Vegan Camping - Day 2 of 2

Ahh, warm and dry under the canopy of my tent's rainfly, snuggled in my sleeping bag, with the sound of the river lulling me to sleep... the great outdoors! Ok, so I did "hear" (translated: "imagine") bears and men in boots tromping through the woods outside my tent approximately ten times... and the rain did wake me up another three times. But what is camping if it doesn't include a small portion of irrational fear of the dark and numerous rolling-overs throughout the night!

Also surviving the rainy night were my adventure companions who slept four feet above the ground in their own nest. Soon after we awoke, David got breakfast started by heating up some water...

...and we all enjoyed a hot breakfast of instant oats. I tossed a big handful of trailmix into my bowl to give it some extra crunch, chew and hardiness.

Bethany and I had made this trailmix by buying nuts and raisins in bulk at Wegmans, an excellent chain grocery store that she has nearby. Peanuts, almonds, pecans, sunflower seeds, cashews and raisins. (She and David added M&M's to their pouches, but I left them out of mine because they're made with milk chocolate.) We all munched on our individual bags of trailmix on and off throughout the hike. I don't think anyone of us actually needed too much food beyond our filling and fulfilling meals, but I'll speak for myself in saying that most of the times I ate a couple handfuls of trailmix, it was more for the mental motivation! A minute of indulging in nuts and raisins is such a simple pleasure, a small reward after a quad-aching ascent that helped to keep me moving!
The instant oatmeal also came from Wegmans; it's their own brand of oatmeal. I have to say, I really appreciate a lot of the product options at Wegmans. Not only do they have a "health food" section that includes lots of organic and cruelty-free options (food, household, daily care products and more), but they label all their own products really well. Just as a random example, here's a jar of their chunky peanut butter.:

So yes, it's not like peanut butters usually contain gluten, lactose or any animal products. (And Wegmans' peanut butter also does not contain high fructose corn syrup.) But their cereals, canned goods and most everything else are also labeled like this, with allergy warnings by the ingredients list as well. Thank you Wegmans!
(Just incase you wondered, I did not carry this heavy jar of peanut butter on the hiking expedition, but I did spread a good heavy portion of it on Day 1's sandwich!)
One last note about my morning oatmeal. I ate two packets of the regular (non-flavored) packages that came in the variety pack. Interestingly enough, the "regular" packs had a more nutritious punch than the flavored ones (Apples & Cinnamon, Cinnamon & Spice, Maple & Brown Sugar, and Raisin & Spice). Per pack, "regular" oatmeal has 45% DV of Iron (vs. 20% in the others), less than half the sodium of the others, no sugar added (the others are as high as 16g per pack), and equal or more protein than the others (4g. Two flavored varieties have 3g and two have 4g).
That said, we were all quite satisfied with our breakfast. So we broke camp and filled up our bladders - thanks to Bethany and David's awesome filtration system!

We also used this cool fresh water to wash the dishes, wash our faces, and brush our teeth. Very convenient! And I couldn't help myself, before we left the campsite, I had to take some more mushroom pictures for your viewing enjoyment! Man! I wish I knew which ones were edible!

This one reminded me of the coral I've seen while scuba diving.

This blob of a fungus did not remind me of anything in particular, but as did most of these mushrooms, made me realize just how many different types of fungi there are!

 Delicate and transluscent, emanating its own sunny color.

 Oh! And a toad!

 Rain-catcher.

After my camera was filled with fungus (well... something like that), we set off once again, feeling a bit confident that we could walk our way through another 7+ miles, as we had been so proud of ourselves for doing the day before! We estimated that our packs started out at about 30 pounds each, but today mine was a little lighter (minus two baked potatoes, trailmix, oatmeal; and I decreased my water supply to 1.75 Liters, because the 2 Liters I started off with on the first day was more than I needed and was very heavy!).
Some places were a bit wet and slippery, so as I focused on my feet, I spotted plenty more mushrooms!

I actually remember seeing this exact variety as a kid growing up in western Pennsylvania. I remember the coral color and little tan patches on top, and picking and arranging them into a "bunch."

In spite of the slippery walking conditions, I did not lose sight of my surroundings, for looking up yielded its own majesty.

Being surrounded by trees is truly incredible. I have to say, completing a 16-mile hike was pretty momentous for me. But you do have to stay on the move. There's time to sit around and relax at night, when it's dark. But there's not much time during the day. Meal breaks are much-deserved and vista-appreciation-moments are well-taken, but we definitely weren't able to schedule in afternoon meditation sessions! I hope to do more hiking and camping this fall, and I'm planning to incorporate some more sitting during the daylight hours. Can you imagine sitting under a canopy of trees like this, tuning in to the scents and sounds of nature and just meditating for awhile?

There was one place, though, at which we stopped for longer than anywhere else. At around mile 11.5, we followed a trail tangent to get to this far-stretching view that made our arduous pace all worth it:

The mountain ranges were three, four deep. Of course, if we can see that many ranges, that means we're higher than all of them. Right? :) We stood here for a long while, trying to imagine how far we had hiked, and wondering if there were any other people within our view.

And then we ate!

 We each had two tortillas and a bag of fillings.

Slices of avocados, black beans, slices of raw zucchini and red bell pepper, and hummus. The veggies were in a separate bag. The whole thing survived being in our backpacks for 30-ish hours without being too mashed.

 It was a a pretty fantasmagical combination of flavors!

Yeah, we pretty much saved the best meal for last!
I also had dessert with this meal. I know, fancy!

These handy bars are a great choice for vegans and non-vegans alike. All the different varieties of Larabars have 9 or fewer (whole foods) ingredients (Cherry Pie is made with unsweetened cherries, dates and almonds. That's it.).  All the bars are vegan - even the ones with chocolate chips - but the packages can't be marked to note this because the chocolate chips are technically made in a line which also processes non-vegan chocolate chips. Check out Larabar's website for more info if you want, but what I'm trying to say here is that this fruit and nut bar company is a winner! ($1.29 each at Walgreens.)
Shout it from the mountaintops: YODELEHEEEEHOOOOOOO!!!

........... hehoooooooo..........
Whoa, the mountain tops shouted back.
What a surprise it was to realize that our lunchtime perch was smack in the middle of an immaculate echo launchpoint! We definitely spent a good ten minutes here, taking turns yelling out across the vast canyon. The clarity of the return echo was beyond any I had ever heard. Syllable for syllable. And just around the bend from where David is standing, the wait time for the echo was THREE SECONDS! Not kidding. It was so long that we almost missed hearing it because we didn't wait long enough! And I wonder, if there was anyone within earshot, would not they certainly have given a holler back, just for fun? But we heard no one except ourselves. I really think we were the only people with a view of the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon that afternoon.