Yesterday I wrote about preparing your body for the hunt, but how do you keep your body in top shape during the hunt? Nutrition is key when you’re pushing your body to its limits. It doesn’t matter if you’re hunting hard all day or backpacking on a 5-day wilderness hunt in the mountains, if you don’t keep yourself hydrated and well-nourished you will crash before you get a chance to succeed. When I was a collegiate athlete rowing on the Hudson River at 6:00 am six days a week training for the short racing season in the spring, I would fuel myself with lots of carbs to give me the extra energy I expended during my workouts. The same principle holds true for us as hunters. When we’re out there during the very few chances we get each year it’s imperative that we make the most of every outing. The last thing you want on one of these hunts is for your body to call it quits and force you to end a hunt early. In the past, I would keep myself well hydrated with water and chow down on some trail mix, dried fruit, PowerGel, and Clif Bars. These were good products, but they didn’t have all the supplements I needed as I trekked through the backcountry. This year things changed as I finally was able to find a company that made a product formulated specifically for outdoor athletes – Wilderness Athlete.

Wilderness Athlete is the only company that offers the full line of nutrition bars, gels, hydration drinks, energy drinks, and multi-vitamins for the outdoor athlete. Wilderness Athlete was founded by Mark Paulsen, who worked as a University Director of Athletic Performance for more than twenty-five years. He started the company as he began to wonder why the science of mainstream sports nutrition had not yet been applied to the specific needs of the outdoor athlete? His simple thought led him to create a group of products that help hardcore hunters like Cameron Hanes, Guy Eastman, Bill Winke, Warren Strickland, and Trevon Stoltzfus never have to worry about their body’s being malnourished while in pursuit of trophy game. I’ve had a chance to try all of their products and they taste great, are affordable and are worth their weight in gold in the field.

WA Energy Bars are held to higher standards than most nutritional bars. The products use organic Agave Syrup for their natural sweeter which also serves as a great source for energy. The Energy Bars are made with pharmaceutical-grade vitamins and minerals ensuring maximum absorption and utilization. The Energy Bars also contain antioxidants, oxygen enhancers, anti-inflammatories, which are gluten-free and have no trans fats. Another important thing to note about the Energy Bars is their time-release energy which slowly releases the nutrients into your body in a steady stream so you don’t crash after an hour. I always pack a few bars in my backpack when I’m hunting for deer or black bear in the mountains here in New York. Personally, my favorite flavor is Peanut Butter Crunch, but they also come in three additional flavors to keep things interesting.

Another product they offer which, I must admit, I was hesitant at first to try, is their Blast Nutritional Gel. You can almost think of this as sucking the jelly out of a Raspberry filled donut. I suggest you give this a try before you knock it, it’s much better than it might sound and it gets its job done. What Blast does is give you a burst of energy when you need it most. The gel is made with long-chain maltodextrin carbohydrates that are quickly broken down and absorbed in the digestive tract, and are then utilized to give peak energy for up to one hour. This is most useful when you reach the peak of the mountain and need that extra boost to get to that buck bedded in the river bottom below. The gel also helps with muscle repair and oxygen absorption which is critical to keep you going.

One of my personal favorite products is Alert Energy Drink. This is not your typical carbonated, over a sweet beverage. These convenient individual serving packets can be poured into 8-12 ounces of water and will keep you awake during the tail end of your morning hunt (when I usually start falling asleep). No need to worry that these products will give you the jitters like a shot of espresso would. This drink has been formulated for athletes and used by the U.S. Olympic Archery Team and Olympic Biathletes. If you’re shooting at 90 meters without a peep sight you don’t want your energy drink to give you the shakes. If it works for the U.S. Olympic Archery Team then it works for me. This product is also great for backpacking trips because the individual serving packets weigh next to nothing and help you get right back in the game after your afternoon nap.

The last product I’ll cover here is the Hydro2Max Hydration Drink. As I said before, keeping hydrated is critical in all hunting situations. Like Alert, this product also comes in individual serving packets that can be conveniently added to a bottle of water (here’s a little trick I like to do – take one packet of Alert and one packet of Hydro2Max and mix them with 16 ounces of water and start drinking the mixture on the tail end of your hike to your stand so you’re ready when the moment of truth arrives). Hydro2Max provides an excellent source of electrolytes, vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and metabolic cofactors that power their way into the cells of the body. What does this mean exactly, well it means that the minerals your body used on the way to the stand or chasing that bull are now replenished and the rate of which oxygen is being absorbed by your body is now increased to normal levels.

For more information on all of the Wilderness Athlete products visit their website at www.wildernessathlete.org. On a side note, I was not paid by the Company to write this article, but I am on their ProStaff (and purchase their products with my own money – no freebies). I wrote this article because I personally find these products to give me an edge when I’m in the field and they have been the reason I have been able to go as far as I have on some of my recent hunts (notably, my black bear hunt through an extremely mountainous region). They won’t make monster bucks appear out of anywhere, but they’ll give your body the fuel it needs to take you where you need to go to get them. Give them a try and let me know what you think – good or bad.