I am open to any of the more experienced back pack hunters who can help me design my training to be less body builder and more conditioning and useful strength.
Well, in reading your posts above, there's a lot of stuff that seems to apply to body-building, i.e., bulking and cutting.
I'm no expert, but here's my take. For backpacking, you want strength and cardio without unnecessary bulk. Some guys work on losing weight and building strength/stamina leading up to the season, but to my mind it's better to stay in shape year-round than try to work your way into shape. So more of an even-keel approach than bulking followed by cutting fat.
Also, for backpacking you'll want to work on strength in areas that are probably different from body-builder training, focusing on core: lower back, hips, abs, obliques, and legs etc.
One of the things that helps me the most is to just load up a pack and hike off-trail before the season. If you have hills to traverse, so much the better.
It's easy to eat right at home but much harder when the weight of your food becomes a problem.
Those bars your wife makes sound good, if you don't mind sharing the recipe, I'd like to see it, I'm sure others may have good ones to, post 'em up guys.
