker 1: this is a pro tip, throw some peanut butter in
Speaker 1: with that noodle and stir fry it. Cool thing about
Speaker 1: that one is it comes with an oil pack and
Speaker 1: a spice pack and like a soy sauce pack all
Speaker 1: in the noodle pack. So that one's really good, especially
Speaker 1: if you get like a fresh kill, cut up some meat.
Speaker 1: Stir fright in there in the oil, throw the noodles in,
Speaker 1: fry the noodles up, and then maybe throw a little
Speaker 1: bit of peanut butter in there. So good. It's like
Speaker 1: a pad tie number eleven. Trail mix, it's not my
Speaker 1: favorite thing to eat, but nuts are really calorie dents.
Speaker 1: So almonds, peanuts, there are some of the best calorie
Speaker 1: Prouns snacks. Pecans I know have a ton of calories. Prouns.
Speaker 1: They're good for you. They got good fats, and they're
Speaker 1: great trail snack. They don't go bad, they don't smash,
Speaker 1: they don't melt. So um. Trail mix is good. I
Speaker 1: don't know, I've eaten so much trail makes I'm kind
Speaker 1: of getting burnt out on it. But it is it's
Speaker 1: just because it's such a good a good snack to have.
Speaker 1: It's got the sweet salty you can mix in raisins
Speaker 1: or you know, eminem's and other things and kind of
Speaker 1: make it to how you like. Number twelve on my
Speaker 1: list of fifteen. Uh, there's a dinner item. I like
Speaker 1: the Mountain House lasagna. That one just doesn't seem to
Speaker 1: get old. It smells good and taste good, but it
Speaker 1: does messr spoon up with the cheese. Number thirteen jerky.
Speaker 1: You can't really be a mountain man without a good
Speaker 1: batch of pemmican with you, so I like to. I
Speaker 1: like the jerky. I like to separated out throughout the day.
Speaker 1: It gives you that extra salt, a little bit of protein.
Speaker 1: I love it. No. Number fourteen like a nut butter pack.
Speaker 1: There's all different brands nuts so f Bomb. They've all
Speaker 1: got weird names. Justin's nut Butter. I'll just I mean
Speaker 1: crazy names, but they're all good. And number fifteen I like, Uh,
Speaker 1: there's a great lunch item. It leaves a little bit
Speaker 1: of trash. You got a toted around that smells weird.
Speaker 1: But um, the tune of creations or chicken creations there's
Speaker 1: like barbecue wing sauce flavor and lemon pepper and ginger whatever.
Speaker 1: There's all kinds of different flavors. Wrap those up in
Speaker 1: a tortilla. Those are great for lunches. Sometimes nice just
Speaker 1: that not just have bars for lunch. Have something that
Speaker 1: I consider like a real food item that would classify
Speaker 1: that as a real food item, something that you can
Speaker 1: add in there. And then you know, like even some
Speaker 1: of those ramen packets or noodle packets are great for
Speaker 1: lunch if you're carrying around your your jet boil and
Speaker 1: other things. Some of the other items that not on
Speaker 1: this list, it's just stuff that you I take. I
Speaker 1: always take some kind of coffee, tea bag, instant coffee, whatever.
Speaker 1: If you're used to drinking coffee every day, bring it
Speaker 1: into the back country. You know, make yourself comfortable while
Speaker 1: having a few creature comforts, but also you know, taking
Speaker 1: things that are light, taking things that are calorie dents.
Speaker 1: And when you're when you're planning it out, look at
Speaker 1: the food items that you're bringing and then just separated out,
Speaker 1: organize it in your day to day path acx in
Speaker 1: and you should be sweet. Now, a few of the
Speaker 1: things to avoid I really try to avoid bringing the
Speaker 1: same thing for every day only because, like I said,
Speaker 1: I've mentioned it a couple of times. You know, there's
Speaker 1: certain items that I'm just burnt out on. I used
Speaker 1: to really like the Mountain House Sweet and sour pork.
Speaker 1: It was my favorite until I brought seven of them
Speaker 1: for a seven day trip. Now I can't even smell
Speaker 1: the dang thing. So just because you like something, don't
Speaker 1: overdo it. Bring some things just you know, varieties and
Speaker 1: spice of life. And then another thing to avoid, don't
Speaker 1: forget your fuel, your fuel canisters. One time I forgot
Speaker 1: my fuel. I brought my pot, I carried all my
Speaker 1: other stuff, my stove, all that kind of stuff, and
Speaker 1: didn't have anything to heat that boil the water up.
Speaker 1: So my dinner, I was on a tar hunt in
Speaker 1: New Zealand it was freezing cold. I was just wishing
Speaker 1: for a hot meal. No hot meal, so I put
Speaker 1: some cold glacier water and pasta prima vera, which used
Speaker 1: to be my favorite dinner, and it just smelt and
Speaker 1: tasted like throw up. I should have just ate it
Speaker 1: with no water. If you if you don't have water,
Speaker 1: eat your hydrated meals or you're sorry, you're freeze dried
Speaker 1: meals um dry. Don't try adding cold water because they're
Speaker 1: just grossed with cold water, I think, But some people
Speaker 1: like it. So that's just my rundown on backcountry food.
Speaker 1: I'm sure there's a million other things to talk about,
Speaker 1: but I just really believe that don't overstress it. Throw
Speaker 1: some food in that adds up to the amount of
Speaker 1: calories you need. You can balance it based on there's
Speaker 1: just so many backpacking options for dinners and meals. You know,
Speaker 1: bring some real food what I consider real food for
Speaker 1: those those midday lunches. You know, bagels last really well,
Speaker 1: salami's last really well, cheese last pretty good. And enjoy
Speaker 1: your experience, you know, make it easy, organize it ahead
Speaker 1: of time, and just have that plan of like, this
Speaker 1: is what I'm eating, this is what I'm gonna do
Speaker 1: on days that I end up using more, this is
Speaker 1: what I'm gonna do with my extras, And just have
Speaker 1: that plan and have it organized, and that's just gonna
Speaker 1: be what really really helps you out for the planning
Speaker 1: part and the execution of in the field. Keeping your
Speaker 1: energy levels up alright, Well, I really hope that that
Speaker 1: helped you maybe get some thoughts going on how you're
Speaker 1: going to plan your meal prep for back country and
Speaker 1: in the future, and if you aren't, even if it's
Speaker 1: not a back country and there is some form of
Speaker 1: planning and preparation that goes into every hunt. So just
Speaker 1: having the right amount of food and fuel, planning it out,
Speaker 1: and and just being prepared in an organized way, it's
Speaker 1: just gonna help you whether it's a day trip or
Speaker 1: back country trip. So I really hope that that helps
Speaker 1: you out. We have talked quite a bit about just
Speaker 1: back country preps, so the water. Now we've covered food.
Speaker 1: I've got this question that came in a couple of
Speaker 1: days ago. It's from a guy named Terry. He says,
Speaker 1: I love the podcast. The water filtration episodes sparked a
Speaker 1: question about first aid kits. What is your go to
Speaker 1: first aid kit beyond band aids? So that's a great question,
Speaker 1: and I really think that I'm glad we got that
Speaker 1: question and to answer it with this because it also
Speaker 1: ties in with the back country food and fuel, because
Speaker 1: there's certain items in first aid kit that will help
Speaker 1: aid in your success in the field. Now, as far
Speaker 1: as first aid kit goes, there's a ton of companies
Speaker 1: out there that makes say, like wilderness first aid kits
Speaker 1: there a lot of them are based on like amount
Speaker 1: of day, so three to five day first aid and
Speaker 1: kind of has a little bit of the basics of
Speaker 1: everything you might need to encounter. I try to think
Speaker 1: of my first aid kit is what are what am
Speaker 1: I most likely to encounter out there? What types of injuries?
Speaker 1: So for the most part, it's gonna be minor stuff.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be possibly a sprain, so something to to
Speaker 1: wrap an ankle, um a rolled ankle. I carry extra
Speaker 1: duct tape around my water bottle or hiking pole. I
Speaker 1: use that more than band aids, but it's nice to
Speaker 1: have band aids in there as well. Um those little
Speaker 1: butterfly stitch type things are great as well. So the
Speaker 1: band aids just a little bit more durable with some
Speaker 1: duct tape wrapped around it, or even just duct tape
Speaker 1: around to cut keep some just stuff out. Most of
Speaker 1: the time you cut yourself, you're processing an animal, so
Speaker 1: it's good to have an extra set of late gloves
Speaker 1: or whatever. And then UH use the deck tape as
Speaker 1: a band aid, and then I throw in it depends
Speaker 1: on the trip, but I've got like those quick clot deals.
Speaker 1: They're a little bit heavier, but just in case there
Speaker 1: was some kind of crazy puncture that you needed a
Speaker 1: clot really fast. I mean, it can happen. I know
Speaker 1: guys were broadheads fallen out of their quiver and they've
Speaker 1: lacerated themselves with it. So I generally keep some kind
Speaker 1: of quick clot, a multi day wilderness first aid kit,
Speaker 1: and then you know the couple extra items like the
Speaker 1: duck tape and that. Now, also, footcar is huge in
Speaker 1: the back country, so throwing in I always throw in
Speaker 1: some mole skin, and then extra deck tape on my
Speaker 1: bottle will be used to help adhere the mole skin
Speaker 1: to my foot or whatever. So anything for foot care
Speaker 1: is also something that I want to make sure that
Speaker 1: I have in my back country kit. Now. One of
Speaker 1: the things that I use for say creature comfort or
Speaker 1: just being able to hunt harder, I always take in
Speaker 1: with my food and my first aid is I always
Speaker 1: throw an extra say advil, or i'd be often something
Speaker 1: that just you know you're gonna be sore, you might
Speaker 1: have a headache or be lightheaded because of the altitude.
Speaker 1: That kind of stuff is huge. It's just keeps you going,
Speaker 1: keeps you not feeling everything so much. You're you're sleeping
Speaker 1: on the ground. And if you have trouble sleeping on
Speaker 1: the ground or in the whatever, if you're just a
Speaker 1: person that has trouble sleeping in general, you're gonna be
Speaker 1: more tired. But I found that even just bringing some
Speaker 1: kind of sleep aid is awesome as far as just
Speaker 1: rebuilding that energy and not necessarily you know, wrestling around
Speaker 1: all night. Talent all PM works. Great Wilderness athlete makes
Speaker 1: what do they call it? I can't even honestly, I
Speaker 1: can't remember the name of it, but I use it
Speaker 1: all the time. It's like a multi item and that
Speaker 1: just helps you sleep. Has got some melatonin and stuff
Speaker 1: in it that I like a lot. So yeah, I'll
Speaker 1: bring those extra things in there, and I'll make sure
Speaker 1: to have enough for each day of like ibyprofen um.
Speaker 1: If you get allergies, you know, bring some just know
Speaker 1: what you need. You might need some ben and rol,
Speaker 1: just some things that are small items that really help
Speaker 1: your experience and just help you sleep, help you be
Speaker 1: more comfortable, and the more comfortable you are. The right
Speaker 1: amount of fuel you have, you've got the water, you
Speaker 1: get that sleep, You're just gonna have more energy to
Speaker 1: hunt harder, which is going to lead to more success.
Speaker 1: So I just can't stress that enough. Well, I am
Speaker 1: looking forward to next week. I think what we'll do
Speaker 1: is next week, I'm gonna put some of the backcountry
Speaker 1: prep stuff on the back burner for a little bit
Speaker 1: and we'll talk some hunting tactics next week. One of
Speaker 1: the ones that has just been asked and asked and asked,
Speaker 1: but I just wanted to hold off until it got
Speaker 1: a little closer to the season is spring bear hunting tactics.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna do some spring bear hunting tactics next week.
Speaker 1: I think you'll really enjoy that. I'm gonna I've done
Speaker 1: a lot of spotting stock spring bear hunting that I think.
Speaker 1: It's a really steep learning curve. It seems near and
Speaker 1: possible when you start out, So a few of these
Speaker 1: tips are going to be just huge if you're planning
Speaker 1: on any spring bear hunts this spring. So until next week,
Speaker 1: stay fueled, eat your calories and all. Yeah, uh, eat
Speaker 1: him on the mountain? Can we can we end this
Speaker 1: podcast and eat him on the mountain? Probably? So yeah,
Speaker 1: h