Frog Lake Post-Trip Analysis, Part II: Food & Drink

It’s a new week and time for a new blog post, so I’m going to jump right in here with the next set of my Frog Lake observations: the noms.

Perhaps the most memorable chow we had was the Packit Gourmet burger kit. It will nicely fill four tortillas and was a big hit, despite a skeptical family. Everyone enjoyed their tortilla burgers and was eager for seconds, so we split the 4th tortilla burger into thirds. The meat is very nicely seasoned so I’ve re-ordered it without the optional “the works” condiments pack.

You could add a lot of things to customize this one, like some tomato, cheese, greens, maybe some cilantro, onion, bacon, different sauces… There are a lot of ways to tweak this one. My only advice is to be sure to knead the contents thoroughly and often to avoid small crumbs of crunchy meat. Um, unless you like crunchy meat, of course.

Moving along to snacks…. While lunch was cooking we ate my small block of chipotle cheddar cheese which was a nice snack. I got it from Packit Gourmet as well, although I think our local Cost Plus/World Market carries them as well. Allison also devoured a baggie of dehydrated strawberries I’d brought for her. She and I shared a Honey Stinger bar for lunch dessert. Some additional snacks for later in the day might have been nice.

For dinner we had two entrees. The Mountain House Pasta Primavera was liked by Allison, but Carrie thought it was just OK. They’d had it before at Point Reyes last year so it was a safe choice, something fairly important with a finicky kid.

I thought my dinner entree, the Backpacker’s Pantry Saigon Noodles with Chicken, was pretty good. I was totally stuffed from eating almost all of the two servings by myself. I would like to find better dinner entrees though.

As always, the breakfast of warm Mountain House Blueberry Granola was loved by all. It’s overpriced, but worth every penny to have camp food the whole family just loves. I could have gone for a second pack, but it was probably good that I didn’t have another available. We had a bit of an uphill slog early in the hike back and those are much less fun with a very full stomach.

Starbucks Via instant coffee packs were good as usual – one each for Carrie and I after dinner, and at breakfast. I forgot to bring instant hot chocolate for Allison but have purchased some for next time.

The beer from the 40oz. Hydro Flask was not as cold as I’d like, even on a rainy day, but it was better than lukewarm beer. Also, the Hydro Flask leaked when it tipped over in the tent. A close examination of the top of the flask shows that it’s not level, so it doesn’t seem to seal up tightly against the hard plastic inner ring. Since it’s not sealing right, that certainly impairs its ability to insulate. It will be interesting to see how the company responds to my inquiry about this.

We didn’t use the Packit Gourmet Mango Margarita mix I’d brought. I had been looking forward to trying it, but it just wasn’t margarita weather!

And finally, let the record show that I am no good at cooking Jiffy Pop on a backpacking stove. Let us never speak of it again…