Energy Bites good for the trail, simple snack

At the end of last summer, I was feeling a tad antsy. It occurred to me that I hadn't been hiking, that I hadn't been in the woods, in years. I love the woods and hiking and all that nature-y stuff. I like to look for mushrooms (but don't eat any), and see strange tree roots popping out of the beaten-down paths of any state or federal park trail. I take pictures of anything I think is weird or beautiful, as well as the backs of people I'm hiking with.

Memories popped into my mind of my nuclear family's biggest backpacking trip to Isle Royale in Lake Superior when I was 11 and my brother was 9. No one in that group or most of our extended family has been anywhere near the wilderness in years. We'd all grown up and got busy and soft in the years of COVID-restricted travel and comfy recliners, phones firmly in hands. Who wanted to go sleep on the ground, commune with mosquitoes, and risk a broken ankle or bears or whatever the heck else was out there? No one.

No one, of course, but my sister-in-law, Amy. If you put my extended family on a spectrum of nuttiness, she and I are both over by the acorns. Suddenly, I wanted to see Lake Superior again. And to coax water to boil over an open wood fire to make delicious coffee and listen to the pitter patter on the tent's rain fly while falling asleep. I wanted to dig out my hiking boots and test my quads against a rugged trail climbing up to a view you can't get from any camera. Most of all, I wanted to wade in the crystal clear, ice-cold waters of the upper Great Lakes. Again, I say acorns.

So while we were all sitting around the fire last summer and I asked who was coming with me camping in the U.P., I was half joking, but when Amy raised her hand, my heart soared and I dove into planning the trip for this summer. My husband paid no attention to this planning, assuming, as he often does, that I wouldn't go through with it. "If I ignore this, it will go away," is his motto whenever I come up with another acorn-fueled idea.

But Amy and I compared schedules, and we both got the time off. I got a real paper map and made reservations at two campgrounds, two nights each. As the dates approached, we collected pieces of camping gear from the attics of everyone in the family and on July 22, much to everyone's surprise, Amy and I packed her Subaru Outback and headed out, swung around the west end of Lake Erie and headed north. Just before we left, my son, J.R., 16, said "I'm impressed that you guys are actually going through with this." That, friends, is high praise.

In a nutshell, the trip was glorious. The weather was perfect. We have pictures and stories for days about driving tent stakes into seemingly petrified soil with logs because we forgot a mallet. About how I splurged on a huge $8 bag of orange gummy slices (my favorite road trip snack) and made a gallon-sized zip-top bag of "gorp," which is what my mom calls trail mix: salted peanuts, raisins and M&Ms. Somewhere around Dundee, Michigan, we got sucked off the highway by a giant Cabela's outdoors gear company we could see from the road and spent a bunch of acorns on fun stuff — which felt a little like going to the grocery store when you're hungry.

And we ate. Let's put it this way: our camping cooking skills left a tad to be desired. I should have put much more thought into that. It started off well, the first day with eggs and bacon brought from home, cooked over a fire and instant Starbucks to warm us up. Amy was in charge of that one.

But that night we tried the freeze-dried Firehouse Chili from a bag we'd bought at Cabella's. Unfortunately, we realized, it called for ingredients — like diced tomatoes and chili beans. We just skipped the tomatoes and added baked beans and chunks of summer sausage. I was chasing each bite with a cold tortilla to keep the fire down in my mouth.

We had a ton left over that we tossed the next day, figuring it was probably no good since we had no way to keep it cool anyway. After that, we ate piecemeal: gorp, orange gummy slices and Nature Valley granola bars. The last night we actually enjoyed bowls of an Indian instant meal she'd ordered online. That was pretty good, but I have to say, aside from that eggs and bacon on the first day, most of our good meals were at restaurants we found in the little towns and hamlets we drove through.

Now to the point of this story. I was planning to make what Amy calls "Energy Bites" for us to eat along the way. It was her recipe and I brought the ingredients, which included a 12-ounce bag of mini chocolate chips. While we were out hiking on the first day, the chocolate chips completely melted into a liquid mess in the car where we kept all the food in hopes of deterring, well, bears I guess. Amy was very serious about avoiding bears. Fair enough.

Without the chocolate chips, though, the energy bites weren't going to be nearly as delicious as I'd remembered them from previous batches. So we came home with a full jar of peanut butter, a can of oats and bottle of honey, leaving me to long wistfully for them throughout the trip.

Amy's recipe, though, is well worth trying for its sheer simplicity, even if you aren't climbing and clawing and cramping your way from one set of waterfalls to another. They're great cold and even slightly frozen, or even just at room temperature. Since it's August, I'll suggest them as a back-to-school afternoon snack instead, in the likely event that you don't have acorns for brains like Amy and I.

On the last full day, we'd kayaked on the Tahquamenon River, and were contemplating what to do next. At some point, we made the acorn-headed decision to then make the 1-mile hike to the lower falls and then the remaining 4-mile trek between the lower and upper waterfalls. Let's put it this way: We didn't exactly prepare for this. We'd brought no food and one water bottle. That was a long two-and-a half hours on a tough trail even for Amy, who's in much better shape than I am. We were so tired when we were done that we almost grabbed the shuttle back to our car before going to see the gosh-darned upper falls we'd hiked all that way for. I could have used a batch of Energy Bites right about then.

We're already starting to make lists for our 2023 camping extravaganza, and this time I'm going to make the Energy Bites before we leave.

AMY'S ENERGY BITES

1 and 1/2 cups peanut butter (preferably natural)

1 12-ounce bag mini chocolate chips

1/3 cup honey

1 cup rolled oats

Combine with a rubber spatula and roll into 1- to 2-inch balls. It's helpful to keep your hands slightly wet while you form them to keep the sticky mess from clinging to your fingers. Place the balls on a baking sheet lined with wax paper and chill before serving or traveling, if desired.

Amy Stavar

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This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: 4-ingredient Energy Bites good food for hiking or school lunch, snack