Happy Trails to You
Make your Own Trail Mix…
If you’re a nature lover, Redding is for you. We are smack dab in the middle of one of America’s greatest regions for outdoor activity – including 225 miles of trails within a 15-mile radius of downtown. It’s easy to understand why our city is known as the “Trails Capital of California.”
Hiking our regional trails offers something for every skill level, from paved pathways to groomed trails to rugged, rocky terrain. No matter the trail, you’ll need plenty of fluids to stay hydrated – and trail mix.
When I first began backpacking in the 1970s, we didn’t call it trail mix. It was GORP, an easy-to-pack snack high in protein and fat and featuring the perfect sweet-and-salty combination. We thought GORP was an acronym for “Granola, Oats, Raisins and Peanuts” or maybe “Good Old Raisins and Peanuts.” However, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word “gorp” was first used in 1913, meaning “to eat greedily.”
In his 1958 novel “The Dharma Bums,” Jack Kerouac’s character Japhy Ryder packed a concoction of raisins, peanuts, dried apricots and prunes for his climb up the Sierra Nevada’s Matterhorn peak. A decade later, Harmony Foods patented “trail mix” – a blend of fruit, nuts and seeds intended for hikers.
But let’s be real: For thousands of years, Indigenous people of our nation ate a version of nuts, dried fruits and bite-sized pieces of dried bison meat.
These days, it’s hard to find trail mix that does NOT include M&Ms and/or chocolate chips. (My personal favorite ingredient for my mix is Reese’s Pieces.)
What used to be a homemade treat created by hard-core hikers is now in every grocery store and mini mart from coast to coast. The trail mix market size is expected to soar to $11.2 billion by 2026, according to the Food Institute.
Whatever you call it, there are as many ways to make GORP as there are theories of where it came from. You can’t go wrong with the classic peanuts, raisins and M&Ms. But here are a few other trail mix ideas inspired by outdoor gear retailer REI.
Experiment and Enjoy!
Trail Mix Inspirations
The Smoky Gourmet
• Smokehouse almonds
• Dried cherries
• Dark chocolate mini chips
• Pepitas
• Dried papaya
Coconut Cranberry Crunch
• Chocolate covered almonds
• Dried cranberries
• Dried flaked coconut
• Honey granola
Some Like It Savory
• Roasted cashews
• Sunflower seeds
• Sesame sticks
• Shelled pistachios
• Wasabi peas
Another fun project you can do with your family is to create Mix Your Own Trail Mix station and get creative. Let each person invent their own tasty trail treat! Set up a table with plastic zip-top bags, scoops or measuring cups for filling the bags and permanent markers so everyone can print the name of their concoctions.
- Candy: carob chips, chocolate chips/chunks, M&Ms, mini marshmallows,
- Reese’s Pieces, toffee, yogurt clusters
- Cereal: Cheerios, Corn Flakes, graham cracker cereal, granola,
- mini Shredded Wheat, rolled oats
- Dried fruits: apples, apricots, banana chips, blueberries, cherries, coconut, cranberries, dates, mangoes, raisins
- Legumes: dried edamame (soybeans) or peas, peanuts
- Nuts: almonds, cashews, pecans, pistachios, walnuts, etc.
- Salty snacks: mini crackers, pretzels, sesame sticks
- Seeds: chia, pumpkin seeds (pepitas), sunflower seeds, hemp seeds
- Misc.: crystallized ginger, Japanese rice crackers, jerky bits, sesame sticks, wasabi peas
