Today, August 31st, is National Trail Mix Day.

Trail mix, as the name suggests, was originally intended to be taken along on hikes - on the "trail."

The earliest known mention of trail mix is in 1958 in a novel by iconic author Jack Kerouac, which pre-dates the date when it was claimed to have been created.

Trail mix consists of a mix of dried fruit, nuts, grain and sometimes chocolate. It is light and easy to store and nutritious, which made it ideal for carrying on hikes.

There is no one true way of making trail mix; although it can be bought pre-packaged, you can make your own with only the ingredients desired. It can also be made into snack bars, which are again available commercially.

Image: By ImGz (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons