A Fork in the Trail: Mouthwatering Meals and Tempting Treats for the Backcountry.

Patricia A. Myers is a historian at the Historic Sites and Archives
Service, Alberta Community Development, and the author of Sky Riders: An
Illustrated History of Aviation in Alberta, 1906–1945.

This is a more than a recipe book: it is food preparation book for those going on long hikes or camping and canoe trips who want to make a lot of the food they will take with them. If you don’t want to depend on the dried pouches offered in outdoor stores this book will give you all sorts of nourishing, interesting alternatives.

Laurie Ann March is an experienced wilderness backpacker, hiker, and paddler who, among other things, teaches a course on preparing food to take on wilderness excursions. She has packed all that knowledge into this book. The first section of the book is dedicated to acquiring the basic information you will need, such as dehydration and rehydration basics, food storage on the trip, and outdoor cooking equipment and cooking methods. She includes a long list of supermarket finds that work well on long trips.

Each recipe has two parts: what you do at home, and what you do at camp. The instructions are clear and careful, reflecting the tremendous amount of thought and experience that has gone into pulling this book together. March is clearly aiming to give campers all the information they need. There are recipes here for every meal. Think Orange Cranberry Pancakes for breakfast, Curried Tuna and Couscous Salad for lunch, and Harvest Pork and Apple Stew for dinner. The snack section is especially good. You’ll have a hard time saving the likes of Pumpkin Pie Leather, Smoked Salmon Jerky, and Spiced Dried Pears and Walnuts for your trip. And what about Water Bottle Sprout Garden?  You can create your salad as you hike! There’s helpful information about making camp food fun for kids, instructions for making a cardboard box oven, and a glossary of special ingredients mentioned in the book.

This is a great book jam-packed with information that I can’t imagine any serious camper would want to be without.