Vegan Peanutbutter-Bacon Covered Chocolate CAMPING!

Confused by the title? Here's the deal: I have a delicious Vegan Peanutbutter-Bacon Covered Chocolate Donut Recipe (Baked and low fat), but more on that at the end of the post. First and foremost, I want to recap my camping trip!

Camping this past weekend was SO fun! I went with my Dad, brother, and cousin (okay she's not technically my cousin but we grew up together and she's the closest thing I had to a big sister growing up), and her father (who just so happens to be one of my Dad's best friends since highschool). We camped at Big Pine Creek, and it was quite an experience:

From Left: Dad's Best Friend, my Cousin, my brother, me, my Faja

Our Camping Site

The Scenery: The scenery/environment was amazing. It was very different from other camping setting I had been in. Our actual camping sight was surrounded by trees, a creek, and we even had our own personal meadow! The greater area was very interesting, it was definitely woodsy, but there were also large portions of gorgeous, grey stone/slate mountains. Another amazing thing was the sky; at night there were literally more stars than there was sky. Having grown up in polluted, smog-filled Los Angeles the sky was just breathtaking, and like nothing I had ever seen before……but I still have not fulfilled my lifelong goal of seeing a shooting star :’(

The Hikes: 

Day 1- Willows Lake: Hiking is basically all we did the two full days we were there. The first day we went on a very steep and gorgeous hike to Willows lake. It was only 8.5 miles but took us about 6 hours (including breaks). This hike was challenging for two reasons:

1) The Super-Steep switchbacks on slippery rocks

2) The freezing cold river we had to wade through because the bridge was out

Despite the challenges, it was well worth it to get to the lake and take in the scenery from a much higher altitude!

Crossing the ice-cold river. It was actually painful, like
I wanted to cry....but I did feel super-legit after ;)

The view from the top of the climb, there were a lot more
trees, but they're blocked in this picture.

Day 2- Glacier Lake: The second day we hiked to a set of lakes that are created by the melting of the glaciers in the summer. This hike was definitely easier in terms of climbing, but it was longer in distance, and time. I would also say that this hike was more scenic/breathtaking than the first day’s hike. We hiked a totally of 10 miles in about 8 hours (including breaks) and stopped for lunch at a gorgeous, turquoise lake. I had never seen water this blue or clear. We also spent a majority of our hike hiking through a forest that was lush, beautiful, and looked like it was straight out of a fairytale.

My brother, my faja, and I at First Lake (yes that's actually it's name)

The Eats: I didn't take any pictures of the food because A) Camping food is not that exciting & 

B) I didn't feel like it. What I will say is there was a lot of canned beans, chips, beer, PB&J, and Dr. McDougal's instant meals consumed on this trip. I have to say that the Dr. Mcdougal's instant meals are not only a life-saver, but they are vegan, delicious, and healthy. I love the tamale, pad thai, lentil curry rice pilaf, curry rice pilaf, miso soup, ramen soup, black bean & lime soup, and oatmeal. All you have to do is add boiling water, and in 8 minutes they are ready to eat (or in my case scarf down....graceful as always, I know). ........AAAANNNNDDDD, since I didn't take any food pictures for you all, to the right you will find a Captain Morgan picture of my brother and I at the beginning of one of our hikes. I know, we're very classy people, it can't be helped.

SNEAK PEAK

Also, I just finished testing a recipe for Vegan Peanutbutter-Bacon Covered Chocolate Donuts (baked and low-fat, AND delicious) which I will post either later today or tomorrow. Here’s a preview to test you ;)