How to plan a backpacking trip food menu
Tags: backpacking trip | food | meal
Carrying a backpack over miles of wilderness is a liberating experience but it can also be hard work. Every backpacking trip features multitudes of little rewards along the way, but to my mind some of the most enjoyable rewards involve kicking off your boots at the end of the day and finding a nice comfy rock to sit on while you eat a delicious meal.
There are all sorts of ideas about how to eat on a backpacking trip. The ultra-lightweight purists will argue that a jar of peanut butter and a spoon is perfectly adequate sustenance for days on end. Some people even choose to survive on energy gels and bars. Personally, I love food and I firmly believe that a yummy meal is a must at the end of a long day's hike. This means my pack is heavier but that's a small price to pay for a happy tummy. Regardless of which camp you choose, the rule of thumb is to bring food for the planned length of your trip plus at least one extra day just to be safe, and don't forget to factor in snacks.
Everything tastes better when it's cooked outdoors, but no amount of wayward pine needles and drowned mosquitoes will make those expensive prepackaged camping meals palatable. It's much better to choose recipes that you love and adapt them for the trail. Sure, it's work, but it definitely pays off.
For my first day's food I like to take perishable items and things I can freeze. Especially if your trip is a long one, these items will be much appreciated on day one and the memory of them can keep you going long after the calories are gone. A frozen chicken breast and a small bag of stir fry veggies is like fine dining in the middle of nowhere. After that you're looking at non-perishable and dried items to sustain you. Frozen foods stay frozen longer if you wrap them with a couple of layers of newspaper. Once the food is gone use the paper to start your fire and you won't have to carry it for the remaining trip.
If you're new to meal planning for the trail, plan to spend a few hours in the supermarket being creative and inquisitive in preparation. Identify as many "just add water" items as you can as well as vacuum-packed foods like smoked salmon and beef jerky, instant or quick-cook items like oatmeal, couscous and fine egg noodles, and taste-enhancers such as Thai spice packets and Pesto seasoning mix. Little additions such as dried blueberries, sundried tomatoes or a fresh chopped onion or carrot can be heavenly 3 or 4 days into a backpacking trip. Avoid anything that requires the addition of more than a tablespoon of oil or butter and if a mix calls for eggs, find an alternative. Powdered milk is a good substitute for the real thing and you can measure it out as you pack your meals. Items such as trail mix and granola bars are no-brainers for en-route snacking, but look for instant hot pudding mixes and biscuit mixes for desserts. Coffee, tea, and hot chocolate mixes are a must, and nothing beats a little flask of Irish whiskey or Kahlua to splash in your beverage as a nightcap. If you're taking booze, the look for plastic bottles.
One important thing to remember when you're planning backpacking meals is that you should be counting calories. You're not worrying about your waistline, though - there are estimates that backpacking can burn up to 6000 calories a day; obviously it's important to make sure that the foods you're choosing are giving you lots of fuel for their weight. This is not the time to look for low-fat and light versions of things.
All excess packaging must be removed. I buy snack-sized zipper baggies to repack most of my foods and then bigger baggies to combine meal ingredients. Measure things carefully - no sense in taking a full box of pancake mix to make breakfast for 2. Once you've combined the ingredients for a meal, write the preparation instructions on a piece of paper or use a permanent marker to write directly on the baggie. Combine all your baggies for a meal into one larger baggie and then label it with the meal (breakfast, lunch, or supper) and the contents. You will undoubtedly need vegetable oil or margarine for cooking and a trip to an outdoor supplier will yield a wide variety of leak-proof bottles and tubes made just for this sort of problem. Nothing is worse than coating your backpack contents with a week's worth of olive oil, although the bears might really appreciate such a mishap.
When backpacking with friends I like to divide up the meal responsibilities, thereby making mealtimes far more interesting. This also means that you can cook for everybody at once rather than having to take turns with the stove, or worse, pack in several. It's always exciting to see what other people come up with as meal solutions and it's much more fun to share food than to eat alone.
However you choose to eat on your trip there are lots of books and internet sources for recipes. I always find that the best meals, however, are those you've created from scratch. A little innovation goes a long way to making food on the trail as good as home no matter how many days you're hoofing it. Just leave the jar of peanut butter at home.
Author: Sue Earle
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