Snacks

[Footslogger]

As many of us already know, breakfast/lunch and dinner are not enough to keep our motors running out there on the trail. Thought it might be an interesting thread (both for veteran and new hikers) to have comments from the membership on snacks that they've used or are thinking of using.
What gives you the biggest calorie boost and is the easiest thing to carry and eat along the way.

[PushingDaisies]

Things I carried:

1. Sunflower seeds (without shells) - nice change of pace from peanuts
2. Combos - Pretzels with cheese in the middle - nice to have something crunchy and salty
3. Candy Bars- usually not snickers, because we did a servey of candy bars for cal. vs. weight and most candy bars had a higher cal. content for weight than snickers did.
4. Oreo Cookies - Bite size in a foil pouch
5. Teddy Grams - in a foil pouch
6. Cheese and Crackers- MMMM salt
7. Tuna Salad mix and crackers

Things I saw carried by others:

1. Cheeze-its and mustard
2. Peanut Butter to spread on your candy bars
3. Jerky

[Footslogger]

Daisey ...you bring up a good point about candy bars. Can you share the list, as you remember it, of the various candy bars and their caloric content from your survey.

[EarlyRiser]

goldfish are great, you have to be carful not to crush them, but even if you do they are still good to eat, and you can crumble them on other things as well. i like them with ramen, but thats me.

granola dosnt last very very long but its great if you put it in some type of solid container and just pour it into your mouth as you go, and its good in oatmeal. (granola bars keep much better)

fig newtons squish easily, but that dosnt really matter, it just looks different when you eat it.

jerky is almost a must, and also goes well in many other dishes.

different types of dried fruit, dried mango is a great addition to oatmeal, and pancakes.

chocolate covered rasins melt very easily, but then if they solidify again you have a big chocolate rasin bar. better in colder months so it wont stay melted.

[RagingHampster]

I can't reccommend combos enough. Nasty off-trail, oily crunchy and salty on trail. They are like blessings.

I also enjoy chex-mix (The Bold version if your not making your own). Real good sharp flavor. Crunchy & salty. Not very dense, but you can eat it and eat it forever.

I love cheez-itz off-trail (in fact I purposely don't buy them so I won't eat them all. My personal addiction like ice cream is for some others...). But for some reason when I bring them hiking they never give me the same gratification. I find Spicy Cheddar gold-fish to hit the spot perfect.

Fruit leathers. I'm lazy and just hit the earthy-crunchy section at the local supermarket. 5" x 1.5" x 1/8" strips are 5/$2, and offer hard to dry fruits like cherries and grapes. They also have individual wrapping which allows them to keep forever.

Fresh-Fruit. Apples & Oranges. Most are wax-covered, and will last multiple days with no problem. i love the taste of fresh fruit when 3 days into the woods.

Don't forget the beloved Snicker bar.

[Footslogger]

I just got back from K-Mart. Stood in an empty check-out line and did a quick and dirty survey of calorie totals for all the major candy bars on display. Snickers came out on top at 280.

[PushingDaisies]

Originally posted by RagingHampster
I can't reccommend combos enough. Nasty off-trail, oily crunchy and salty on trail. They are like blessings.


I agree Hampster! I can't stand them off trail either.

Footslogger- As for the survey of candy bars, I would have to go to the grocery store and start from scratch for the exact info, but I believe that the winner for cal vs weight was Butterfingers. Snickers was the definate loser by a long shot.

[Footslogger]

Really Daisies ?? Butterfingers is higher in calories. I guess I missed that one. Maybe it has to do with the size of candy bar I was looking at. There are those who say "size matters"

[PushingDaisies]

The calories for most candy bars were about the same, but it was the Calorie to Weight RATIO that made the difference.

Snickers were the heaviest candy bar, so you could carry amost 1 and a half candy bars of something else and therefore have more calories for the same weight of the snickers.

[Footslogger]

Gotcha Daisies ...thanks for the clarification. That makes good sense cuz there's a huge difference in the weight of the different candy bars. Guess it's back to K-Mart !!

[PushingDaisies]

LOL

Good luck on your "sugar rush"!

[smokymtnsteve]

kandy korn the kind made with hiney i mean honey ..which ain't a bad snack either.

[RagingHampster]

My favorite trail candys are Snickers, Lindt 70% Dark, and Reeses PB Cups.