What’s in your food bag? What works and what doesn’t for multi-day trips? What hit the spot for a midday snack or after a long trail day?
We’ve put your ideas into an evolving blog where we hope you’ll continue to share your trail meals. And you can be sure that our editors will try your creations. We’re really sick of the same food we’ve been eating for thousands of miles.
Shoot us a message @backpackingroutes or drop us a line with your go-to meals or snacks to keep the backpacking food fresh.
What We’re Eating
Hugh: Have you ever reached a point on trail when you’ve said, enough already. I can’t eat PB&J sandwiches anymore. I’m tired of Knorr sides. That was me. I ate the same thing trip after trip. Now I mix it up, and I’ve left the stove at home for good. I scour the grocery store aisles weeks before a trip, looking for different meal ideas. Dried fruit is back on the menu. Clif Bars are my current breakfast. I’m thinking peanut butter and chocolate, or maybe honey, for my next trip. Maybe spiced-up cold-soaked ramen. I eat throughout the day—beef jerky, tuna packets, M&Ms, cheese, and snack bars on my latest trip—with no defined mealtime. I don’t have to be near water for cooking, or lug liters of water to a dry camp. I can be on trail early in the morning or arrive at camp late because I’m not tied down by cooking. My food is not defining my hike. My hike is defining my food.
Andrew: I take the opposite approach from Hugh—I’m a committed hot meal lover, even for lunch, and especially on group trips or when I’m not trying to make a ton of miles every day. I even bring my stove on day hikes now. I love packaged meals from Pack-it Gourmet and Outdoor Herbivore when I have the cash to spend. When I don’t, a go-to is my signature “Hiker Pad Thai.” Two packs of original flavor ramen + two single-serving packs of coconut oil + two servings of powdered peanut butter + red paper flakes to taste. Fill it out with freeze-dried vegetables from Pack-it Gourmet and you’ve got a lunch/dinner with tons of fat and carbs and a killer calorie/ounce ratio. And the flavor is good enough that you can eat it multiple days in a row without getting tired of it.
When I’m trying to crush a 30+ mile day, I tend toward high-fat snacks and utilize Hugh’s strategy of munching all day. I soak a couple of tablespoons of chia seeds and add a powdered drink mix or an electrolyte tab, and sip on that all day to keep my fuel tank topped off.
Maggie: I am the weakest link in any group when it comes to backpacking food. It’s not that I don’t want to eat well on the trail, it’s just that I have no motivation to cook, I don’t like carrying heavy foods, I’m picky, and I tend to lose my appetite at high elevations. While I love fancy freeze-dried backpacking meals, they’re too expensive for longer trips. This creates a special circle of hell where I’m burning a ton of calories but never know what to eat, and feeding myself is one of the hardest parts of backpacking for me.
I’ve learned to carry a variety of easy-to-digest snacks and a few calorie bombs, as I can’t predict what I’m going to feel like eating. I rarely eat actual meals, leaning more toward lots of snacking. I bring mini donuts, gummy candy like Gushers, and Goldfish or rice crackers for salty / crunch. I’ll also take a pack of bagels and bring cream cheese and salami if the weather is cool enough. Frozen burritos are a go-to, and I always try to pack out “town food” so I have pizza or Subway for my first meal back on trail. Overall, I try to have a wide variety of no-cook foods since my appetite is so tricky.
Jeff: Choosing a menu goes right along with choosing an adventure for me. I love the overnight trips where I bring a paperback book, a stove, coffee, and a hearty meal like Peak Refuel or Good to-Go. But there are also the adventures that I pack as light as possible, leave the stove at home, and simply power through tortilla wraps, peanut butter, and crackers. The type of adventure I am looking for always dictates the food I bring.
One trick I have learned over the years is that fresh fruit and vegetables can be packed out and eaten over the first couple of days of a trip. Even on FKTs I have packed out avocados and enjoyed them in the first 48 hours. It is a great way to push off having to eat bars and gels for a bit longer.
Our Readers’ Backpacking Food Ideas
“Red lentil penne, dried pesto mix, sundried tomatoes, kale chips (butter or olive oil).”
“If you’re in the foraging mood: ghee and king bolete mushrooms with a pinch of salt.” (Please be absolutely certain you can identify mushrooms that are safe to eat before foraging for them.)
“Tuna pouches and tortillas!”
“Corn nut chicken, Ranch Corn Nuts, chicken pouch, mayo and mustard packets.”
“Kettle chips and Swedish Fish.”
“Good To-Go.”
“Mini peanut butter squeeze tubes. RightRice with sardines in oil. Hot chocolate and Nido milk.”
“Spanish Rice Knorr side with TVP and dehydrated veggies. Best dinner.”
“At least one family size bag of Doritos.”
“Uncrustable Smucker’s sandwiches!”
“Fav meal is mix of red lentil pasta and cheese ravioli, parm, olive oil, dehydrated pasta sauce.”