This April, something exciting happened to two grades of Archer girls: 7th and 9th graders went on Arrow Week. With Archer Girls’ love of food, eating was on the top of everyone’s mind while hiking. After a long day of carrying a backpack, we just wanted to sit down to a nice meal.

Since there was no restocking of food in the middle of the trip, all of our food had to be carried the whole time. There were no fresh fruits or vegetables, only dehydrated vegetables, and dried fruits. The main theme of the meals was carbs to give us energy for all that hiking: so many carbs!

Every morning and evening, we would cook a delicious meal. All we had were our food bags, a pot, a fry-bake, a lid and a cookbook. We had pasta, oatmeal, tortillas, summer sausages, cheese, mini bagels, hash brown mix, spices, dehydrated vegetables and dried fruit. There was also tomato sauce powder and cheese powder so we could make yummy pasta, as well as ingredients for quesadillas and Mexican pizzas.

For breakfast, we could make hash browns, cheesy bagels or oatmeal. There was also a plethora of dry cereal, including Raisin Bran and Berry Granola, to choose from.

All we needed to make these amazing meals were a super small stove, a fuel bottle, and of course the food. The stove was so small that it fit in the normal sized pot with a lot of room left. The best part was that you could break it down for easy transportation.

Now, you’re probably wondering what we ate for lunch, since I’ve only been talking about breakfast and dinner. On this trip, there was no set lunch. After all, NOLS stands for No Official Lunch Stop!

We took leftovers from breakfast and snacks and kept them in our bowl for whenever we got hungry. Some snacks included sesame sticks, nuts, Chex mix, dried fruit, crackers and many more. We even had dessert: malt balls. Advice from people on the trail: dip them in peanut butter. It is a really yummy combination.

When we were getting ready for bed, it was really cold outside. All we wanted was a hot drink. We had apple cider powder, and hot chocolate mix.  You simply boiled the water and added the mix. All of these powdered drinks taste just like the real thing and were a great way to end the day.

Overall cooking on the Archer arrow week was extremely fun. I enjoyed the experience immensely because of its challenges and rewarding outcome.