food for hikes

I pack the same as listed above unless I am alone or on a bowhunting trip. I tend to bring a little more just in case.
A can of chili is easy to heat on any fire. For what it's worth.... Uncle Ben's has ready to eat rice in a pouch-just heat and eat or just eat. It comes in a lot of flavors too. My wife adds other packable stuff to the rice and creates an easy, good meal. Next time you are at the grocery store take a minute and look in the soup isle.
 
If you're going to cook stuff, I bought a couple cans of Progresso potato soup with bacon a couple days ago to try out. I like tater soup a lot. This soup is good! This would be a nice break in the woods if you choose to heat something. Don't even need a can opener.

Personally, unless the eating is a major part of the outing, I tend to just carry a sub sandwich or the stuff I mentioned above.
 
Food wise, I bring mostly granola type bars, jerky, and nuts.
Never cooked on a trail, but surely I want to one day on a really long hike.
 
If I'm happy to cook, I'll take a pot and build a fire or use a stove (Trangia and metho), with a can of soup and a couple of bread rolls. There's nothing better than sitting on a hilltop looking out over a wilderness area while eating hot soup (or maybe drinking hot chocolate). If I don't want to carry that much weight, a couple of power bars and a couple of sandwiches.
 
Always a kettle as a tea pot to make tea

Breakfast
  • Soaked oatmeal or leftover grain from supper
  • Tea or instant coffee


Day hikes
  • Whole wheat crackers or pita bread
  • Can of tuna or sardines,
  • Sometimes a refillable tube of peanut butter
  • A cucumber or two
  • Tea


Supper
  • Plain Couscous
  • Vermicelli noodles for a fast cook
  • Lentils cracked in a grinder for fast cooking
  • All with a simple soup mix and tuna added
  • Tea

Currently experimenting with a base savory bannock mix of oatmeal, Lentils cracked in a grinder, baking powder
And a base sweet bannock mix of oatmeal, ground almonds, and sunflower seeds, baking powder
I cook them in a double boiler instead of directly on the fire, a little slower but very effective
 
Peanut butter jelly and banana or peanut butter and honey and banana sandwiches. Jerky, dry salami or summer sausage and cheese, sharp cheddar and smoked Gouda being some of my favorites. Oatmeal, coffee, ramen with canned chicken and sriracha. Trail mix.
Butthole sandwiches( lightly toasted bagel, PB, honey, bacon)
Cheese and apples
Apples, peaches, apricots, cherrys, pears, figs, with cinnamon sugar seasoning that get stewed in whiskey and an oatmeal brown sugar butter crumble top.
Tortilla chips and bean dip or guacamole, or just tortilla chips, or Tortilla chips and PB.
Homemade protein bars
Logan bread
Bannock
Biscuits
Hard tack
Bagel cream cheese and smoked salmon
Whiskey
Beer
Pretzels
Bacon
Pancakes
 
For day hikes usually trail mix (peanuts, raisins and M&M's). Occasionally summer sausage, cheddar and crackers.
 
Breakfest is crunchies with chocolate milk powder.
Lunch is either taco wraps with dried sausage or just GORP.
Diner is freeze dried meals.
For snacks I take Clif Bars or whatever I can get.
 
I like to make my own trail mix in order to cut down on the salt found in most pre-mixed varieties. I usually go heavy on the ALMONDS, BANANA CHIPS and CHOCOLATE, while trying to get a decent amount of dried fruits and seeds.

I've tested many, many bars - all the bars - and have found that Larabar, ProBar and Kind Bar are the best. Larabar is more dense and sweet, Kind bar is basically just a bunch of fruit and nuts stuck together, ProBar is like a Clif Bar if Clif actually used whole chunks of fruit, nuts and seeds.

I also eat a lot of boil-in-a-bag backpacker meals, but not on day hikes. I usually go vegetarian on these as my wife is vegetarian and we always share.
Alpine Aire Chili and Backpacker's Pantry Pad Thai are our most re-purchased.

For cooking I am a huge proponent of kettles: faster boil times, less detritus in your water, easy to stick in or hang over a campfire, etc.

I use a GSI halulite kettle and love it. I can fit a GigaPower canister stove, 110g canister, Ti spork and small viscose cleaning towel inside the kettle for a perfect, self-contained mess kit.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top