View Full Version : favorite hiking foods
For all you thruhikers, what was your favorite foods on the trail that you ate?(not including towns and restaraunts obviously). Also, when you bought food at the grocery stores, what were your usual purchases? Did you buy a lot of things that needed cooking or no?This is just a post to get some ideas for what I should eat throughout the trail, with half mail drops half shopping. Anything worth note would be appreciated. Thanks!
garlic08
02-09-2009, 20:40
Funny you ask about not cooking. I hiked the whole trail without a stove or a mail drop, just what I could buy at groceries and C-stores. Tortillas were a staple, easy to find everywhere, with cheese or peanut butter, also crackers, cookies, Little Debbies brownies and pies, fig newtons, nuts, raisins, oats with powdered milk, instant potatoes, ramen, muffins, whatever. It was a good diet--I maintained weight and had plenty of energy, only three zeroes and not a single sick day.
Blissful
02-09-2009, 20:42
I'd do a search here on WB on meal planning. Plenty of food lists posted here for you to look at also. Have a great hike!
garlic, i am interested in doing it with hardly any mail drops but was it pretty expensive to do it by just buying at grocery stores?
brooklynkayak
02-10-2009, 12:53
I'm not a thru-hiker, but the most common staple for me is angel hair pasta. It cooks fast. Bring the water to a boil and it's done. It takes up much less pack space than ramen or mac and cheese.
Combine with about anything.
Try:
Peanut butter and chili powder
Packaged chicken, coconut, veggies and curry powder
Soup mix
Any combination of tuna, deviled ham, spam chunks, cheese, and veggies...
Olive oil and Parmesan
and of course tomato powder or paste, garlic and oregano.
Try it for breakfast with reconstituted dried fruit, brown sugar and powder milk.
Cook extra the night before and combine cold with greens(fresh or dried), olive oil and herbs for a pasta salad lunch. Dehydrated spinach and parmesan are my favorite.
YoungMoose
02-10-2009, 12:57
flapjacks
Anything that tastes good :D
garlic08
02-10-2009, 14:24
garlic, i am interested in doing it with hardly any mail drops but was it pretty expensive to do it by just buying at grocery stores?
I'm not even sure what postage costs anymore, but that can take up some of your budget. If you do general delivery to POs, especially if the USPS cuts back on Saturday services, you'll have a few difficult times getting to your box during open hours, and that may lead to some expensive nights in towns, or it may slow you down which costs money, too.
Also, there are several small C-stores where the trail crosses a road (Atkins, VA comes to mind). If you can resupply there, you can avoid even going into town, which always seems to cost money.
So all in all, the food cost may have been more, but I believe I saved a LOT of money by avoiding town stops. The cold diet is not for everyone, but it worked for me and I met a few others out there doing the same thing. I think the biggest advantage was minimizing the logistics of the hike. I spent more time just walking, which is why I was out there anyway.
For what it's worth, I spent about $700 on trail food for my 106-day trip, or about $20 for a typical three-day resupply. I think it's fairly easy to spend around $300 in postage if you go the mail drop route.
garlic08
02-10-2009, 14:31
I'm not a thru-hiker, but the most common staple for me is angel hair pasta. It cooks fast. Bring the water to a boil and it's done. It takes up much less pack space than ramen or mac and cheese.
Combine with about anything.
Try:
Peanut butter and chili powder
Packaged chicken, coconut, veggies and curry powder
Soup mix
Any combination of tuna, deviled ham, spam chunks, cheese, and veggies...
Olive oil and Parmesan
and of course tomato powder or paste, garlic and oregano.
Try it for breakfast with reconstituted dried fruit, brown sugar and powder milk.
Cook extra the night before and combine cold with greens(fresh or dried), olive oil and herbs for a pasta salad lunch. Dehydrated spinach and parmesan are my favorite.
Hey, not bad, especially if you leave out the deviled ham and spam:(. Food like that would almost make me bring a stove again.
you guys are extravagant ! i eat pretty boring out there. My favorite for cold weather hiking is fig newmans, peanut butter and a few mms on top. i can eat alot of that baby ! gives me some serious energy too.
My favorite hiking food of all time is Monterey Mushroom and Onion Stove Top Stuffing mixed with Knorr Mushroom gravy and dehydrated mushrooms. Rarely I'll add some hamburger gravel too
It is so good that I have to keep myself from making it at home, just so I can enjoy it that much more as a trail treat.
My #1 food I eat is the Lipton/Knorr sides, its about $1 a bag, they have over 20 different kinds, everything from rice, noodles, to pasta. And they are delicious, some even have extras mixed in (vegetables, and such) I also like the Zatarains complete meals at about $1.50 a bag, again delicious, lotsa flavors, and has meat mixed in already. Also only takes 2 tablespoons of water, cooks in like 45 seconds on a pepsi can stove
Also I make a delicious high calorie Gorp which includes
40% Shelled Walnuts
20% White Chocolate Chips
20% Milk Chocolate Chips
15% Yogurt Covered Raisens
5% Dehydrated Cranberries
%
With Flat Rate boxes from the post office running nearly $10 now....it is sadly getting cheaper to buy food while walking!
blazechaser
02-14-2009, 13:19
Funny you ask about not cooking. I hiked the whole trail without a stove or a mail drop, just what I could buy at groceries and C-stores. Tortillas were a staple, easy to find everywhere, with cheese or peanut butter, also crackers, cookies, Little Debbies brownies and pies, fig newtons, nuts, raisins, oats with powdered milk, instant potatoes, ramen, muffins, whatever. It was a good diet--I maintained weight and had plenty of energy, only three zeroes and not a single sick day.
garlic08, doing my thru this year. Just curious, how do you eat oats, instant potatoes, & ramen without cooking them?
Thanks :)
Blazechaser
Dicentra
02-14-2009, 15:58
I'm not a thru, but I know food and I'm doing a portion of a thru's food this year...
He does the knorr/lipton noodles, angel hair or somen w/sauce packets or instant miso soup mix (plus dried veggies), pb, tortillas, instant beans, instant hummus, dried seaweed, instant rice, jello, snickers...
I'm trying to give him some better food and options this time round! :)
garlic08
02-14-2009, 17:47
garlic08, doing my thru this year. Just curious, how do you eat oats, instant potatoes, & ramen without cooking them?
Thanks :)
Blazechaser
I eat a cereal mixture of raw oats, nuts, and raisins with dried milk (muesli). It's best to soak a few minutes, but not necessary. Oats do not need to be to cooked. I can't stand cooked oats, but I love them raw. I'll eat up to 4 cups a day, but this is too much fiber for some people. Instant potatoes have to soak about 10 minutes, more if you can. I eat ramen like a big cracker. Ramen noodles are already cooked. Good luck.
Garlic
Dicentra
02-15-2009, 11:12
Sarbar and I met a (vegan?) thru on the trail last year that was going stoveless. He said he at all the "regular/normal" things, he just didn't cook them...
Cold oatmeal does NOT appeal to me.
garlic08
02-15-2009, 12:37
Cold oatmeal does NOT appeal to me.
Just to clarify, "muesli" is not "cold oatmeal". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muesli
I agree. I despise oatmeal, hot or cold. Muesli is a completely different meal.
Dicentra
02-15-2009, 12:40
Just to clarify, "muesli" is not "cold oatmeal". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muesli
I agree. I despise oatmeal, hot or cold. Muesli is a completely different meal.
I know! Sorry, I didn't mean you. That was in reference to the guy (I forget his name!) we met on the trail.
garlic08, doing my thru this year. Just curious, how do you eat oats, instant potatoes, & ramen without cooking them?
Thanks :)
Blazechaser
Raman will rehydrate with about 20 mins. of soaking.
Frick Frack
02-15-2009, 13:46
On our 1st night out from a town stop we always packed hot dogs and buns (if fires were permitted in that area....NY was a pain!). Besides the usual of mashed potato's, vermicelli, stuffing and Lipton sides (all of course doctored up with chicken, sausage, or tuna) our very favorite when available was dried tortellini cooked with olive oil (we always had olive oil with everything). Tortellini was excellent & very satisfying...our favorite trail meal. Dried soups were good to eat while you waited on dinner to finish (cream of Chicken, cream of tomato, pumpkin, etc).
Di, it was Sarong (http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=215450) we met....near Arch Rock in Washington.
garlic08
02-17-2009, 12:19
Raman will rehydrate with about 20 mins. of soaking.
Good tip, thanks. I didn't know that.
I've tried to rehydrate instant grits, with no success. I like cooked grits and that's about the only thing I've missed going stoveless. Any tips/ideas there?
On the ramen - I do ramen salads for my son often - all you do is soak apack of ramen in cool water for 15 to 20 minutes, drain, then add in some ranch dressing and whatever else you want. While soaking the ramen you can also have added freeze-dried vegetables as well (olives, peas, etc...whatever you like). Ford likes shelf stable sliced pepperoni added as well at the end with tons of Parmesan cheese.
Plodderman
02-17-2009, 15:36
Last time I hiked in the Damascus area I took snickers, almonds, small cans of tuna, chicken salad with crackers. Lipton cup of soup and cranerries etc....