Dorcas Miller

If your memories of backcountry trips involve great meals as much as they do great scenery, then you're Dorcas Miller's kind of traveler. She is the author of three outdoor cookbooks, including Backpacker's Backcountry Cooking and Good Food for Camp and Trail (Pruett Publishing Company, $14.95; 800-247-8224).

Questions for the Expert

Dorcas has fielded questions about all aspects of preparing, packing, and cooking camp food, all of which can be found in the expert archive.

More on Dorcas

As Dorcas will tell you, healthy, appetizing, and easy-to-prepare camp meals are the cornerstone of any good wilderness adventure. Her innovative recipes and approach to backcountry fare has been winning converts since her days as an Outward Bound instructor in the early 1970s.

While food is never far from Dorcas's mind, her interests in the outdoors are broad. She is the author of 12 books, including two new releases in 2000: Kayaking the Maine Coast: A Paddler's Guide to Day Trips from Kittery to Cobscook and Adventurous Women: The Inspiring Lives of Nine Early Outdoorswomen. Her writing also appears in Backpacker magazine.

While Dorcas is a paddler by disposition, her recipes work equally well for backpackers and mountaineers due to her use of long-lasting and light-in-the pack dehydrated and freeze-dried ingredients.

Dorcas has canoed the Dubawnt and Hanbury-Thelon Rivers in Canada's Northwest Territories, and several remote rivers in Quebec. She has sea kayaked extensively along the coast of Maine. At various points in her career, Dorcas has been a registered Maine Guide, Outward Bound instructor, canoe trip leader, and whitewater guide.