GF Camping Food

In preparation for a camping trip I had a few weeks ago, I did some research in to Gluten Free camp food - and was pleasantly surprised to find I had numerous options available. Below is a brief review of the ones I ended up with. 

In my opinion, there is nothing better than a nice big bowl of hot oatmeal to warm yourself up after a night of sleeping in a chilly tent – so that is what I looked for first. I came across a company called The GFB (Gluten Free Brothers) who make oatmeal in three flavors. I purchased a Custom Bundle box of all three (two of each) just to try them all out. I really liked them: they have all kinds of nuts and seeds so it’s not just oatmeal. I would suggest, however, bringing along some brown sugar to add to them as they were ever so slightly lacking. I will most definitely order from them again, even though I wasn’t entirely impressed with their packaging. They tried to be all clever with a cardboard “bowl” that just made it bulky to pack. At least it was recyclable cardboard even though we had to haul it in and out.

While shopping for the oatmeal, I happed to see that the same company offers snack bars and “bites” (little balls packed full of protein and energy) – so I went ahead and got custom bundles of each of those, as well. I was surprised to find that those little bites were quite tasty, and definitely provided a burst of energy while hiking - although they do get your fingers a bit gooey. I’ll probably order them again. The bars were okay, but not my favorite consistency. Bryan liked them well enough, but I don’t think I’ll be ordering them again.

For my meals on the trip, I turned to a company called Food For The Sole – a company founded by a mother/son pair who make good healthy dehydrated GF & vegan meals that can easily be prepared while on the trails. With meals like “Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Kale and Quinoa” or “Lentil Walnut Pilaf with Kale” or “Curried Cauliflower Salad” you can bet that I had no problem keeping Bryan from eating all my food – he is more of a “Beef Stroganoff with Noodles” kind of guy, if you know what I mean. But I absolutely loved them and was quite happy to hoard them all to myself.

Another snack bar I brought with me is by a company called Huppybar, founded by a former river guide on the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon. These bars again a little sticky on your fingers but are most definitely worth the mess they create. These little squares come in 6 different flavors: my favorite is her Apple Cinnamon Raisin. I ordered plenty of them, so have them handy for anytime the trails call me out.

Red Shirt Lake

Bryan and I went on a hiking/camping trip last weekend, out to Red Shirt Lake. The trail is about 3.5 miles long and is very well maintained. The bugs are horrible, though – I really do not like mosquitoes! Our packs were full, but not too heavy. Mine sat very well on my hips, but Bryan’s gave him fuss pretty much the whole way in.

The canoe we rented was waiting for us at trail’s end. We figured it was better to rent a used one than to try and carry our own the whole way. The key they gave us did not work at first, until we realized we were trying to unlock the wrong canoe. Once we got that all straightened out, we were good to go.

The cabin we rented is a Public Use Cabin (or PUC) of which there are at least 4 on the lake. We weren’t sure exactly where it was, so had to paddle around and search for it a bit – but we eventually found it and were quite pleased with the site.

It was old and very hard used, though, but still quite functional. The previous users had left it in a filthy mess, however, so I had to sweep it out before we could put our stuff in there. Really not cool, guys!

Bryan spent most of his time out in the lake fishing for pike. Apparently, there are some big ones in the lake, but he only caught the smaller ones. He had fun regardless!

There are lots of critters in and around the lake: we saw a moose, two swans, some grebes, and a huge loon.

I stayed at the cabin and read my book, wrote my letters, and just generally enjoyed my relaxing weekend. Bryan was very happy to discover the previous users had left behind a 6-pack of beer (which sort of made up for them leaving it in such a horrible mess) while I was overjoyed to discover they’d left two partially used citronella candles. We burned those the whole time we were there, which helped to keep the cabin livable without mosquitoes.

We gathered up deadfall and twigs so that we could have a fire each morning inside, to help take the edge off the chill when we got up. We had enough left over for a bonfire one evening, which is always nice. We did not have any marshmallows, though.

The paddle back to trail’s end was considerably shorter since we didn’t have to search for it. Such a beautiful lake – I really enjoyed it.

And as is usually the case, the hike back to the truck was a lot quicker as well. I’m not sure how that works since the mileage is the same. But soon enough we were back at the truck and headed home again.

One thing bad part of this trip was the fact that I did the whole thing with a broken toe! I really do not recommend this, by the way. It hurt! Like, a lot.

Hawaii 2022

This was our big trip for the year, so there are lots of pictures. I’ll post a few for each day, but if you want to see all of them – feel free to come over for a visit to look at the book I’ll be making!

Our first day was mostly just arriving in Maui and getting situated in our room at the resort. Bryan owns a time-share at the Ka'anapali Beach Resort, so we had a suite: a kitchen, a dining area, a living room w/ balcony, and a nice big bedroom with a huge bathroom. It was on the 11^th floor so it had a nice view of the ocean!

The official First Day of Vacation we got to go to the Feast of Lele, one of the finer luaus in Maui. They offer a sit-down meal (as opposed to the more usual buffet style dinner) with 5 courses of food from the Pacific Island Nations (Aotearoa, Tahiti, Samoa, and Hawai’i). Each course featured three different dishes to sample while enjoying the dancers on stage. It was quite the experience!

Day two was my birthday so I got to choose the entertainment for the day: so of course, we went to the Maui Ocean Center! What a fantastic place: we got to see all kinds of fish, turtles, history, and artwork. Their finest exhibit, however, is an astonishing, virtually immersive experience that brings you eye-to-eye with Hawai'i's humpback whales! It’s a dome-shaped theatre showing a 3-D film that literally feels like you’re right there with the whales. At one point during the movie, I looked over at Bryan. He was sitting there looking up at the whale, and the whale was looking right back at him, not two feet away! It was the most amazing thing I’d ever seen! I could have SWORN it was real. It completely took my breath away.

The next day was our Road Trip to Hana. We had our own personal guide, downloaded onto our phone – SHAKA GUIDE - that took us step by step all the way there and back again. Honestly, if you’re ever in Maui – I can highly recommend these guys. We bought their bundle offering 6 different tours, so we were able to use it multiple times. The road to Hana is quite the experience even without the guide: it’s a one-lane, two-way highway that has over 600 twists and turns to it! It takes you from one end of the island all the way to the other, giving you some really spectacular views along the way!  

We didn’t want to be rushed during our Road to Hana trip, so we rented an AirB&B in Hana for the night, making it a two-day trip instead of trying to do it all in one day. The place we stayed at was okay – not the best place ever (no air conditioning) but not the worst either (no cockroaches). But I’m glad we stayed the night – we had lots to see!

One of the negative aspects of owning a timeshare is that you are required to attend meetings with them each time you use the timeshare. This gives them an opportunity to get you to spend even more money with them and are truly an awful experience. But we had to go because they had gotten us in to the Feast of Lele for free, and that would have cost us roughly $200.00 per person if we’d gone ourselves. And the meeting was just as awful as I expected it to be – but we did it, and then got to spend the rest of the day just relaxing and recovering from our roadtrip. These are some more photos from the day before.

Thursday was exciting – we rented “glass bottomed” kayaks and got to paddle around for two hours looking at the fishes! Unfortunately, Bryan could not see anything (he did not have his prescription glasses on) through the bottom of the boat – so he mostly paddled while I looked. Most of you know this, but I do not know how to swim – so I was a tad bit nervous. But I had a life preserver on, so really wasn’t that worried. However, the wind picked up while we were out there, so getting back into the little cove we set out from was tricky!

Friday we went inland and did a few tours on our way to the volcano, where we got to use the Shaka Guide ap once again! Our first tour was of the Surfing Goat CheeseFarm: we got to feed the goats AND do a cheese tasting! From there we went to the Ocean Vodka Distillery where we got to tour their grounds and taste their vodka (surprisingly good). We ended the day at the Haleakala National Park up at elevation 10,000.

Since Friday was such a hot day (temps were in the upper 90s pretty much our entire time in Hawaii) I needed to spend Saturday just relaxing and recovering in our rooms. Bryan went out and got some fresh fruit, so we munched on Mangos and Papayas! We played cards, watched movies, read books, and basically just enjoyed each other’s company.

For our last day in Hawaii, we went on another brewery tour at the Maui Brewing Co. and got to taste five or six of their best beers. Afterwards, Bryan really wanted to go to a place called Moose McGillicudy’s for a late dinner: apparently it was a favorite of his from past visits to the island, and his favorite t-shirt from there had just recently disintegrated to the point where it had to be thrown out – so he needed a replacement.