Food on the Trail

[adkdremn]

Just curious as to what types of food you guys carry with you on the trail, besides the old standby-Gorp. Do any of you use the dehydrated packaged food that you can buy at EMS or other outdoor stores? If so what's your favorite? I'm sure some of you dehydrate your own which is pretty cool and probably saves a ton of money! What other high energy snacks do you carry with you?

[redhawk]

Go do some searches on the past threads. there are a lot of posts with ideas and recipes.

Actually the best solution to food on the trail is to bring Val!!

[adventureboy]

Ahhhhh, CHEESE!!!

Gorp has a special place in my pack along with the other essentials. Durring winter outings I like to eat foods with a lot of fat. The fat helps your body create heat more efficiently as it consumes the food. I prefer a nice extra sharp cheddar cheese (Cabot is my personal favorite) I will routinely eat a full block over the course of 2-3 days. I balance the cheese with its natural counterpart peperoni or smoked sausage. Yo get nice protein here. As for meals I tend to use mostly dehydrated packaged meals. I am looking at buying a dehydrator soon. I have found that everyone has a huge variety of likes and dislikes when it comes to these meals. The best thing to do is to buy a few well before your trip and try them out. There is nothing worse than being stuck with crappy food and no substitute. I have been buying from Mountain House, I like their meals the best. Campmor has meals and meals and meals to order. You need to know what yo ulike before placing a big order though. I eat far less in the warmer months and it is a very balanced blend of smaller foods consumed constantly through the day. I will eat breakfast and dinner and just snack in between to keep up the reserves. Good luck with your eating endeavors.

[Dick]

Just curious as to what types of food you guys carry with you on the trail, besides the old standby-Gorp. Do any of you use the dehydrated packaged food that you can buy at EMS or other outdoor stores? If so what's your favorite? I'm sure some of you dehydrate your own which is pretty cool and probably saves a ton of money! What other high energy snacks do you carry with you?

Depends upon the trip. We've used Mountain House, and they're really not bad for what they are (better than some others, IMO), and they save time and weight. Our preference in the summer is to dehydrate, and we've done quite a variety of meals. We have a few books, including one designed for the AT (the name escapes me at the moment). We also do things like fruit roll-ups, orange, apple, and banana slices, and strawberries. For on the trail we always have GORP (usually cashews and M&Ms), and homemade beef jerky. Once in a while we do power bars.

[Skyclimber]

I have tried several things, fruit, nuts, lunch meat, candy, granola bars. But the only thing that actually keeps my energy up on any hike, is the good old fashion peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Water is all I usually carry for liquid, as gatorade seems to make me more thirsty than quenching my thirst. But take it still on occasions.

[Hakuna Matada]

For day hikes I take the usual trail mix although I make my own, that way I can vary it a little each time, like adding a little coconut or butterscotch chips or just vary the fruit a little. I also bring a Cliff bar or Luna bar and try to eat that early in the day. With 10 grams of protien I want it early on. Sometimes I bring summer sausage and cheese although that doesn't settle very well and seems too heavy on my stomach. For drinks I stick with water. I had tried Gatorade on a hike last summer trying for optimum balance but I prefer water.

[Gray Ghost]

I dehydrate my own food. It's the way to go if you like to cook.

[redhawk]

I too dehydrate my own food. it's better and cheaper than anything I can buy. The "Inertia" brand of dehydrated foods is about the best deal you can get in dehydrated food.

You can also purchase MRE's (Meals, Ready to Eat) from Army Surplus stores. They weigh more then the dehydrated but are less exensive.

[KevynJJ]

For day hikes I bring a block of the Seriously Sharp Hunters Cheese (Cabot), some sesame crackers, and summer sausage or peperoni. I like to bring boiled eggs too. If you leave the shell on they wont squish and Blue Jays will eat the shells for calcium.

PB&J is great too. Make sure you put the PB. on both pieces of bread so the J. doesn't make it soggy.

Unfortunanty, I can't stay in the woods for more than a few days, when I do get a chance to go out (darn school and work), so I pamper myself with rather heavy dehydrated stews, or i'll freeze cubed steaks and fry them at the camp site. Plus it makes convincing my girlfriend to go camping that much easier.

-Kev

[Kevin]

I've settled on Mountain House feeze dried meals, oatmeal for breakfast, and whatever dehydrated stuff I want to nibble on for lunch/while-hiking. I own a dehydrator and find I'm using it less than I thought I would.

[Ryan C-Chris]

Those mountain house meals are rediculously high in sodium...something like 75% of your daily value in a single serving...yuck. Plus at $7 a pop, they are alittle pricy for this guy. I like instant oatmeal, cheese & Pepperoni, ramen (which also doubles as a great fire starter...man that stuff burns good ), nature vally & nutri-grain bars, tuna (stuff that comes in the packets and I bring little mayo packets from a fast food joint) and put inside a couple pitas, couple bags of green tea, and small thing of hot cocco to keep warm at night.

i think that about does it...

Im sure I'll discover other things that I like to bring as time goes on

[percious]

Moose Goo!

If you like power bars, then you will love this. 1/4 the price, just as much energy, doesn't back you up like the bars can.

2 Parts Peanut Butter
1 Part Honey
1 Part Soy Flour

Add these things at different ratios to see what works best for you. Super energy, easy to eat, and it tastes good too.

-percious

[redhawk]

I've settled on Mountain House feeze dried meals, oatmeal for breakfast, and whatever dehydrated stuff I want to nibble on for lunch/while-hiking. I own a dehydrator and find I'm using it less than I thought I would.

Yeh, Right. You backpack with Fvrwld so you don't have to worry about food

[Gray Ghost]

Most of the store freeze-dried meals I've tried have tasted like cardboard--Mountain House included. There are a couple of exceptions--the pasta primavera is tolerable, and I've heard the beef stew is okay. The chicken teriyaki wasn't too bad either. But most are awful. I don't mind cooking, so I dehydrate my own instead of paying the extra $ for food that doesn't taste very good.

Try this book:
Backpack Gourmet by Linda Frederick Yaffe

[protocoldroid]

I'm one to use the "buy it at the grocery store" technique... There's a lot of lightweight stuff you can get for pennies the grocery store... My two favorites being pancake mix (there's some that comes in a small container you can add water to and shake, a nice change of pace from oatmeal [my almost every time breakfast]), and lipton "pasta sides" & "rice sides" (yes, they're high in sodium, agreed), but, they cook in 7-10 minutes, and half of them only require butter (some require milk, I skip 'em), you can use powdered butter or powdered milk (neither of which I care much for). Summer sausage is an old standby, hard cheeses that do ok without refridgeration (smoked gouda is my fav). I think I've said this same exact thing in other threads

Don't forget coffee / cocoa / tea... easiest thing on the menu to cook

I've got a dehydrator, and I use it 99% for fruit right now. The main problem I have is that it's so damn tasty of fruit -- I can't build a big enough stock of it, I just eat it too quick I found I do better if I do bigggg loads at a time. I can't make jerky worth a dime.

I'd like to get into dehydrating whole meals. I'm kind of at a loss what I should prepare... I gotta dig into the old threads myself and pick up some ideas. I actually should pick up a book, cause I've been googling around for some ideas, and I can't find much :/

One major question I have is... Spaghetti. I know it's an old standby to dry spaghetti sauce in a fruit-roll-up-tray and then have spaghetti, but... When you're at camp, ok you can boil some angel hair in maybe 3-4 minutes, but... how the heck do you strain it?