Although even the simplest meals seem, to me, to taste gourmet after a day of hiking or on a calm morning by a high-altitude lake, every now and then I find myself wistfully longing for food items or condiments that would be too cumbersome or heavy to bring on trail or cannot easily be prepared as a backpacking meal. On a two-week trip in 2011, I remember hankering for fresh produce or fruit in the final days of the trip and being delighted to bump into the cook for a trail crew who invited us to stop by the base camp where she had apples to share. Maple syrup is another item that I often find myself wanting on trail. It's easy to bring liquids in a bear canister in small, tightly sealed containers, but because we carry other liquids (vegetable oil, for example) that are integral parts of some of our meals, luxuries like maple syrup don't make the cut. In addition, I'm not sure I could carry enough to satisfy my sweet tooth for more than one breakfast, let alone pack enough for two.

Enter maple sugar.

I knew it existed from my days in upstate NY, where maple sugar producers were local and I

I've had my aluminum Bugaboo mess kit for more than a decade. After I bought it, I used it for a bunch of years, and then it sat idle after I bought a titanium cookset. I set it aside in favor of a 5" SnowPeak 900 (30 fl. oz. at  6.2 oz.), which was perfectly suited for a lonely man of the mountains.

This cookset was also set aside in time because it was too small once I started backpacking frequently with a partner. Nancy and I initially carried the 5.75" SnowPeak 1400 cookset (47 fl. oz. at 7.4 oz.; MSRP $55.99), which is sized just right for two (don't forget the additional 14 fl. oz. in the lid/pan!), but we found it limiting—namely, it wasn't good for baking. And baking in the backcountry is something that we came to embrace with zeal.