At first thought, it seems trivial to pack food for a backpacking trip. Buy a bunch of Mountain House meals, make sure you have a way to filter and heat water, and you’re done, right? Well, that’s one way to do it, but I’ve found that Mountain House meals are less than stellar, and that packing my own meals is a great way to really eat what I want, obtain a diverse array of food, and monitor and tailor nutrition and calories throughout my hike. As I mentioned in my Isle Royale Trip summary, I had some difficulty ensuring I got enough calories to provide me energy, and near the end of the trip I felt like I was starving, despite being able to eat until I was full at each meal. It’s because of this that I’ve spent a bit more time thinking through what I’m taking on this 4 day backpacking trip, and here’s the result.

Packaging

I don’t think everyone does this, but I found it useful to vacuum seal my meals. It keeps everything separate, as small as possible, and more importantly, dry. As you can see in the image below (likely more cliff bars than I’ll actually take), most of my food is stored this way, with the exception of some store bought items.

Breakfast

Breakfast is arguably the easiest meal when backpacking, at least for me. I have 2 packages of brown sugar oatmeal, 1 scoop of whey protein, 1 nut butter pack (1 egg white, 18 almonds, 1/2 a date), and some branch chain amino acids for muscle repair mixed in. Despite being concerned about getting sick of eating the same thing over and over, this breakfast is pretty amazing and I don’t think it’ll bother me in the least.

Coffee

Yes, coffee gets it’s own heading, because it’s that important. How do I get coffee out in the middle of the woods you might ask? Instant Coffee. Yes, and before you groan in disgust, you have to check out Alpine Instant Coffee.

This coffee, though quite expensive, is an excellent way to quickly prepare very good coffee with only hot water. It’s a tradition that I supply everyone with coffee on our trip, thus the numerous boxes in the photo above. I can’t say enough good things about this coffee….just try it.

Lunch

Honestly there is no lunch when backpacking. You’re right in the middle of your hike for the day and don’t really want to stop to prepare anything, so it’s really just snacks. I typically store a few Cliff Bars in a pocket on my backpack that I can get at while hiking, and I’ve also packed figs and dehydrated apricots for something sweet.

Dinner

This is where it gets a bit more complicated. Dinner is when you can really take your time and heat up a good meal, so it’s where I’ve allocated most of my caloric intake. For the 4 dinners, I have 3 varieties:

• Ramen Noodles
  • 1 package Ramen Noodles (Beef)
  • Beef Jerky
  • A few goat cheese crunch’s for flavor
• Coucous
  • 1/2 cup couscous
  • Starkist Hickory Smoked Tuna Pack
  • A few goat cheese crunch’s for flavor
• Thai Rice (2)
  • 2/3 cup minute rice
  • 1/2 cup dried coconut milk powder
  • 15 grams of Mae Ploy Curry Paste

So before I go any further, I should probably show you how I “prepare” these meals. The short answer is….

It’s a Jetboil canister and a pocket rocket burner with a Toaks Titanium 750ml pot. I make my food and coffee with this setup, and it works great.

Extras

You can’t go wrong with packing along a few extra items to boost your mood. I brought pistachio nuts, figs, and apricots, and will probably add a few pieces of candy to that yet. I’ll also be bringing a flask of 8 year aged Lagavulin Single Malt Scotch Whiskey and a cigar for something around the fire.

Next Up

On to clothing next, then likely a post on my gear.