Foraging

This is what we call it when we are each responsible for getting our own dinner from the fridge at home. But we know a few people who like to think they can forage for food along the trail.

Our last trip to Gibbs Lake gave us a few opportunities for that. There were tons of onions along the creek, and we thought about picking a few for added flavor in our food. But we didn't.

There were also gobs of red currants that were actually ripe. We collected a few to bring home. They were both sweet and quite tart...and we'll make some kind of jam/jelly out of them.

The forest floor was exploding with mushrooms. And while some of them looked exactly like the deadly amanitas, other looked pretty tasty. But we're not experts, and we left them alone...or for Alice, if she happened by.

And finally, we did catch some trout in the lake, but trout don't really have many calories. You'd have to eat an awful lot of trout to meet your daily calorie requirements. We let them do to get bigger for the next angler.

So yes, there are edible items in the backcountry. But we sure wouldn't want to try to live on a diet of them!