View Full Version : Trail Meals
What would be normal meal foods for Breakfast , Lunch, Dinner and snacks. I'll be resuppling at each town I go through and relaize that high protein meals may not always be available. Thanks
Check out this old WB thread:
http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/showthread.php?77340-Sample-meal-list.&
Preview the book "Freezer Bag Cooking" on Google Books to get some ideas. You can find it here:
http://books.google.com/books/about/Freezer_Bag_Cooking_Trail_Food_Made_Simp.html?id=o TlQdlTVNS8C
The topic of food is constant among thru hikers and you'll pick up ideas from others. Grocery shopping gets interesting when the hiker hunger kicks in. Plus you'll end up making up some of your calorie deficit when you hit town and find the AYCE holy grail.
Cheers!
garlic08
01-27-2012, 18:12
I didn't have any problems getting enough protein when I bought groceries on the trail, and I'm a vegetarian. I bought a lot of nuts and cheese. In New England, the cheese was so good I had problems eating too much of it. Town meals rounded out the diet with more fresh vegetables, but I would try to carry something fresh to eat every day. I got carbs from oats, crackers, tortillas, bagels (my favorite in the NY area), instant potatoes, dried fruit. If you eat meat, you can often find foil packs of various meats, and hard-cured sausage was often available.
I buy bulk stuff, repackage in ziplocks, then eat out of the bags when I get hungry. Structured meals don't mean too much to me on the trail. With a little experience, you can eat the right stuff to support your walking. I only lost a couple of pounds on my AT hike, but it didn't go as well on my first long hike on the PCT. If you loose too much weight, re-evaluate what your doing, consume more or better food, or slow down.
I have run into several serial thru hikers in the last few years, lucky to have connected with them, have learned from their experience, no-cook mode. There is a ton of food available that requires no stove, no fuel, no clean-up, no cook pot, etc. Eat big as you get to each town, be you a section or thru hiker.
Another really nice side-benefit is being able to tent on a killer mountaintop with just enough water to make it through the night and NONE needed for cooking and cleaning.
RWheeler
01-27-2012, 20:03
I recently made a trip to Wal-Mart (while hungry) to purchase items as if I were re-filling my food bag. I got back, repackaged everything, and threw it in my food back to test how it'd fit. Then I proceeded to start cooking the foods with my stove and pot set-up to test them out (and plan to continue eating only this stuff until it's gone).
Hey, I have to eat before I hit the trail, too, so might as well give things a shot now, ya know?
seasparrow
01-27-2012, 20:17
Been doing same thing Wheelie,figured 2lbs of raisins was lil to much to carry. 2 packs of ramen fits great into my pot. Pepperoni on tortilla is good and easy.
I'm not typical but my hiking food is as follows:
Breakfast:
Oatmeal with Spiced Tea and Skim Milk, sometimes with nuts and seeds and dried fruit added.
Spiced tea with skim milk during the day if I take a break.
Lentil soup at night, with dried vegetables and herbs and spices.
I buy food more or less by the pound or half pound, sometimes a full kilogram, in whatever package is cheapest and available. Herbs and spices and tea that I get in smaller quantities but I might more than a weeks worth if that is the size that makes sense. If I needed only 4 pounds before the next resupply I will settle for less variety than if I am doing a longer section that might require 6-10 pounds.
I hike mostly from home though, so resupplying is easier, but with the exception of herbs and spices and tea which I get from the cupboard I often supply for my 3-10 day hike just as I think I would if I was on a long section away from home.
I don't prepare anything in advance. I mix everything on the fly at meal time from bulk.
How I buy stuff in the grocery store, if I am going for at least 5 pounds worth of hiking:
Oatmeal: 100g to 200g per day.
1 kg bag of large flake oats, which is alot of oats.
Skim Milk Powder: 50g to 200g per day.
500g bag is cheapest, which is enough for 5 litres.
Dried Fruit: 50g to 100g per day.
Dried Currants or Dates or Raisins. 500g bag, or less from bulk food section, or Home Oven Dried Blueberries.
Nuts and Seeds: 50g to 100g per day.
Almonds in 100g bags, or sunflower seeds from bulk food section.
Lentils: 50-100g per day.
500g bag or less from the bulk section.
Dried Vegetable Mix: 25-50g per day.
I can get these in large light plastic spice jar, or from bulk food section.
Herbs: 10-25g per day in total.
Parsley, Chives, Paprika, and mixed spices. Buy in 100g sizes.
I know paprika is considered a spice, but its really dried fruit powder (sweet bell peppers) so I treat it as more of a herb. I sort of treat my dried vegetables the same way. More accurately I treat my herbs as dehydrated vegetables.
Spices: Up to 15g per day in total.
My essentials are Cardamon, Cloves, Black Pepper, Nutmeg. I also like to carry Cinnamon, Ginger, and Anise. I like to carry them in whole form, and crush them when I need them. You can sometimes store them together this way and pick out what you want even though it sort of blends the flavours. Spices I go through slower than herbs by volume, and resupply less frequently, but I love to carry spices now, for chai tea, and for oatmeal, and for soup. Spice provided alot of variety. Up to 15g per day in total.
Tea: Up to 15g per day.
I buy loose black tea. Here in Saint John, Barbour's Orange Pekoe.
So if I did this correctly from memory, lets see how it adds up, not counting the tea... 350g to 800g per day, or about 1 to 1.5 pounds, which seems about right for me. Probably closer to a pound until I loose some weight. If I do get my weight down I will probably add more fats to the diet. I do carry vegetable oil, at least 4oz, and mess around with that for lamps and for simmering soup and for sometimes browning the oats and stuff before adding the boiling water. Also, for emergency rations instead of carrying more food and probably not eating it I bring a 500g tub of honey and add a little of that now and then.
Canola Oil: 15-30g per day as food or fuel. 100-200g typically carried.
99% Ethanol 'rubbing alcohol compound': 100g carried for first aid and backup fuel.
I also make my own jerky in the oven at 170F. When I bring that its about 50g per day. I just make it with molasses, or honey, and black pepper, some salt. If resupplying away from home I like to buy locally made stuff. In winter it would be fun to buy a big chunk of meat and carry it deep into the woods, maybe dry some of it over a fire while eating most of it, while the bears are sleeping in their dens dreaming of spring.
What would be normal meal foods for Breakfast , Lunch, Dinner and snacks. I'll be resuppling at each town I go through and relaize that high protein meals may not always be available. Thanks
Don't worry about getting enough protein. If you get enough food, you'll get more than enough protein without trying. Try calculating this yourself if you have trouble believing it. Use 4500 calories of just about any food in your pantry, and you'll get body builder levels of protein.
The FIRST thing you should focus on is finding trail food that you will actually eat 4500 calories of per day.
Breakfast - Oatmeal, Pop-tarts, Newtons, Cliff Bar, Coffee
Lunch: Hard cheese, almond/peanut/soy butter, honey, bagel, GORP (raisons, peanuts, M&Ms), cliff bar, pistachio(?) nuts, other snacks, seitan bars (veggie jerky)
Dinner: Dehydrated potatoes, foil bags tuna, mac-n-cheese, ramen, peanut butter, soy (Thai noodles), cheese or pesto filled Tortellini, dried sauce (Knorr), Pasta Sides, Mountain house
Beverages: water, yerba mate, coffee, tea, Ovalteen, Protein Shakes, Carnation Instant Breakfast, powdered milk, wine, liquor
Chocolate
That's true about protien. Even only 5% protien is 62.5g of protien on a 5000 calorie diet, and you would have to work really hard to get your protien down to 5%. I like to stick with real food though. When burning body fat, which can be up to 3000 calories a day, there isn't a problem eating enough because you have the fat to burn. Safely I think 1% of your body fat is a better number, which for me is 0.5 pounds of body fat, or 1500 calories. As you get leaner you have to add more calories to your diet, and as you get fitter, even more calories, but until you lose the weight you don't have to worry about not eating enough, and its better to focus on real food and not junk.
A good rule of thumb is 10% protien, 30% carbs, and 60% fat as percentage of what you are burning.
If you have no fat to burn, 10-20% protien, 30-50% carbs, 30-50% fat might be more palatable.
When losing weight, up to half the calories you burn each day might be from body fat, and so as a percentage of the food you are eating the 10-30-60 becomes 20% protien, 60% carbs, and 20% fat, which is also fairly palatable.
In either case, already lean, or getting there, whatever is palatable is probably healthy as long as it is real food, and covers 3 of 4 food groups most of the time.
Doesn't hurt to through some of your breakfast food into your soup at night, or any leftover lentil soup into your oatmeal in the morning. It's all good.
Just out of town (first night after re-supply) carry something silly - like a couple of cans of chili (veggie chili for me) and a 6-pack - do it for 10 miles or so - no sweat - pack it out - thanks.
Split peas are good when you get tires of lentils. Barley can be fun to toss in now and then. I am not so keen on Quinoa, but its good stuff. If I find myself eating less breakfast, even though there are so many variations on oats, I will move on to something else for awhile. I tend to go with the same thing for weeks at a time though, and just change the way I mix things and spice things up. If you get tired of the goopiness, try browning it in oil, right on the trail, with whatever nuts or seeds you want, then add your dried fruit and spices and boiling water. It will be nuttier and crunchier that way. You can make granola also, at home or on the trail. Trail mix can be tossed into oatmeal also, but I find trail mix overpriced so I essentially make my own, but always on the fly, usually not in advance.
I eat anything. That said on my back is lots of cheese, peanuts, olive oil, eggs, seasoning salt, oatmeal,lima beans or black beans, and pork fat(bacon usually) some things like fruit and veggies never make it to the pack cause I eat em when I see them.
It's fun to reprovision in a small place where you can get food, but that typically serves local needs other than hikers. Probably rare along the AT. Here it is more common to find local convenience store and country grocery store type places, serving mostly locals, perhaps trailer campsites, and hunters. Good food, but not typical hiking food, so you have to get a little creative, and sometimes have to carry a few cans of something or other, or soak beans overnight and stuff like that. I like the old movies where you see partisans in France or Spain or whatever travelling with wine and bread and cheese. I would like to try that style of hiking some day.
Chaco Taco
01-28-2012, 00:07
JAK's race to 10,000 is on!
daddytwosticks
01-28-2012, 17:48
JAK's race to 10,000 is on! It started weeks ago...
lush242000
01-28-2012, 18:21
What would be normal meal foods for Breakfast , Lunch, Dinner and snacks. I'll be resuppling at each town I go through and relaize that high protein meals may not always be available. Thanks
Keep in mind if you don't like it or eat it at home then you ain't gonna like it on the trail. I tend to stick to mostly no cook or easy cook. Some hot ramen, chicken soup, instant mashed potatoes and coffee or tea are worth the weight for me to take a pocket rocket, canister, and mess kit. You will only be 3 to 4 days away from a real meal for most points during a thru hike, so it's not like you will develop scurvy or something.
mmais68569
01-28-2012, 18:30
What do you use for no cook meals???????????
Mike( Mr. Mean)
No cook meals? Spam single serving is a new favorite. Requisitioned mustard packets from wherever.
JAK's race to 10,000 is on!
It started weeks ago...
Can I lose 50 pounds before my 50th birthday, June 14th, and before my 10,000th WB Post?
daddytwosticks
01-29-2012, 14:41
Can I lose 50 pounds before my 50th birthday, June 14th, and before my 10,000th WB Post? My opinion, you'll have a better chance with the 10,000 posts. The way you are going, you will reach 10,000 by mid Feb. :)
randyg45
01-29-2012, 14:41
No one has mentioned peanut butter or Bear Creek soups. Eggs keep far better than many people realize. I also like to bring a frozen pound of hamburger out of town. Half the first night, Hamburger steak and eggs for breakfast the next morning.
I am not the Wizard of No-Cook Meals--but I almost always do it for all of my breakfasts, lunches, snacks and some of my big "evening" meals (which I may actually eat at midday). Here are some of the no-cook things I have tried over the years:
Power/Energy bars, jerky, trail mix (for me--my current trail mix is just peanuts and raisins). Sausage (pepperoni or summer sausage), cheese, (or cheese spread), crackers, pita bread, tortillas, bagels, peanut butter, jelly, pop tarts, cookies, juice/beverage mixes to add to my water, cold cereal, powdered milk, instant pudding (prepared in ziplock bags--no dishes). dried/dehydrated fruits & vegetables, nuts of various kinds, single serving meat in foil packets (tuna, chicken, SPAM), M&Ms, granola bars, Fig Newtons (or similar fruit bars), potato chips, corn chips (or other chips). I will buy fresh fruit, veggies, milk, sub sandwich (or other heavier, canned, or prepared meals) at a resupply point and eat them right away at the resupply point--or within 12 hours. Thus, I get that extra variety and extra nutrients every few days--but I don't have to carry the heavy/fresh food with me very far.
Add calories by adding things like olive oil, sugar, honey, protein powder to food.
MaybeTomorrow
02-01-2012, 13:22
Been doing same thing Wheelie,figured 2lbs of raisins was lil to much to carry. 2 packs of ramen fits great into my pot. Pepperoni on tortilla is good and easy.
mmm pepperoni and cheese :) Ok, seriously. I thrive on protein and pack dry vegan protein powder. I have read unfavorable things about soy protein isolate.
I eat lima beans and pepproini in the morning. Mac And cheese and candy mid day. Beans, meat and rice at nite, Also carry spices aND i ain't telling what on line but I give it away
Feral Bill
02-01-2012, 16:22
RE: Jak's post Shouldn't that be 22.727272727272727272727272727273 kg? or 222.72727272727272727272727272727 newtons?