About Heather & Jose

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Heather and Jose grew up in the deserts of the southwest and grew fond of spending time outdoors at an early age. While Heather enjoys peaceful backpacking trips and moderate hikes with our dog Hera, Jose enjoys more adventurous outings including winter mountaineering, canyoneering and the occasional scramble up some random peak. To put food on the table- at home and on the trail- Heather is a high school biology teacher and Jose works for a non-profit organization focused on conservation and education.    

Shortly after discovering the joys of backpacking, we found one thing that definitely needed some improvement, the food. We just weren’t happy with the limited selections of prepackaged meals, and the options were hard to get excited about, not to mention the huge amounts of sodium those meals often contain. About to embark on the 220-mile John Muir Trail, we were determined to bring the culinary experiences we enjoyed at home along with us on the trail, so we decided to make all of our food ourselves. Twenty days of breakfasts, lunches, and dinners was going to require a whole lot of planning and lots of dehydrating!   

Preparing for a 20+ day journey can be intimidating but we had several weeks of lead-time, and we were determined to pull it off.  After a few weeks on the trail, eating our own “home” cooked meals, we knew there was no going back! Since that journey, we’ve hiked hundreds more miles, dehydrated plenty more meals, and enjoyed each of our backpacker bistro experiences.  After a few social media posts of our gourmet backpacking menus and meals, we gained some notoriety with our friends, a local mountaineering club, and eventually, our local REI store asked us to hold a few classes about our experience. And that’s what led us here. We want to share what we’ve learned in planning and preparing delicious backpacking food and we hope to help you improve your own culinary experiences in the backcountry. Cheers!