On a recent Friday night, my friend Rachael and I had full-on cabin fever. We needed out of Salt Lake City, but weren’t up for a road trip. So we packed our backpacking gear and headed for the hills, choosing Lake Blanche as our destination.
The sun quickly set and we hiked through darkness. The typically crowded trails were empty as we gained elevation, leaving the glowing lights of the city far behind us. We reached the top near midnight and quickly cooked some backpacking pesto pasta.
As soon as we took our first bites, we immediately knew it would be tough to finish. But we choked it down because…animals, and were stuck with our oatmeal having a hint of terrible pesto flavor the next day. From this awful experience, we decided to teach ourselves to make better backpacking food. You reap the rewards from what we learned. Read on about trail running Utah’s peaks, riding bikes in Idaho’s wilderness, and the best swaps for buying and selling gear.
Happy adventuring!
Jenny Willden
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