Backpacking Food
for a Satisfying Hike

Backpacking food is an important part of your trip planning. I like to eat—that doesn't change when I am hiking. At the end of a long hiking day I am going to have a hot, hearty meal…and you can too.

Your food is the heaviest category in your pack weighing around 2-2 ½ lbs. per day.

You could decrease the pack weight of your food by choosing only potato flakes and dried noodles. But let’s face it, that would not only be boring but nutritionally lacking.

On a weekend hike you might be okay. However, on a longer trek nutritionally deficit meals take not only a physical but a psychological toll leading to feelings of depression and lethargy, forcing some to abandon their trek altogether.

Meal Planning

What is YOUR favorite backpacking food? Click here to share your favorite backpacking recipe with other hikers.

When planning the food you will take on your hike, count calories and fat. You will be expending much more energy carrying an extra 12 or more pounds on your back, hiking rough terrain and keeping warm. This is the time to allow yourself 3000 or more calories a day with a heavier than usual concentration of fats.

Napoleon Bonaparte once said, “An army marches on its stomach.” Following that philosophy with your backpacking food will keep you nutritionally sound, psychologically satisfied and on the trail.

I recommend 3 key strategies:

• Variety is key
• Hot is more satisfying that cold
• Dry is lighter than wet

Also, keep your personal cooking style in mind. If you are a heat-and-eat cook at home, you will not be best served trying to make your backpacking food the complex-cooking gourmet variety.

On the other hand, if you enjoy preparing meals with more flare, your backpacking cuisine might take on a more complex nature. Most will fall somewhere in the middle. Perhaps you will prepare your special spaghetti sauce and dehydrate it at home. At camp you can add dried spaghetti and water and have a delicious, hot, lightweight, one-pot meal.

A typical day of of eating on the trial might look like this:

A hot breakfast of oatmeal or a freeze-dried breakfast entrée with coffee. If your morning appetite is heartier, you might add a little fruit, either fresh, dried or packaged in the single-serving plastic container.

Lunch will usually be en-route so you might want to stick with something like summer sausage and cheese, or peanut butter and honey on whole wheat tortillas.

The evening meal is a reward for reaching the goal (or at least giving it your all). Here is where your meal choices really pay dividends. Plan on something hearty and hot. You might begin with instant soup to sip while preparing the rest of the meal. Follow that with spaghetti, stroganoff or some other protein plus starch. You could finish this with a pudding, fruit or chocolate. Eating a high calorie meal before bed will aid in keeping warm through the night. Just before bed, try a hot drink to warm your insides.

Snacks

Your backpacking food planning should also include snacks. Plan on a couple of handfuls of trail mix or GORP at least twice a day on a full-day's hike. You can make your own or choose from many commercially packaged ones. A mixture including both nuts and dried fruit is a good place to start. To that, add whatever you like for your pick-me-up.

Where Do I Find It?

Appropriate backpacking food can be found anywhere from the dollar store to the supermarket to an outdoor sporting goods store or from a number of mail-order companies. Concentrate on a variety of nutritionally dense, high calorie, lightweight choices and let your imagination explore the possibilities. Your taste buds will thank you.

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