What we do for backpacking food -
freeze dried food, jerky, hardtack, powdered drinks.
Repackage: Our supper and every 4th breakfast is freeze
dried food. We always repackage the freeze-dried; first
to be able to get more meals into the bear container, and
second, to have less trash to pack out. The outer foil package
goes, and the loose contents go into a brown paper lunch bag
with the top half cut off. We have already written the meal name
and directions on the bottom of the lunch bag. We then roll it
up and tape with masking tape. We can put 3 or 4 of these in a
gallon ziplock. We also did this last year for jerky and dried
fruit. Not a good idea for the fruit - soaks thru the bag in a
few weeks. Jerky does that also, but is tolerable.
Now for fruit we have switched to freeze dried daily packages
from
sensiblefoods.com . Pricey, but really good. We use Tang and Wylers Lemonade. Ziplocks are a problem for powdered drinks.
Powder clogs the ziplock after a few meals. One trip I used plastic sandwich bag with twist tie inside another one
(suggested by a BackpackingLight group member). Most
recently we use snack sized ziplocks to make 2 liters each day,
1 liter per person. At the time we prepackage, we also add the
electrolyte mix below, without the sugar. Powdered
drinks are one of the heaviest food items we carry. A note on
repackaging jerky: one year we repackaged it and put it in a
resupply box that wasn't picked up for about a month. When
we picked it up, some of the jerky was moldy. Now we use 1 qt
Handi-Vac freezer bags to repackage dinners, jerky and gorp.
Stoves and water & fuel use:
Both breakfast and supper we boil 1 1/2 liters of water for
food, beverages and cleanup. We have used a MSR whisperlite with
white gas and .9 liter titanium pot, but now use a Giga Power
canister stove instead.. We fill it up, boil, scoop
out enough for the freeze dried meal or tea & coffee in am, and
top it off with more water. As soon as that boils, it goes in
the cozy for later beverages and cleanup. The freeze dried meal
is in the next size down of titanium pot, and it goes into its
cozy as soon as water is added. We use 4 oz of white gas per day
to boil this amt of water for the two of us, so 2 oz per person
per day of white gas. In 8 days we go thru a 32 oz container.
The Giga Power canisters are slightly more efficient. You can save weight by using an alcohol stove. A good alcohol stove site as well as pot cozies:
www.antigravitygear.com.
$12 for a 0.4-ounce stove with windscreen and a tiny cup
for measuring the alcohol. There is a stove called the
Penny Alcohol
Stove that I made for our 110 mile PCT section A hike. That
stove used 2 oz to boil .9 liters, so about the same as the MSR,
but MSR would simmer for a while, so I think gas is a more
efficient fuel. Re
resupply boxes and fuel. It's best to buy at resupply point.
Fuels can't be flown. US Postal Service will allow
butane/propane canisters and alcohol to be mailed ground only
provided they are packed and labeled properly. See Ken
Power's link on this: http://www.gottawalk.com/shipping_fuel.htm .
Water Filters and Purification:
We have used the Katadyn Hiker filter, Katadyn Micropur tablets
and Aqua Mira drops at different times. I recommend always
carrying a filter, and in addition carry either of the above
purifiers. If you just carry a purifier, then you are
always carrying extra water, because when you reach a water
source, you can't drink it immediately. You might save a pound
by leaving your filter home, but you will end up carrying more
than a pound of extra water. As far as Micropur vs Aqua Mira,
the Micropur tablets are easy to use, but do a liter at a time,
so treating a liter and a half container is a problem (you don't
want to handle the tablets). At this point I thing the Aqua Mira
drops are a better choice. If you have large volumes of water to
treat, such as in the desert, pumping it all is a lot of work,
so pump enough to drink till the rest is purified. Most recently
we have been using the ULA gravity filter which uses the Katadyn
Hiker filter element, but you just hang it instead of pumping. A
little slower than pumping, and you have to be careful about
cross contamination, but we like it.
Pot Cozies:
The pot cozies are essential to keep the food and water hot so that you only use the stove once per meal. You can buy them at antigravitygear above, or you can make your own from Reflectix insulation that you buy at your building supply store. For a pattern see http://www.advancedmountainproducts.com/products/cozy/howto/kit.html
Calories:
Try for 100 calories per ounce.
We've followed the backpacking food menu below with no problems or lack of energy
for trips of up to four weeks. Our pound per person per
day of food works out to about 1600 calories per day. We
are burning about 4000+ calories per day. It is a good two
or three week diet, but for a longer trip, calculate it out more
carefully, including what you eat at a drop box point such as
Vermillion Resort on the John Muir Trail. We hike about 10 to 12
miles per day. If you do more, you will need more calories.
Note: Macadamia nuts are about 200 calories per oz. Put some in
your gorp. See our detailed backpack food spreadsheet at the
bottom of this page. If you want to download it to Excel,
it is a google spreadsheet and the link follows the spreadsheet.
Breakfast:
Per person: one piece of dried fruit, tea bag or coffee
(instant or bags), We make up 2 liters of Tang for the two
of us, to drink thru-out the day. We premix it in daily bags,
and also add the electrolytes to it (see further in page). Oatmeal - instant or regular with hot water
poured on it and maybe stuff added such as nuts, seeds, raisins, etc.
Vitamins - one each C, multivitamin and Glucosamine. On the cereal 1/4 cup
of Milkman. We used to have freeze dried no cook eggs every 4th day, but don't like them any more.
It takes two packages of instant oatmeal to satisfy one person.
Make one package the regular, and one the flavored to not get
too nauseated by the flavor by trip end.
Between meals:
Gorp bought or homemade - M&Ms, salted nuts, raisins - 1 ounce
per person per day - we are cutting back on this - very heavy,
and usually have some left at end of trip. We do now carry
PopTarts - one wafer for am break, one for pm break.
Lunch:
Per person, a couple of pieces of jerky, a Kudos or cereal bar,
we share a freeze dried fruit package, one substantial pilot biscuit, or hardtack, garlic bagel chips,
or other cracker equivalent. We can't find the big heavy pilot biscuits anymore, so looking for substitutes. Hardtack is excellent, but the batch I made one year had some mold on the ones in the drop boxes that were
more than three weeks old. 1st couple of weeks were fine,
and about 1/3 of the rest had green spots. One and some Tang.
We made up 2 liters at breakfast. On cracker substitutes, we
vary from potato chips in a can, to those little 2 oz peanut
butter & cheese cracker snacks, etc.
Supper:
A two person freeze dried food meal, tea, some Tang if any left.
freeze dried meal is repackaged into paper lunch bags or quart ziplocks to save
space in bear container. We just replace the outer foil package,
write meal name and directions on bottom of lunch bag. Cut off
top of lunch bag, masking tape to seal. Most recently we've been
using the supermarket plastic bags that go with a small electric
vacuum pump.
Electrolytes - Rehydration Homemade drink:
This is the
link to the Kaiser recommendation. We use the recipe,
replacing the sugar with the same amount of Tang (which is
almost 100% sugars). It is important to have the correct ratio of sugar
to salts or you may do damage.
Thru-hikers need a lot more calories and prefer a menu that they
can resupply from trail town stores.
This is a thru-hiker menu that Mike & Kam Watkins shared on
CDT-L:
Breakfast - old fashioned oats with powdered milk and instant
pudding mix. For variety use grape nuts, granola or similar.
Lunch (twice a day) - whole wheat tortillas with peanut butter,
honey and granola on them - or crackers, bagels, cream cheese.
Sometimes energy bars, fig newtons, nuts and raisins. Also snack
mix - granola, cereal, pretzel mix or "corn-shew mix" )crushed
corn tortilla chips, corn nuts and cashews - vary the flavors.
Dinners - pasta meals, quick cook rice meals, mac & cheese,
couscous and ramen noodles - always add instant mashed potatoes
to bulk up dinners.
Dessert - No-bake cheesecakes 1st choice. Pudding, jelly-bellys,
grandma cookies alternatives.
Thru-hiker.com Food Article:
This site has an excellent series of articles by Brenda Braaten, a
PhD nutritionist.
I particularly recommend recipes, extreme conditions and trail
snacks:
http://www.thru-hiker.com/articles.asp?subcat=12&cid=39
In JMT drop boxes besides backpacking food:
Toilet paper, film, maps, flashlight and camera batteries, buy
fuel at drop point, mail out film.
Hardtack Recipe:
I think this is the hardtack recipe that I used, just searched the web again and
found it in a Trailwise posting:
3 cups all-purpose flour 1 cup
whole wheat flour 1/2 cup yellow cornmeal 1/2` cup cracked
wheat 1 tablespoon sugar 1 tablespoon salt 1 3/4 cups
buttermilk
Combine flours, cornmeal, wheat,
sugar and salt. Add buttermilk, mix well, and knead briefly.
Shape dough into golf-ball-sized portions. Dust with flour and
roll very thin. Place on greased and floured baking sheet. Bake
at 400 degrees, turning several times, until lightly browned on
both sides. Cool; then store in waterproof container. Keep from
moisture. This makes about twenty four 3 1/2 inch crackers. My
last batch took about 24 minutes, turning 4 times for each of
the two oven loads.
Backpacking Food Books or items:
 |
Carole Latimer's
Wilderness Cuisine: How to Prepare and Enjoy Fine Food
on the Trail and in Camp |
|
|
The Well-Fed Backpacker by June Fleming |
 |
Freeze dried fruit packages from
sensiblefoods.com - there are a couple of flavors - we
like the cherry-strawberry and the orchard mix. |
|
