Today we're embarking on a culinary thru-hike with registered dietitian and logistical powerhouse Aaron Owens Mayhew, the founder of Backcountry Foodie and the trail mom we all wish we had!
I’m not even a long distance hiker (yet?!?), and can count on one hand the number of times I’ve backpacked for consecutive days sleeping outside, honestly - but I’ve been OBSESSED by the Backcountry Foodie business for years, since Aaron was doing Facebook Lives sitting outside in her vanlife days... and as COVID was lingering on, I listened to countless podcasts featuring Aaron telling her hiking back story, and the origin story of Backcountry Foodie. (Link below to one of the many good ones from friend of the pod, Meg Carney of The Outdoor Minimalist Podcast!)
So we’re not going to talk much Backcountry Foodie history today - I’m much more stoked about the brilliant power move Aaron started leaning into this year, when she began experimenting with ways to more directly support backpackers in their thru-hiking attempts.
We'll also hear about the trials and triumphs Aaron experienced on her recent Tour du Mont Blanc - SOOOO MANY good takeaways for traveling backpackers, so make sure you listen to the end!
AND THEN - head on over to BackcountryFoodie.com to check out all of the amazing free resources and recipes available to get you fired up and fueled up.
OR BETTER YET - level up into one of the Backcountry Foodie membership programs, which will get you access to the entire library of recipes and nutrition guidance, as well as a discount in the Backcountry Foodie online shop!
BUT WAIT, THERE'S EVEN MORE! Take advantage of a special discount Aaron is extending to all friends of Guides Gone Wild - use code WILD at checkout to get 20% off any Backcountry Foodie membership - woot!!
Get a little WILD, use code WILD, and start eating right on the trail, river, campground, wherever and whenever you find yourself fueling up far from your kitchen home base!
More fun links:
Today we're embarking on a culinary thru-hike with registered dietitian and logistical powerhouse Aaron Owens Mayhew, the founder of Backcountry Foodie and the trail mom we all wish we had!
I’m not even a long distance hiker (yet?!?), and can count on one hand the number of times I’ve backpacked for consecutive days sleeping outside, honestly - but I’ve been OBSESSED by the Backcountry Foodie business for years, since Aaron was doing Facebook Lives sitting outside in her vanlife days... and as COVID was lingering on, I listened to countless podcasts featuring Aaron telling her hiking back story, and the origin story of Backcountry Foodie. (Link below to one of the many good ones from friend of the pod, Meg Carney of The Outdoor Minimalist Podcast!)
So we’re not going to talk much Backcountry Foodie history today - I’m much more stoked about the brilliant power move Aaron started leaning into this year, when she began experimenting with ways to more directly support backpackers in their thru-hiking attempts.
We'll also hear about the trials and triumphs Aaron experienced on her recent Tour du Mont Blanc - SOOOO MANY good takeaways for traveling backpackers, so make sure you listen to the end!
AND THEN - head on over to BackcountryFoodie.com to check out all of the amazing free resources and recipes available to get you fired up and fueled up.
OR BETTER YET - level up into one of the Backcountry Foodie membership programs, which will get you access to the entire library of recipes and nutrition guidance, as well as a discount in the Backcountry Foodie online shop!
BUT WAIT, THERE'S EVEN MORE! Take advantage of a special discount Aaron is extending to all friends of Guides Gone Wild - use code WILD at checkout to get 20% off any Backcountry Foodie membership - woot!!
Get a little WILD, use code WILD, and start eating right on the trail, river, campground, wherever and whenever you find yourself fueling up far from your kitchen home base!
More fun links:
Welcome to the Guides Gone Wild podcast. What is Guides Gone Wild, you ask? This is where you'll fill your ears and minds with the stories of everyday, extraordinary women who will inspire you to take your outdoor adventure game to the next level. Whether you're starting your journey from the couch or the trailhead, this is the place for you. So let's get a little wild.
Jen:Welcome, or welcome back to Guides Gone Wild. This is Jen, and today we are jumping right on in with Erin Owens-Mahew, the founder of Backcountry Foodie and the trail mom we all wish we had. I'm not even a long distance hiker yet and can count the number of times I've backpacked for consecutive days, sleeping outside on one hand, honestly, but I've still been obsessed by the Backcountry Foodie business since Erin was doing Facebook lives outside the van she was living in and, as COVID was lingering on, I probably listened to like 10 podcasts featuring her telling her backstory. I've linked one of the show notes that she did with another Guides Gone Wild former guest, meg Carney, for the Outdoor Minimalist podcast, so we're not going to talk much about that phase today. I am more stoked to talk about the brilliant power move she started leaning into this year, really, when she started experimenting with ways to more directly support backpackers in their through hiking attempts, and we'll hear about the trials and triumphs Erin experienced on her recent tour de Mount Blanc.
Jen:So many good takeaways from that story. So make sure you listen all the way to the end and then you will definitely want to head on over to BackcountryFoodiecom and take advantage of a special discount Erin is extending for all you friends of Guides Gone Wild. Code wild at checkout will get you 20% off any Backcountry Foodie membership. So let's hop aboard the rehydration station and get well fueled for all our Backcountry Adventures with Erin Owens-Mayhew of Backcountry Foodie. All right, awesome, a long time coming, this one is. I've been rocking Erin since way, way long time ago, since the beginning of this podcast. Erin Owens-Mayhew, welcome to Guides Gone Wild from Backcountry Foodie. Yeah, thanks for having me.
Jen:Oh, my goodness, I'm so excited.
Jen:Yay, and, to her credit, Erin was more than happy to talk to me, but she's like I'm about to go on the tour de Mont Blanc, so that was like months and months ago. So I'm like that's a very good excuse to put off adding more to your plate when you're planning for such a big and epic trip. So we're going to talk about that today and I also want to talk about some super exciting stuff that has happened over the past almost year, I guess right In your business.
Aaron:Well, even the last six months has exploded.
Jen:Yeah, it's been madness, so I'm going to stop talking. In a second. Let's take it back quickly and just tell us maybe the quick and dirty about Backcountry Foodie what it had been because you've been doing this for a while, and then maybe let's first talk about the evolution of your business, since you decided to branch out into a few different interesting things last year, and then learn some lessons along the way.
Aaron:Yeah, so I'm a registered dietitian and a long distance backpacker. I've been a backpacker and dietitian for over 20 years now and more recently becoming a long distance backpacker as of 2017. So Backcountry Foodie first started back when I was just kind of diving into the DIY backpacking food and that kind of thing and it's just exploded. Every year I've kind of done new things based on what people's needs are and what their feedback has been. So it started out as just kind of a recipe platform and meal planning platform and, like I say, in the last six months it's exploded and I started a resupply business because I now know kind of through my own resupply adventures I guess you could say as a through hiker what is really required of it. So now I provide resupply boxes for hikers and then this season I quickly learned that people just want to eat healthy but they don't have access to the healthy foods on trail. They don't necessarily need all the extra handholding that I provide in the resupply service that they have supported home to mill their gear back and forth and that kind of thing. They just don't have access to the foods they want.
Aaron:So we're now building essentially what we were just saying, but pre talking today is that I have a mini mark going in my house For the people listening. You can't see behind me, but I have a huge stack of shipping materials and boxes and those kind of things. So that's where we're going forward right now, as we're building a Shopify shop, essentially kind of like a hikers Amazon to where you can order all the healthy foods you need in one's place. You can buy hand sanitizer wipes, like anything you would need in your own resupply box, and then you could have it within three days. So that's kind of the exciting thing that we're doing now, and we're also offering nutrition coaching, which is another expansion project that we just added on. So it's evolved a lot over the last six years.
Jen:It has evolved a ton because, I have to say, your Instagram feed is backcountry underscore foodie and it's a great follow, even if you're not like a long distance backpacker because you share a ton of amazing free content and amazing recipes.
Jen:You make them look delicious. There's a ton of feedback that you get on them which just there's always something really good and interesting and fun and delicious. Looking on that site and that definitely it sounded like drove, the beginning of the more recipes, a membership, the ability to kind of help with meal planning and things like that. But you're in an entirely different business now, like logistics.
Aaron:This is logistics.
Jen:I mean just planning it through Hike makes my brain melt, never mind supporting a bunch of different people on through Hikes in different places, in different times and whatever. So, first of all, why? Second of all, how? Third of all, how are you sleeping at night now, after having a year of this under your belt and what were your kind of the biggest surprises, or maybe the biggest things that you were afraid of and wound up actually being something to be feared?
Aaron:Yes, so I guess number one of why I wanted to do it is that I just kept seeing it as a need, that people were really struggling with planning for the trips and again I've had the experience myself of flavor fatigue. So I made all my food ahead of time and then you're sick and tired of eating the same thing Even 30 days in. You've made five months worth of food, or I've gotten injured on my trip. So I've made all this food and then now what do you do with it when you get injured or you have to go home because of a family illness, those kind of things. So that in itself was kind of the why is that?
Aaron:I saw the need for it. So essentially the how is that? I have customers that you can order every week, so you order based on what you're craving that week, your order based on where you're going to be at that time, because the other thing with resupply is your plans. You could plan as much as you want, but it goes out the door within the first two weeks. So, especially this year with the snow and the sea, people were bouncing all over the place. I had this really great idea of having a map on my wall, kind of following my hikers and I gave up because they were like up and down and all around.
Jen:I was like I don't even know where you are anymore.
Aaron:So I think people really appreciated that. The logistics I'm essentially. I had somebody call me a trail concierge and then a trail mom because I just made them magic happen. They placed an order for food and then I did all the planning. Growers were shopping, packaging and that kind of thing in between and then they just showed up. So one of my hikers in particular wanted to do the PCT in 100 days. That's all the time that he had. So I was able to make that happen because he didn't have to think about food. It was there. He kept on trucking, kind of thing.
Aaron:How I'm managing it, making it work. It was a lot of work. Luckily I'm very type A, very organized, so I was able to manage it all. I had 20 hikers. When I started not realizing what that amount of work was going to look like, I realized that 20 is too many. So I can reasonably handle 10 hikers, but there's so many hikers out there. That's why we're coming up with the shop, because I can help so many more people with the shop versus all the individualized, customized things. So that's kind of why we're doing the next phase of it for next season.
Jen:Yeah, and I think that that kind of you you're dancing around a lot of these other capabilities that you have that maybe people don't think about right out of the gate is like minimizing waste, you know, maximizing the, the incremental benefit you're gonna get by planning ahead and Even just the packaging, and kind of being the person who's like trying to figure out what's the best way. I mean, because you are very much weight-oriented, like lightweight oriented, you're very much diet restriction oriented. I mean there is something for literally every permutation of everybody on your site to start with, and like you're now turning that knowledge into, you know, these very curated plans for people, whether it's, you know, from a coaching perspective or from a resupply perspective.
Aaron:And now I'm assuming a lot of that's gonna be kind of translated into your store of like here's the best quantities and the best packaging and the best thing and and just dietary preferences I mean we're doing, you know, low sugar, low sodium, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, you know all those kind of things that I'm known for is that I'm gonna that was some of the complaints that I've heard from hikers Is I have X number of restrictions. I scared it at some. Have you still have people say like I can now through hike because you're offering the Service, because I'm so terrified of not being able to eat while while I'm out there that I'm just not gonna hike. So that's another driver. For it too is that I'm using all my nutrition knowledge to help people get out there that otherwise couldn't.
Jen:So yeah, and I love that idea of you know, in the same way that you're, just your taste and what you feel like eating Evolve over the course of a longer through hike. I gotta believe maybe your requirements do too, based on just your energy output and you know your female, your hormones, like any kind of thing, and you know, you have the credibility, your register dietitian, you know this stuff. This is in the back of your brain with all the other information you keep back.
Aaron:I was even a mama duck this year. I was like I could see your pictures are getting thinner. We need to feed you more. Yeah, I'm gonna order more food, like what can we do? And then, like I would help people too when they're going to the serious. They're like I know any more calories, but how can I get this into my bear can? So we kind of do some troubleshooting too. Okay, these foods you've been ordering, yeah, they're great for what you're craving, but that's just not gonna work for this section. So we would do some troubleshooting with that to get them through. And then I didn't realize the hot thing would be on my meal Replacement shakes. I love them because I get sick and tired of chewing and you know that kind of thing lose my appetite. I made I think I counted the other day 650 shakes in four months. Oh my god.
Aaron:Or a handful, and they got to where, at the very end, people were ordering 50 at a time because they're like I can't do this trouble without them, because I just can't eat enough food, so I'm drinking my nutrition. So that's something I'm actually really working on for the shop is being more efficient, being able to make those so I can make them more easily, because right now, everything is going into Vitamix blender One at a time. That's just not sustainable on my end. So this is actually a bag of powdered strawberry.
Jen:You can't see it if you're listening, but I've got a bag of powdered strawberries here that I'm gonna try and see if it's Looks like you know the package that you got from Amazon that had you know 10 shirts from sheen or whatever in it, but it's powdered strawberry, it's powdered strawberry.
Aaron:So yeah, so I'm making some changes that way too, and they like the recipes that I'm offering, just so I can be more efficient and get them out there and get pricing down. You know all that kind of thing too, because it's expensive Tea back parking food, so that's something else I have experience with is like how can you eat Well but also keep your costs down, kind of thing.
Jen:Yeah, I can't even imagine what the what the database behind all this looks like, because it's just like there's just too many columns to oh, it's a lot of columns tabs, talking amongst tabs, and more tabs.
Jen:So, yeah, that that's just amazing and I and I will have to I do have to say and I think we're we're gonna talk after this I think you had offered a membership discount. I think I'm definitely gonna take you up on that and we're gonna make that happen. For anyone who is interested in kind of becoming a member of back country foodie, explain a little bit about what that entails and it gives you access to, because it's pretty amazing.
Aaron:So our memberships we have three tiers. We have a the bare bones one all the way up to, kind of, our premium ones. So the bare bones is our recipe membership where you just get access. We'll just get access to over 200 recipes that I've developed and they're all been trail tested. I've all made sure they're easy to prepare.
Aaron:Again, very tight bay I like to eat very quickly be done. Keep going that kind of thing. So I've kept all that in mind, all the nutrition things in mind. So that's the bottom. Our middle one is for people that want more assistance with the actual planning.
Aaron:So if you're currently using lots of spreadsheets, we've all automated it. So it's just a plug and play. Choose which foods you want. You don't have to use mine. We have a lot of commercial foods in there and I literally will tell you how many calories it is, how much it weighs, how much carbs, how much protein. It tells you how much water you're going to have to pack. So it's very automated. And the best part of it I use this for managing my resupply hikers is it creates a shopping list. So literally say, you need, I don't know, four packs of Rama, one cup of oats, you know this or that, so you can go through and have it all done for you.
Aaron:And then our top tier includes all my master classes that I've taught. So I have six different classes that go from backpacking food 101 all the way up to teaching you exactly what I do. And we also have quite a few bariatric hikers that have had bariatric surgery that are wanting to get out. And that's the other thing I'm really excited about is I'm helping those hikers do things that they otherwise couldn't have done. And we also have a diabetes class similar kind of thing newly diagnosed diabetes. They used to be hikers, but now they're afraid of being able to manage it. So we're helping people that way too.
Aaron:And then we're also. What's exciting about the memberships is kind of a perk is that you get 10% off our shop. So and part of the thing is in the meal planners you can build out all your meal plans and then you just go to the shop and buy everything in the shop. So it's literally a one stop shop thing. You don't have to go anywhere else to do anything. So we're trying to make it as easy as possible to eat for your trips.
Jen:Yeah, no, and what I thought would be, I mean, and another amazing kind of way to use your membership.
Jen:You know, I immediately think of guides that are taking like four or six people out into the back country, and you know that part of what their offering is is to cook and provide food for people for a couple of days.
Jen:And all of a sudden, you know, and most people don't get into guiding because they're really into nutrition or really even into cooking, they get into it because they're into the outdoors. And I'm thinking that that is a big hurdle for a lot of people when, especially now that people are becoming more and more inclined to be specific about what they want, not just, not just dietary requirements, like I have a gluten allergy or I have, you know, this other kind of a nut allergy, but like this is how I prefer to eat and I'm going to expect this when I go out on a trip with you, and your service makes it so that somebody could say here's my six people that I'm bringing, and like you could put together a plan through all this information that you have already put together and curated, and I just think that that is just a huge, huge value that we're moving into a commercial kitchen for that reason.
Aaron:So I can start helping with those people that, like you just said, I'm a guide, I'm a cook.
Jen:Right, if you, if you want to actually order the whole soup to nuts thing even just shopping, yeah exactly. It's so helpful. So I think that that's just amazing, Because it is. It's just, we're just bringing every little capability and bit of information out of you, Erin putting it out there and back on Dr Foodie.
Jen:And it's amazing.
Jen:And you can get a discount. So this brings up, brings me kind of indirectly to my next thing I wanted to talk to you about, which was the amazing trip you just went on because you have so many balls in the air. How did you make time for this? And I'm so glad you did. I didn't but tell me about this trip, because you must have been thinking about it for a while. I mean, you can't just like hop up and, you know, go to the alps, you know, on a day's notice, I mean I guess you can if you have a lear jet and stuff.
Aaron:But you know, you, me and the rest of the world mostly Actually kind of another backcountry free related story is that this has been a bucket list item for me, and literally Chris and I were. I like to go ride roller coasters, that's just kind of my thing. So on my birthday, well, I was going to ride roller coaster. So we're standing in line for like an hour and a half. We're like, okay, what are we going to do? What's our next adventure? You know what are we going to do.
Aaron:So I'm really googling, like why don't we do the Tour de Monde block? Totally random. So I'm on there googling and I'm like, oh, this requires a lot of planning. I don't have time to plan. You know, this is a little more and not but a week and a half or so later, a guide that does the Tour de Monde block reached out to me saying that my clients are struggling with meal planning for the trip. They're struggling with knowing how much food to eat, they're struggling with like keeping calories and losing appetite and that kind of thing. Could you help me? I'm like, oh my gosh, this is perfect timing.
Aaron:We were just standing in line trying to plan all this and I realized I don't have time to plan. So what we ended up agreeing on is she planned the entire trip from airport to the hike, the route, all that back to the airport, and we literally just showed up. I had the guidebook in my hand, reading it every day. There was zero plan.
Jen:That's the only way we could have done it. Yeah, so in return.
Aaron:Now I'm kind of synthesizing all the things that I did. I took notes every day, I went to all the restaurants and refuges and that kind of thing to learn about the food. So yeah, as I'm planning for zero actual planning training, we hiked one day a week and I'm not a climber, so this was one thing going into it. And we also treated it as a vacation because I truly wanted to unplug. So the way the Tour de Monde block is set up is you literally go from my town to a hut, back to town, back to a hut, back to a town. So we would be the last people to leave in the morning because we're in no hurry. Then most days, short days, would be six, eight miles. A long day would be 10 to 12 miles, so you have all day long to cover the mileage.
Jen:But you are starting and ending very high Right. There's a lot of climbing, yeah.
Aaron:It's not flat, but you can stretch the imagination. So we would literally get kicked out of the refuges in the morning. They're like it's time for you to go, so we're like okay. So when you're climbing all the way up and I'm super duper slow at climbing but we're like it got all day, so we would stop and take breaks, you know, then we'd stop at the next refuge, get a beer for lunch and have a pie or something like that, and they're like okay, then we'll finish the rest of the day.
Aaron:Then reason I was able to get my husband this is his first long distance hike is there was a shower every day. We slept in a bed every day. So I mean this was a pretty posh kind of hike. There were quite a lot of other people that did it back to back packing, which, listening to them, it was really stressful because it's illegal to hike excuse me, to camp and most of Italy and Switzerland. So they were having to really kind of like hike all the way into the night, hide, you know, get up first thing in the morning.
Aaron:So the way we did it it was actually a true vacation that we could sleep in late, we could stop and eat, you know that kind of thing. So even though we didn't train for it, it was doable. Which I thought was really interesting about the trip is it was so accessible. There are all ages, all genders, all races. You know all physical activity levels, abilities, that kind of thing. So it was really cool to kind of see that people are out there getting it done without feeling like you had to be like this elite athlete to climb these big mountains.
Jen:Yeah. So tell me a little bit about, maybe, what your takeaways were, when you thought about, kind of how nutrition and fueling would interplay with you. Know, obviously I love the way you did it Like oh, I'll have a pie, I'll have a beer.
Jen:I mean I'll have a shower, but you know if people were trying to do it in like less time or you know more self-supported, like what were the things that you kind of went in thinking you would recommend?
Jen:and then how did you come out of it thinking, oh, or maybe, maybe you nailed?
Aaron:it. I don't know. Well, going into it, what little bit of research I did about the food is that I was like how could you go hungry? Because there's grocery stores, you know, there's refuges, there's these things. But once I was there it's the reason why I couldn't help her. Brittany Alpen Ventures is the name of the company. I was like I can't really help you not being there and actually seeing what's available. So that's kind of why we did the trip.
Aaron:But realizing backpacking food is not available in the grocery stores. We're vegetarian, so there's loads and loads of sausage and cured meats and those kind of things. But when it comes to actual food options, for us it was bread and cheese over and over again. There aren't snack bars, there aren't energy bars, there aren't drink mixes, that kind of thing. So I lived off a trail mix for that. So if you're a vegan, it would actually be really, really hard to do it as a vegan. If you wanted to carry out, we would actually get like paninis and take those out. So because I was able to eat within a couple hours, that kind of thing was safe.
Aaron:But if you're trying to really cover a lot of miles, you're not going to be able to keep that kind of food. It's just not going to be shelf stable or food safe, I guess you could say, for multiple days at a time. And then it's kind of expensive. I mean the food it's not super cheap. So if you are in a budget, then that can be a restriction too for people. And then again, like, if you are wanting to backpack, there aren't any backpacking meals out there, so those weren't available. And then if you're having to coordinate your days based on you're going to have to hike, leeten to the night, then where are you going to eat dinner? Because you have to have reservations at the refuges. So there's all those kinds of things that make it really hard. So we did it the easy way. So there are actually a lot more food planning.
Aaron:And then two, not knowing if their future is going to be open, what time they're going to be open, because that information isn't available on their web. They don't necessarily even have a website. So that was a little bit of anxiety kind of driven that way too. Or they, if you do stay at the refuge, you can ask them to make you a picnic is what they call for the next day for lunch. But sometimes they would run out. Sometimes I would forget to ask because I just didn't have that in my mind to think for the next day. So they're like, oh crap, what are we going to do for lunch the next day? You know that kind of thing. So there's a lot more planning to it than I expected, going into it thinking like there's a ton of food, you know everywhere, so yeah, now, that's a really good point and I'm guessing the same thing would apply to, like, the Camino and other places that are like longer walks.
Jen:But you know, if you're leaving the United States, don't just make the assumption that you're going to be able to access all the same stuff. Even if you are in, you know, fairly civilized areas the whole time you're on this trip, that doesn't mean you're going to see fresh vegetables or this kind of dehydrated thing we craved vegetables. I bet you did.
Aaron:We would get a salad. It would just be like, because their salads are just lettuce and maybe a tomato. They're not like American salads which all kinds of things on them. So we were like, oh my gosh, it's lettuce. We're so excited to have just some lettuce and then a lot of it. A lot of the places they're pretty remote, so there would be a lot of flies and I was kind of grossed out about like the flies sitting all over the place, that there would be a privy outside or filled with flies and then all the flies are on the food inside. So that kind of thing grossed me out a little bit. But I was like I'm starving, I have to eat, so I'll take my chances.
Jen:Oh my God, yeah, that's it. I mean, it sounds like it was an amazing trip and did you come back refreshed and everything else, or was it Well it?
Aaron:ended with a hospital stay.
Jen:Oh my God, that's right.
Aaron:Yikes. So we made it nine days out of 10. We were planning to do it in 10, which was actually a really reasonable amount of time for us. I don't know that I would have done it much faster just because of how we planned for it. But on the ninth day my husband was fine in the morning, but starting getting close to lunchtime he was just like I'm not feeling good, Like I'm sick in my stomach. Something's just not good. So luckily we were on our way down the mountain before going back up to the refuge. We were supposed to stay at a really remote refuge that night, so by the time we got down to this little town he was on the ground throwing up shivers. You know, miserable. Here I am, and because I wanted to unplug, we didn't get cell phone plans. Because I'm not checking Instagram, I'm not checking Facebook.
Jen:I'm not checking email, you know like I'm not doing that.
Aaron:This is an air in time to unplug. Well, we had to obviously get oh, a garment, like if we need to push SOS, we're in real trouble. Then we could do that. You can't call an ambulance with a garment, right?
Aaron:So and we were in Switzerland, where a majority of people speak French. So tiny town, there's not a lot of English speaking. I don't speak French. The app that I downloaded for a translator only worked online. There's no Wi-Fi, so just the communication barrier of getting out in this tiny little town. So luckily I begged a guy that was a refuge worker. He was getting off in 20 minutes, so he's like I'll help you in 20 minutes. I'm like okay, my husband's getting really, really sick. I'm like okay, I can wait 20 minutes.
Jen:I can wait.
Aaron:So then he gives us a ride into Chamonix, which is normally like a pretty big town with things going on. The hospital's closed for the season.
Jen:It had closed maybe a day or two for the season.
Aaron:Don't they ski there? How do they know they're in the hospital? Well, we were in the off season.
Jen:Oh, I guess it was in between.
Aaron:Yeah, in between, when the shoulder season, I mean gondolas were closing down there.
Jen:Yeah.
Aaron:Actually, that was one of the things I'm going to talk about when I write up my blogs is make sure you time it. Just right, because we are going to have to like anyway. Gondolas were closed, the hospital is closed. I don't speak French, so the poor refuge guy was calling taxi drivers. They wouldn't give us a ride to the next hospital because it was too far away, one-way direction. And all this while I'm like my husband's sick, I just need to get to the next hospital. Then he calls the on-call doctor I guess they have like a medical line and then she wouldn't call the ambulance because he was just throwing up. But he has some underlying medical things that he gets sick really quickly. So I eventually had to lie and say he had epilepsy.
Aaron:Just don't make it urgent enough to get into the ambulance, and then the ambulance drivers don't speak English. So then we're trying to communicate one another, so they don't do anything for them, but just drive us to the hospital. Then get to the hospital. No, wife, I know a way to communicate with family. I was communicating with his parents via Garmin, the best I could. So they're calling the US Embassy to try to find somebody with English speaking. They're trying to figure out where we are. I didn't know where I was. Was I in France? Was I in Switzerland?
Aaron:Yeah, I had no idea what was going on.
Jen:Oh my god.
Aaron:So yeah, but he's OK, he's OK. We ended up being there for three days and then I got GRD on the last day so then I miserable.
Jen:Oh my god, so was it the altitude that just made him sick, the combined, we don't know he had?
Aaron:some kind of infection, so I don't know. Something happened, but evidently in France they don't believe in using antibiotics unless they know exactly what they're treating. So, he's just, they're miserable with this horrible fever. It's just awful, oh my god. Please do something, oh my god. So we're just waiting it out.
Jen:And you're like in a logistical powerhouse and you're still having all these troubles. I suppose nobody will now do the tour de Mont Blanc, but it sounded like a great trip until then it was a great trip until then.
Aaron:So I don't know, go ahead and pay for the extra cell phone. Yeah, yeah, get the extra cell phone. Delete Facebook off of it.
Jen:Right, and wait for Aaron to write up her blog about the trip, so that you know all the ways that you can avoid all that.
Aaron:Do differently next time, oh my god.
Jen:Because you went, like September, right or August.
Aaron:Yeah, middle of September. Yeah, which you think?
Jen:would be a beautiful time to go.
Aaron:but it's beautiful time, but it's right at the season where things start snowing, you know, the weather starts coming in that kind of thing, they start shutting down.
Jen:Oh my god.
Aaron:So, yeah, we are 15 miles from the finish out of 105. So just that in itself was like we were so close.
Jen:Oh my god, oh my god, I highly recommend the trip that's awful Right.
Aaron:Just do different things differently, right.
Jen:Holy cow, well, ok, and so, speaking of trips, let's talk about another trip where it sounds like your husband's like yeah, I'm not doing that no thanks.
Jen:And now I?
Jen:can completely understand why. So was it last year you did bits of the Condor Trail.
Aaron:The 2022.
Jen:I still don't know about it.
Aaron:We moved here Labor Day of 21. We're in the Central Coast of California now. After traveling on our van, we finally landed here and we happened to speak on to a national park here and I was looking at GPS like, oh, there's this really long line. What does this think? So whenever I see a long line on GPS, I'm like, ooh, that's a long trail, like I want to check it out. So, lo and behold, it's the Condor Trails, 400 miles through the forest. That's right by us, so it's easily accessible. And I'm like, oh, ok, I can do this trip, no problem. I hike these all the time. Well, it's not a hike, it's a route.
Jen:Yeah, it's very remote right? No, it's super well marked.
Aaron:And yeah, no. So the trail will be very clear. Then all of a sudden come to a dead stop, to either it just stops and then it becomes grass, or there's bushes that are grown, or trees are down, or, ok, I guess the trail is the creek now, that kind of thing. So it's going to be a completely different level of skill set that I've had to use. That before I used to be really nervous about route finding across country and now I've kind of conquered that fear because you have to do it, to do this trip which is why I was reaching out for help the other day Because I've done the sections that I feel comfortable by myself and now I'm in the sections where I really need a buddy, just for safety purposes, to be out there.
Jen:Yeah, and how are your? I assume you're like section hiking. Do you have like how many days at a time? Are you going out at this point, or are you looking to go out at this point?
Aaron:So I have. I think I only have two more day hikes that were pretty sketchy, that I just want somebody there. Then I think I have two more overnight and then for four day trips. So finding and I've had other women go with me and like my husband, they're like I've gone once. That was enough.
Jen:I've been ticking off my hiking buddies.
Jen:So, that's what I've got. You can connect with Erin online and she if you're in California or plan to be there at some point this fall or maybe even next spring, right, if you? Don't get all of your stuff done. She is looking for hiking buddies.
Aaron:I'm looking for hiking buddies, yeah, so anybody up for a very much type two fun?
Jen:Yes, type two fun with a very much type A planning partner, which is, you know, that's all planned out, so I would sell me. I'm like you know you'll feed me and you'll make sure I'm safe and you'll, yeah, hike with me.
Aaron:So that sounds like that's made somebody to be along, so an extra set of eyes, so similar kind of thing. When the trail comes to an end it's just so much easier to have somebody else route, find one section and you go the other. Then you just kind of yell over the hill Like, hey, come this way. Or there were sections where some of my hiking buddy and one was taller than the other, so it's easier to like help each other open over the rocks. Or I'm fairly tall for a woman so some places like I couldn't get to because I was too tall. So that kind of thing, she would take my backpack, you know, and shuttle things back and forth. But it's definitely it's been through hiked, I think by six people. And the thought of through hiking, yes, like it'd be so much easier if I just went from point A to point B. But I think mentally I could handle it.
Jen:Yeah, it sounds like very just day after, day after day Very challenging, yeah, Mentally exhausting and you have your day to day that's mentally exhausting. So it's like getting out to the wilderness is not supposed to make things more complicated in your brain. So right, yeah, that's interesting. All right, so a couple more questions and then I'll let you go, because you obviously have lots of going going on. I can see what's going on behind you and it's crazy.
Aaron:We've got eight foot tall shelves in here now with like you can't even see around the corner. There's literally a mini mark which I actually had done on me the other day. It's kind of a funny story as I was talking to my new business manager saying that I just realized I used to do that. I just realized I used to love playing grocery store when I was a kid and never understood my sister having, you know, friend, imaginary friends, with her dolls and stuff, but I love being the grocery store for her.
Aaron:And I'm like here's all coming to my grocery store.
Jen:I got this all worked out. I've had all this worked out for 35 years. That's awesome. That's so funny. Yeah, so I want to. I am just fascinated by cold soaking because it sounds as somebody who does not do a lot of backpacking. I just can't even imagine eating nothing but cold, wet food all the time. Where do you land on cold soaking? You obviously do it. Yeah, I do it.
Aaron:And I would imagine your meal replacement stuff is probably.
Jen:That's mostly what it is right, Right.
Aaron:And that I even consider no cook. That's just add water and down, the hatchet goes. You don't even have to wait for it to soak, okay. So actually I do a lot of no cook recipes for that reason for our lunches. So if people are like I just don't eat more bars for lunch but I don't want to cook and I don't want to do that thing, so I do a lot of hummus mixes, a lot of bean depth, so that kind of thing, just add water, stir, it's done. Yep, but I think personally the key for cold soaking is eating foods that are meant to be in cold naturally, so like deli salads you know deli pasta salads, or tuna fish salad or you know those kind of things versus trying to eat like a beef stroganoff to be cold Just sounds disgusting.
Jen:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, that was my question is like what are your top one or two recommendations, or something like that, where it's like, okay, maybe I, maybe I need something different than my instant stuff. I don't want to have, don't want to have to heat anything up, but I want something substantial. That isn't that.
Aaron:I don't want to gag on pasta salads, one of my favorite, like the rest of the head. The recipe on our website, my sundry tomato pesto pasta is peanut pasta Like a pesto sauce, so I think it's basil, garlic and Parmesan and centripetamatoes and pine nuts. I mean totally normal ingredients and it's just a cold pasta salad. I mean it's amazing. You can make it hot if you wanted to, but it's just an awesome cold option. The similar kind of thing that I've started doing for breakfast, if I have an early start, is just cold cereal with powdered milk. And just it dawned on me one day like why haven't I ever done this before? Right?
Jen:So if you don't want to get out of the stove, you don't want to do dishes is.
Aaron:I'll use like some kind of brand base brand flakes, and then I add nuts and dried fruit and coconut and milk powder and you could easily have six or seven hundred calories and just add water, stir and you're done.
Jen:See, there you go, You've totally changed. Yeah, because I just, I guess, I don't know, maybe I'm just limiting my thinking about it, because I was thinking about things that were just like gruel, like yeah no, you don't have to eat cold oatmeal.
Aaron:I'm like pasta salad, I'm in. Yeah, I mean, that's just normal food?
Jen:Yeah, exactly, all right, cool, that's awesome. And then my last question. Oh, you know what? I have two more, just out of curiosity, because you do accommodate so, so, so, so, so many different restrictions and requirements and whatever what has been your most challenging one from a backpacking standpoint, to like address with food.
Aaron:I would say the bariatric backpacking part for me, just because I don't have a lot of experience with that, although I do have a dietitian now in staff that was a bariatric dietitian. So anytime we have someone sign up for a masterclass, I immediately follow up with them with okay, what can we do to better serve you? Like, what are the things that I could do? Because I come to us because I'm known for my meals being very small volume, because that's the ultra light, most calories, low volume, that kind of thing. But they're not quite as high enough in protein for these folks. There may have a little bit too much sugar in them. So I'm actually trying to branch out a little bit more in that to help more and more people, because I'm noticing there's more and more bariatric backpackers wanting to get out there. So I think that's kind of a group that is underserved right now that I think we could do a better job of helping.
Jen:That's exciting though it's good, it's so awesome to hear that that is a growing segment. You know, I mean, and who knows what, the what the future holds, with all the different drugs and stuff that are coming to the forefront and much more that will be relied upon. But hey, I think that's, that's great. All right, and then my last question, and I like to ask everybody what is your favorite piece of gear that you have or use that cost you less than $50, not $20.
Jen:Oh $5.
Aaron:$5. My favorite piece of gear and I think this surprises people, but, being an ultra light backpacker, everything I have the best is multi purpose. So my favorite piece of gear that goes with me regardless of the weather is my emergency poncho is the Frog Talks emergency poncho. Frog Talks, yep, I can use it just as a pack cover and I actually used it for all these purposes on the Tour de Mont Blanc. I took it with me. It could just be a pack cover from already sweaty you know, sometimes rain you're just gonna be just as wet as when you're sweating. But I want my gear to stay dry, so I'll use it as a pack cover or use it as a regular poncho. So when I'm on my long distance trips, I'll use it as a skirt. If I'm doing laundry and I like want to wash my pants, that kind of thing. There's times where I use it as ground cover If I want to sit down and I get completely dirty. You know that kind of thing. So, and it's $5. I'm very cheap, I'm very frugal.
Jen:Was there anything specific to that brand that made it, or is it just the one thing that you have to buy?
Aaron:It makes me feel better that it can actually be recycled. So it's one of those. Even though it's cheap, it does delaminate fairly easy, so I have to be really careful about how I fold it. Yeah, I've learned through using a couple of them, but for me it's cheap piece of gear, multi purpose lightweight, you know so that's my favorite. Yeah, whether it's raining, snowing or shining, that kind of thing, it's always in my pack, yeah that's awesome.
Jen:No, that's a great answer. Alright. What did we miss? What did we not talk about? What's next for that country, foodie, besides all the other stuff you already? Know Is your list full for resupply for next year.
Aaron:So, yes, my actually limited to 10 people. So I'm really limiting to the people that have really severe diet restrictions or what I, and also international hikers that don't have the support people here in town or in the states. So I'm kind of limiting to that and everybody else I'm just directing to the shop because I think the shop will serve 90% of the people and if there's foods that they really want that aren't in there, that I'm just going to start looking and build, because right now the shop has everything that my hikers use last year and then I'm planning on using again, but that doesn't mean that's all the foods we're going to have, because you know who, I don't know what everybody needs. So we're just going to keep building on that, right, and then we'll just see how next year goes and then go from there.
Jen:Oh my gosh, it's so exciting. Are they all West Coast hikers, or are you all over the place? All over the place?
Aaron:Well, I'm moving into the commercial kitchen. Now I can ship my meals all over the country, whereas this season, being in California, cottage food I can only shipped to California. So actually missed out on a lot of people that I could have helped last year just because of that restriction. So I've got Appalachian trail hikers, long trail hikers, arizona trail hikers, pct hikers, and then I've got other people that, just like I'm going on a shorter trip, I don't have time, so that kind of thing, just do it for me, and then that's what I love to do. So I'm going to start doing that to and we're have oh, that's part of the shop is one day meal kits, as if you don't want to have to think about it is, I've already pre designed out a full 24 hour supply of food. You just buy the whole kit and off you go, kind of thing. Oh my gosh.
Jen:It's amazing, I swear to God, every time I talk to you I get so excited about like your business is, like. It's just the upside potential is crazy. It's just, you know, it's just the industry.
Aaron:I know this energy that I got to just use. I know they go crazy.
Jen:You need to clone yourself a few times, and then you'll be off to the races.
Jen:Right, yeah, that's awesome.
Jen:Alright, aaron. Well, this has been a joy and a pleasure and I'm so excited to see your face again because you make me happy and talking about interesting businesses and yours is definitely one of them. So good luck with the expansion and, yeah, as soon as you want to set up like an East Coast distribution center. I'm your girl.
Aaron:I have to move that direction, because I can't do all this by myself. You cannot do that. Yes, I can already see.
Jen:I will even abide by your sort, your organization's structure that I see back there.
Jen:I'm going to take a screenshot. All right, awesome, Thank you. All right, thanks for having me. I know that Erin said her roster for the Backcountry Foodie Resupply Service is filled for 2024, but you can get more info about the resupply service and maybe even get on the waitlist at backcountryfoodiecom or get some Backcountry Foodie goodness shipped directly to you through her online store, which is linked in the show notes as well.
Jen:There's a ton of amazing free resources and recipes on the Backcountry Foodie website that will get you started. But remember, if you join one of the Backcountry Foodie membership programs, you not only get access to the entire library of recipes and nutrition guidance and all the good stuff, but you also get a discount in the Backcountry Foodie online shop. So I hope you'll consider becoming a member of the Backcountry Foodie community and use code wild at checkout to get 20% off any membership program at backcountryfoodiecom. Get wild, Use code wild W-I-L-D and start eating right on the trail, river campground, wherever and whenever you find yourself fueling up, far from your kitchen home base. That's it for this week. Thanks for joining me and remember the discount code is wild.