CREATIVE CAM PING Unless you're a die-hard backpacker, camping should be a time to have fun with food

Are you one of those ambitious backpackers who can't rest until you've covered serious miles? Say, the 211-mile John Muir Trail or the 2,655-mile Pacific Crest Trail?

Then you're probably not going to slow yourself down with a copy of Hal Kahn and Rick Greenspan's "The Leave-No-Crumbs Camping Cookbook" (Storey Publishing, 2004) in your backpack. You're going to grab some of that freeze-dried stuff and move on.

But if you enjoy chilling out and chowing down on some real food while kicking back in the great outdoors, then you'll definitely want a copy of this cookbook alongside your waterproof matches.

"Our take on camping and backpacking is that it's supposed to be fun - it's not supposed to be boot camp," Kahn said. "For every half-day of hiking, we have a half-day of hanging out. ... We do a lot of reading aloud, and we like to cook."

The cookbook - which includes logos with each recipe to show whether it can be prepared at home, at campsite or both - is aimed at a broad spectrum of campers, from backpackers and bicyclists to canoeists and car campers.

If you do backpack, however, you'll probably need to buy a simple dehydrator - Kahn uses a Nesco American Harvest SD 1010 Dehydrator - for preserving fresh fruits and vegetables, sauces and stews.

"We do a lot of home dehydrating, and not just fruits and veggies, but whole meals," Kahn said. "The stews, soups, curries and lentil dishes are all made, then thrown on the dehydrator, and then at the campsite, we rehydrate them."

Along with its 1950s, retro design, "The Leave-No-Crumbs Camping Cookbook" boasts a large helping of humor. "We don't take our-

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