Long road trips can completely derail your nutrition.

If you've ever driven 8–10+ hours, arrived at your destination feeling terrible, and realized you've spent the entire day eating gas-station snacks, fast food, or whatever was easiest, this episode is for you.

In this Q&A, we tackle two questions from the community.

First: How do you maintain good nutrition during long drives and busy travel days?

The answer isn't finding the perfect road-trip food. It's having a repeatable plan.

Then we tackle a second question: Does Rhodiola rosea actually help with fatigue or altitude?

The goal isn't perfect nutrition.

The goal is to make good nutrition easier when life gets busy.

• Why long road trips can derail otherwise good nutrition

• Why planning beats willpower when you're traveling

• How to determine how many meals and snacks you'll need

• How to build a travel nutrition plan around protein, carbohydrates, and fat

• What to consider when packing food for a 10+ hour drive

• When you need a cooler—and when you don't

• How your travel style should influence the foods you pack

• Why you should avoid relying entirely on gas stations and convenience stores

• How to create a repeatable road-trip grocery list

• Why having a backup food option is so important

• The limitations of packaged protein and energy bars

• What Rhodiola rosea is

• What the research says about Rhodiola and fatigue

• Whether Rhodiola may have applications for altitude

• Why small research studies shouldn't be overinterpreted

• The importance of individual response when evaluating supplements

• Why supplements shouldn't replace proper altitude preparation

Valle to Peak Travel Plan (Written Notes)

Valley to Peak Travel Plan (Graphic)

• What to eat before you head out (3-hour vs. 1-hour rules)
• How many calories you actually need per hour on the trail
• How to calculate protein based on desired weight, not total weight
• The Fueling Hierarchy: Why supplements won't save a bad diet
• How to manage electrolytes and avoid over-hydrating

When OnX’s Western Big Game Marketing Manager Dylan Dowson lined up a bucket-list tahr hunt in New Zealand and a mountain goat hunt in British Columbia, he realized his old strategy of "suffering through" the mountains wasn’t going to cut it anymore.

In this episode, Dylan opens up about his evolution as a hunter—from growing up in eastern Montana to managing marketing for one of the biggest names in navigation. He breaks down the exact steps he took to transform his physical fitness and nutrition, the eye-opening reality of tracking calories, how he navigated trade shows and travel without derailing his progress, and what it actually felt like to conquer 3,000-foot vertical climbs in New Zealand without gassing out.

• The Shift from "Suffering Through" to Peak Prep: Why baseline toughness is fine for local hunts, but bucket-list trips demand a total lifestyle shift.

• The Nutrition "Aha!" Moment: Dylan’s experience going from knowing nothing about calorie intake to finding a sustainable rhythm that fuelled his body without over-restricting.

• Navigating the Chaos of Travel: Practical mindsets for staying on track during work trips, holidays, and trade show seasons (without resorting to extreme fasts or burnouts).

• Proof on the Mountain: What happens when the hard work pays off—gaining thousands of vertical feet on steep New Zealand terrain and coming off the mountain feeling energized, not broken.

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