The Beartooth Vegan

Making instant camper-friendly Power Foods for covering long distances. 

Posted by Chris Bangs

This week I am making instant backpacker superfood meals for my next trip to ski Granite Peak in the Beartooth Mountains.

Granite Peak is the highest peak in Montana at 12, 807 feet.

It is approximately a 146 mile bicycle ride to the West Rosebud Trailhead from my house, and
bushwhacking up a creek is listed in the route description.

Sounds like a lot of fun!!!!!!

Here's what I'm making for high grade, premium endurance fuel. It's sprouted, raw, tastes amazing, and it's on the go instant organic food!!!!!!

Start with Soaking:

I started with

almonds, buckwheat,

 pumpkin seeds, quinoa, garbonzo bean,

 lentils, and sunflower seeds.

Just soak things in water for a day, 

overnight, 

or for 24 hours.

Soaking beans, seeds, and nuts.  

Next step: Germination 

Drain off the water, and set up for germination. 

There are many methods for germinating.

Here I have garbonzo beans sitting on a baking dish (cover with towel.)

Lentils in a large bowl (cover with towel.)

Quinoa in mason jars with lid off.

Buckwheat (on the far left) in a mason jar tied with 

cheese cloth, and draining into bowl.

Takes about 12-24 hours to germinate.

Rinse 1 to 3 times a day while germinating.

Do not let foods dry out.

Then:

Look for little tails to start growing.

Edible at any time.

After soaking,  let germinate for 1-3 days.

 Drying:

Once all nuts, seeds, and beans grow little tails it's time to dry them.

Place items in dehydrator,

and set temperature to 115º fahrenheit. 

Keeping temperature below 115º will ensure the raw quality of the live foods!!!

Dry for 6-10 hours.

Once sprouted, dry in dehydrator. 

Breakfast Cereal

Spouted Buckwheat

Hemp Seed

Chia Seed

Spouted Pumkin Seed

Spouted Sunflower Seed

Raisins 

Golden Berries

Sweeten with other dried fruits or lots more raisins. Tastes great hot or cold. Especially good with Almond Milk!!!!! 

Allow the chia seeds to soak for 10 minutes prior to eating. No cooking necessary.

Dinner Flour Soups

Vitamix has an optional blade made for making flour.
Here I made spouted red lentil flour.

After turning lentils, garbanzos, and quinoa into flour, I divided the flours up into 5 different store bought soup mixtures.

Dinners

Corn Chowder

Refried Bean

Thai peanut bulgar

Split Pea

And,

Corn bean thai pea mix.

Add veggie bouillon to flavour.

By adding the sprouted bean flours to the pre-made soup mixed I am increasing the amount of protein to my dinner with high grade, super nutritious, organic, raw, and instant,,,,, superfoods!!!!!

Sponsored by:

(Fueled by:)

Mate Factor

 Yerba Mate Energizing Tea

I love yerba mate. It has just the right amount of caffeine and helps alkalize the body.

Try Mocha Mint, Lemon Ginger flavoured Mate.

Available in tea bags, great for camping!!!!

Soup mixes, dried fruit, and Yerba Mate!!!!!

Navitas Naturals

Coconut Water Powder

A great way to drink coconut water in the backcountry. 

Great as an everyday sports mix too!!!

Coconut Water gets in where the action is!!!!

Hilgard Peak;

posted by Chris Bangs

Wet Slides,

Turn Around Times

and Alarm Clocks......

What does this have to with a bike, a pair of skis, one pink sled, and Yellowstone National Park?

An adventure?????? Maybe.

Most of the time I don't really know what I'm doing.... I just trust in the process of life to figure it out for me.

-The trying-
-The failed attempts-
-The gentle urges to keep going-
-To keeping pushing up against the tread of rational thoughts-

How flipping cool is it to ride by a herd of Bison on the road; to look in the eyes of the largest land mammal of North America?

The keeper of the plains,
The cornerstone of a continent's eco-system,
The holders of wisdom and knowledge,

I can see the brutal past in their eyes,
Covered with a layer of forgiveness,
And the sacred journey we all must share,,,,,,, into the future.

I want to stop and pet them, and tell them that I love them;
but they're big, and they have horns,
and they don't need me to coddle them.

So I keep going.....

So many thoughts go through my head on a 100 mile bicycle ride........

May 3rd;
3AM;
Jump on my bicycle that weighs about 150 lbs with the trailer and the gear.
AND RIDE!!!!!!!!

102 miles in 14 hours

Though the dangerous Gallatin Canyon at dawn,
Climbing gently for the first 90 miles all the way to West Yellowstone and Hebgen Lake.

Spinning wheels,
Wet, sweaty, and cold.

Mild hallucinations,

And where did it get me?
Physically, mentally, spiritually!!!!!!

It brought me to a place of pain and struggle,
A place that smells of courage and fear.

A place where it's cold and the wreckage of winter glows in the daylight.

A place where my mind and body suffer,
and my spirit soars!!!!!

This is the place where I find myself dreaming awake.

Like I've written the story myself,
and invented the world.

This is the place that bring to me a feeling of awe,
Where everything is magical,
And if my alarm clock would just go off on time........

I'd live to see the adventure through.

But not all things are meant to be.

Some things are only a possible future,
and failure happens whether you like it or not.

• skis
• ice axes (2)
• crampons
• rope

      √ Check!!!!!

BUT,,,,,,
This was as close as I got to the peak. A long look across the valley to the beautiful Hilgard, highest peak in the Madison's.
Highest peak in Montana outside of the Beartooth's.

Dangerous snow conditions prevented me from skiing into this basin, and claiming this peak as my prize.

This is what I'd have to live with;

The failure of an idea,
The benefit of having dreamed,
The accomplishment of trying,
And the spark of life igniting inside me!!!!!!

This is what peace looks like!

Fund The Change

posted by Chris Bangs

 HUMAN-POWERED MOUNTAINEERS INC.

has just signed up with

PEAK OVER POVERTY!

(this is awesome stuff here)

 Hollowtop Peak, Tobacco Root Mountains

This winter and spring it has been my goal to climb and ski the highest peak in the each of the major mountain ranges that surround my home in Bozeman.

Big deal right? Anyone could do that....... Duh.

Now throw in a bicycle, get rid of the automobile, and raise money for two charity networks and we're getting somewhere.

I'm attempting to climb and ski completely human-powered by riding my bicycle to the trailheads instead of driving a car. And I'm raising money to support a healthier world for us all to live in!

It's taken a while to work up to winter ski mountaineering supported by a bicycle, but this year I pulled off 4 attempts in bitterly cold temps. Riding 450 miles. Enduring temperature of -20º below zero, and loving the beJesus out of every minute of it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THE CAUSE

I'm raising money to support our BIKE TO FARM network, and our School Slide Show Series.

I'm doing this because food, health, children, and our future really matter. It matters to everyone, and everyone deserves to know where their food comes from, and how to support healthy communities.

AND THE CHILDREN

Kids in this country are being fed horrible food, and 1 out of 3 kids in America are considered obese...!

That is a staggering truth.

The future of our country and our world lies in education, nutrition, and taking a stand for what is right.

"Bicycle advocacy and local organic farming are the two most effective ways to create a positive change in our world today." Chris Bangs

This is one of my messages for the kids, and the kiddos love to hear it.

School Slide Show Series

BIKE TO FARM

Loving the beJesus out of what I do!

Electric Ski Life (the video)

Posted by Chris Bangs

Electric Peak and route 89

Being blown off the road on my bike and turned around near the top of the mountain in fowl weather conditions. This is the essence of HPM Inc. These days are the ones that challenge, making the sunny days a reward; where everything goes right, and bagging the summit is easy.

Electric Peak, #4 in the Project

[posted by Chris Bangs]

Making the most out of winter, Paradise Valley, MT.
Awesome campsite on the Yellowstone River.

Captain Hard-Hat on duty Sir!

Celebrating the end of winter and the power of manhood. Sounds like a nice thing to do, with a bit of a catchy title, eh!
That's what I thought as I looked at the weather forecast before getting on my bike for the long ride to Gardner. Don't worry though, I spilt up the 90 mile ride into two days with a long stop-over at Chico Hot Springs.
No use being in hurry, and missing out on all the fun.  Sure this is work, peddling around on a bicycle and soaking in hot springs. But it is all in the training manual; How To Be A Human-Powered Mountaineer.

Step One: Pack everything you own on a bike. √ check.
Step Two: Ignore the weather forecast. √ check.
Step Three: Kiss the Misses goodbye and lie about how many days the trip will take. √ check.
Step Four: Plan route to the nearest hot springs. √ check.
Step Five: Stay at the hot springs and tell everyone you climbed a mountain. √ check.
Steps Six and Seven have something to do with drinking beer and camping on someone's front lawn.

As you can see, the manual is an Idiots Guide to Ruffing It, and comes with a 5 page disclaimer covering personal injury claims and trespassing. But this is the cost of freedom, and the rights to manhood.

After riding for two days, these Antelope wanted to race across La Playa.

I love Bison!
Have you ever looked a Bison in the eye?
What did you see?

Me little tent is down there somewhere.
The Peak of Electric is up there, somewhere.

Add caption

The insides of Bison are less attractive and not
nearly as majestic as the real thing.
Let the Bison run free!

Bison are not allowed to roam free out of Yellowstone NP. and this is what happens to them when they do. A major bummer for them and a little eye-opening for me on this trip. I knew that this has been happening for over a hundred years, but until you meet a Bison and camp with them for multiple days, and say hi to them, and ride a bike past them, and tell them that you love them, and then come down from the mountain to see their gut piles and back-bones,,, well it's hard to imagine why? Why would 'civilized' people do such a thing?

The science and the politics behind why Bison are not allowed to roam free (like deer or elk or moose) is as false and smelly as a giant gut pile!!!!  Puke!

9,000 feet and alone. John Muir would be proud.

Wet avalanche from a few days before.

Olie the River Otter on the rocks.
Sounds like a new drink from Cancun.

Go meet Dale Sexton at Timber Trails.
Great Sale Going On Now.

Root Top

Posted by Chris Bangs

Jon Wareham of Spark R and D, the splitboard company, helps run
The Bozeman Bike Kitchen

Last month, sometime in February, Jon Wareham and myself rode out to Pony, MT. to the Tobacco Root Mountains. There we climbed and skied Hollowtop Peak, the highest peak in the Tobacco Roots, then we rode home. Covering 125 miles in 3 days, by bike, foot, and skis!

 Here's the (video) stoke!
Let us know if you like it,
and get your friends together and scrounge up twenty bucks and donate today!

Tobacco ON my ROOTS

by Chris Bangs

Hello from the Tobacco Root Mountains in S.W. Montana. On Friday the 15th of February, Jon Wareham and myself rode our bicycles out to the po-dunk little town of Pony Montana. There we pitched camp just on the outskirts of town on a perfect winter day. The temperatures where in the mid 40s and made for a great day of cycling along the Madison River, over the grass fields of Norris, and into the western most mountain range in the Bozeman area.

For the love of winter camping, there is fire.

Our plan for the weekend was to climb and ski Hollowtop Peak (10,604 ft), the highest peak in the Tobacco Root Mountains. Named after the distinctive volcanic like bowl on the summit. This is Peak #3 in my 7 Summits of Bozeman Project. Human-Powered, Vegan, and obviously out of my mind.

We find perfection in individual moments of clear consciousness.

Riding 55 miles on a bicycle in one day, in the middle of winter in Montana,,,, to go skiing on a mountain with nobody else around.... Hell yes! I've wanted to do this for years. The idea has been there floating around in my head like a swollen hot air ballon for the past decade.

Still Life with Christopher

Of course people tell me all the time that I'm crazy. Or that I've lost my mind. My response is to laugh a lot, like I maybe didn't hear them correctly. I tell them I live by two mottos; Safety 3rd, and No brains No headaches. No really,,,, complete strangers tell me I'm nuts, and that I've lost my marbles. It happened at least twice on this trip, by people that were not having near as much fun as Jon here (pictured below) with his bike chain stuck in his cogs.

Yes,,,, this sucks! And No,,, Triple AAA won't help.

After a couple of minor breakdowns on the highway, and 10 miles of headwinds in the canyon on the Madison River. We made it to Norris, and sat down at the convenience store for a little break. As usual I survey all the poisonous food-like substances for sale at the counter and wonder to myself how it ever got this way. Then I pull out a rice cake from my pocket, covered in organic nut butter and coconut oil. Mmm, true whole food rocket fuel.

Jon Wareham, action figure and professional hair model.

The climb to the summit had its full share of winter values. Brutal wind, cold temps, dense styrofoam snow, and no powder.... This is the stuff that weird people like myself enjoy.  Stuff that only mindless heroes would attempt conquer; in mindless human-powered ways. Mindlessly saving the planet one rice cake at a time.

Haven't felt wind like that since I jumped out of an airplane!

All fun and games aside. We did ski off the summit without being blown into North Dakota. The only big crash of the weekend came on day 3 when I wiped out on my bike over frozen mud. Me, my bike, and all my gear came crashing to a halt, just after I uttered the famous last words, "slow speed crashes never really hurt that bad." A little blood on my knee and a sore left hand, heck I'm just getting started. This is going to be a hoot after all.

Tobacco Roots