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Eat Plants While You Hike
By: Steve Gillman

Knowing a few edible wild plants can make your next
backpacking trip, or any trip into the wilderness, a lot
more enjoyable.

You can pack lighter if you eat wild berries every morning
for breakfast, for example, and leave your oatmeal behind.
So push the bears out of the way and gorge yourself on
blueberries. Less weight on your back always feels better.

You'll also enjoy your backpacking more when you know that
you won't be completely helpless the moment you lose your
pack, or a raccoon empties it for you. You don't have to be
a survivalist to see the value of knowing which of the wild
plants around you can be eaten.

I eat dandelions, wild courants, pine nuts and other edible
wild plants regularly. I ate hundreds of calories in wild
rasberries during a break, while hiking in the Colorado
Rockies. During a kayak trip on Lake Superior, a friend and
I spent half a day stopping at every litle island, to fill
our stomachs with wild blueberries. We were almost out of
food, so our foraging helped us get through the rest of the
trip.

Edible Berries

Here are just some of the wild berries my wife and I ate
while hiking to Grinnel Glacier in Glacier National Park:
Blueberries, Service Berries, Rose Hips, Blackberries, High
Bush Cranberries, Strawberries, Rasberries, Thimbleberries,
and Currants. Berries are the most convenient, calorie rich
and nutritious of the edible wild plants out there. They are
also the easiest to learn to identify

Edible Wild Plants And Survival

If you travel in isolated wilderness areas, learning to
identify a few edible wild plants can keep you safe also.
Someday you may be lost or injured, or a bear will push you
out of the way to gorge himself your freeze-dried meals. In
a survival situation, food isn't usually a priority (warmth
and water are), but a pile of roasted cattail hearts sure
will cheer you up and warm you up, and they even taste
good.

Stay away from protected plants, of course, unless you are
in a true life-or-death situation. Also, don't eat all the
beautiful flowers, or kill off the lilies by eating all the
bulbs. Use common sense. If you aren't sure if you're doing
harm, stick to eating wild berries.

Check out a few books on harvesting wild food. You don't
need to become a wilderness survival fanatic. You really
only need to learn to recognise a dozen high-calorie,
abundant wild edible plants to be a lot safer in the
wilderness, and to enjoy it more.

About the Author

Steve Gillman is a long-time backpacker, and advocate
ultralight backpacking. His advice and stories can be found
at http://www. The Ultralight Backpacking Site .com

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