On the advice of a friend I ordered METrix powdered drink to mix up for a liquid breakfast before hitting the river on the forthcoming expedition to BC. I've also got an order in for a couple of boxes of Power Bars, too.

Fancy names aside am I just as well off buying a breakfast drink off the shelf at the supermarket and then chucking a couple of boxes of granola bars in the cart, or do these high tech, high priced foods make a difference?

More broadly, there's nothing so tasty as a good pack lunch on the river (eaten somewhere between 9:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. depending on weather, water and fishing conditions). And nothing quite as disappointing as opening the bait shop's or lodge's pre-packed lunch to find a mayo-smeared piece of inedible mystery meat, sour onion Lays (vs. Fritos or fried Cheetos) an orange or mushy apple (vs. a crispy apple) and, perhaps worst of all, some rotten candy bar (vs. a Snickers or Baby Ruth). Of course, individual tastes differ but if you've been getting the same lunch 3 days in a row and someone does a menu change w/o request, well it's enough to make a man jump up and down in a drift boat and complain about how unfair life is.

Truth be told, ANY food eaten on a steelhead river in the rain tastes just fine.