Anybody use MREs?

[JLB]

Are they too heavy, too expensive, or are they just right?

[Chappy]

Are they too heavy, too expensive, or are they just right?

JLB: Use them all the time in the Army, but I have a HUMMV to haul them around in. Too heavy for me, don't plan to carry them on my thru hike.

[Ramble~On]

MRE's NO WAY !!! First, I don't "have" to eat them anymore. Second, they are way too heavy. Third, they would take up way too much space in pack.
BUT, I am a packrat and I started planning my thru hike while I was still in the Marines. I saved as many of the dehydrated fruit packs as I could get my hands on....especially the strawberries...which went into maildrops...

[eyahiker]

Ooops, I'm not posting to this thead. Cancel.

[boulders]

Way too heavy for this dude, and too much trash left over.

[JLB]

Is it the packaging that makes them heavy, or just all of the extra stuff inside them?

[Kozmic Zian]

Yea.....MRE's. Man, what are you, a bonified rookie? A newbie....a neophite....a NRA Gun Advocate.....???????????You don't give a damn about hiking.....only place you ever hiked was to the outhouse. Faget about it! KZ@

[JLB]

Yea.....MRE's. Man, what are you, a bonified rookie? A newbie....a neophite....a NRA Gun Advocate.....???????????You don't give a damn about hiking.....only place you ever hiked was to the outhouse. Faget about it! KZ@

You seem to be the resident troll, as all you have to offer is attacks against the NRA, even when the topic of the thread is something entirely different.

Try anger management.

[SGT Rock]

It is all of the above. KZ really isn't a troll, he just has that sort of sense of humor. For all you know he is a member of the NRA.

MREs have all the mostiure still in the meal, hence the weight compared to Mac 'n cheese, freeze dried, or other standard hiker fair. Most of the food in them is overpackaged so as to survive in you ruck in case you toss it out of a helicopter at 20' or something. Most of that packaging is foil pack, which survives burning in some form in the fire ring and needs carried out. There are only 24 meals and they get VERY old after a while.

NO MREs for ME!

[JLB]

It is all of the above. KZ really isn't a troll, he just has that sort of sense of humor. For all you know he is a member of the NRA.

MREs have all the mostiure still in the meal, hence the weight compared to Mac 'n cheese, freeze dried, or other standard hiker fair. Most of the food in them is overpackaged so as to survive in you ruck in case you toss it out of a helicopter at 20' or something. Most of that packaging is foil pack, which survives burning in some form in the fire ring and needs carried out. There are only 24 meals and they get VERY old after a while.

NO MREs for ME!

From what I have seen, he has no sense of humor at all.


Thanks for your response. I've been trying out a few Mountain House products, but I haven't found them to be very tasty.

[Chappy]

It is all of the above. KZ really isn't a troll, he just has that sort of sense of humor. For all you know he is a member of the NRA.

MREs have all the mostiure still in the meal, hence the weight compared to Mac 'n cheese, freeze dried, or other standard hiker fair. Most of the food in them is overpackaged so as to survive in you ruck in case you toss it out of a helicopter at 20' or something. Most of that packaging is foil pack, which survives burning in some form in the fire ring and needs carried out. There are only 24 meals and they get VERY old after a while.

NO MREs for ME!

Rock, Wonder how many MREs you've consumed? I can't begin to remember how may I've eaten. It doesn't take very long for them to get old!

How did it feel to be back on the trail?

[SGT Rock]

It ROCKED (parden the double entendre)! I loved every day of it, especially when the sleet was hitting me north of Roan Mountain.

I don't know how many I have eaten, but I have been through evey incarnation of them since they came out back in the 80's. I think they are better in most ways, but I wouldn't eat them on the AT. I gave them up while in Iraq about May of last year I think. Thanks to the hikers that sent the tasty morsels...

[rfghost]

I occasionally will take 1 MRE for dinner if I am doing a quick overnight hike. Otherwise they are too heavy. They don't taste bad...but anything don't taste bad if you are hungry enough.

[Texas Dreamer]

What about the tiny little Tabasco sauce from the MRE's? Does anyone take those? I know they are glass, but so small they probably wouldn't break.

[SGT Rock]

Get a plastic one ounce bottle and fill it with an ounce of tobasco and it will weigh less than one of those tiny bottles plus last longer.

[Jaybird]

Are they too heavy, too expensive, or are they just right?

too darn HEAVY for me!

i wuz given 6 MREs just last fall....i gave 'em away...

by-the-way...TABASCO makes everything on the trail taste a little bit better!
hehehehehehe!

[Patco]

I've carried MRE's on day hikes but not backpacking. I too have eaten MRE's since their dark brown wrapped days - even miss the corned beef hash because of that compressed oatmeal/brown sugar brick - and am often impressed with the contents. I'll bet I've eaten close to 100 of them and never had to pay for a single one ... and I'm a civilian [employed by the Dept of Army].

Agree: too heavy, too much trash, too bulky, Whisperlite is faster than the chemical heater. [Oh, you can make a cool *boom* device with the heater element and a 20 oz Mountain Dew plastic bottle]

[liplip]

First of all I want to say hello to the backpacking community.

This is my second post here. I am still interested in a hiking partner which was the reason for my first post. I have never done any extensive hiking. My hiking experience has typically consisted of 40 mile weekend hikes along the rivers here in Kansas. I have hiked in the heat and I have hiked in the winter. AS for food, the things we carried on our hikes here in Kansas would be absurd for the Appalachian Trail. We packed steaks, potatos, eggs, and bacon for our dinners. We also packed different concoctions of Gorp which although tasty tended to get sticky, messy, hot and caused a trash nuisance.

I was in the KSARNG for seven years and therefore I am accustomed to eating MRE's, although I admit the first MRE I ate in Boot Camp made me sick to my stomach. There are a couple MRE menus that I didn't want to eat during training because I simply wasn't hungry enough. Lot's of weekend warriors took their MRE's home because they simply weren't hungry enough to eat them. However, on a long distance hiking trip I don' think a hiker has a choice. All in all Most MRE menus are are tasty while there are only a few that I had to force down. With lots of salt and pepper the nastiest tasting MRE can be tolerated without having to pinch your nostrils to cut off the taste to your tongue. ALthought the main menu is might not be so great all MRE's have a variety of tasty snacks and beverages to wash down with.
I am planning a southbound thru-hike for 2004, starting date about mid-july, and I am considering packing MRE's for my food requirements. There are several reasons.

First of all, the Calorie issue. 1 MRE supplies 1200 calories which I bet is a helluva lot more calories than any Ramen noodle meal. I visited an outfitter store today. I looked at a pre-packaged dehydrated meal-for-four that cost around $8. The total caloric content of that "meal for four" was only 800 calories, ot 200 calories per person. If I buy enough MRE's to last 5 months the cost per MRE comes out to about $4.20 per 1200 calories. That is alot better than what commerciallly packaged products can offer for the price and calories. I am seriously considering eating two MRE's per day, one each for lunch and dinner, which would provide 2400 calories. I plan on drinking strong instant coffee with lots of sugar for breakfast along with a snack. That gives me roughly 3000 calories per day.

Secondly, there is the time issue I am considering. I think I can rip open an MRE and eat it faster than the time it takes to boil noodles. I could even rip open an MRE, stuff it's contents into my fanny pack, and eat while I continue to hike If I was pressed for time. I avoid having to dig through bags for gorp and stove. All I would have to do is take the MRE off of the top of the pack.

Thirdly there is the water issue. I don't waste any water on an MRE because I don't have anything to boil. This also saves time and fuel. Furthermore If I only have a 3 liter capacity for water then I want to be drinking water instead of heating food in it and pitching it. Also, As Sgt. Rock mentioned the water is already in the food and therefore therefore there is no need to carry extra water to make food.

Next there is the positive side to the trash issue with MRE's. All trash can be stuck back into the tough plastic pouch and stuffed away. There should be no sticky and smelly trash to deal with.

Well now I am getting into the CON side of packing MRE's. Most obviously is the space required to pack MRE's. Mre's are a little bulky. If I resupply at each resupply point for a week of MRE's when I am eating two per day, then I will be packing 14 MRE's at the start of each week. This will take up hopefully no more than approximately half of the space in my Dana K-2 LongBed external pack. Hopefully not more than half, but I don't know yet because I haven't experimented yet.

The next possible con is the weight issue. The gross shipping weight of a 12-pack unopened box of MRE's is 5 lbs. Is five pounds alot of weight for a week of lunch and dinner? Maybe not. I am tall and sorta muscular and I bought an External pack so that I could carry that extra space and weight. I am not an ultra-weight type of person. I plan on being in good shape half way through the hike.

Now for the cost. 5 months of MRE's, at two a day, is 150X2=300 MRE's. 300 MRE's @$4.20 each is $1125.00. Plus I have to add the distrinuitor's freight charges to have the 25 boxes of MRE's shipped to my friends house who will be mailing them to supply points. Then there are the freight cost's to mail each 5 pound box to each supply point. the costs are getting a little steep here.

To conclude, MRE's at the per-meal cost are expensive, but they pack a caloric punch. The meals are well-rounded providing necessary vitamins and minerals. MRE's fill the belly, and since they don't taste fantastic I don't think anyone will overeat and waste food. I think the added space and possibly added weight is the worth the nutrient value.

I just looked at my pack again and decided that 14 MRE's will take up ATLEAST half of the space in the pack. I will definitely bulge the seams on the pack If I am also packing a tent, sleeping bag, lots of coffee and sugar, clothes, cold weather ajcket, and all the miscellaneous items.

If anyone has any more practical experience I would very much want to hear from you. If anything I would like to hear if GORP, dehydrated food, and noodles supply the caloric needs necessary to fly doen the trail with a smile.

I would not hesitate to give away an MRE if I camp with a hungry hiker.

[liplip]

On my above post, I made a mistake on the Gross shipping weight for a box of 12 MRE's. Instead of 5 pounds it is 20 pounds. Big defference there obviously. That would make a weekload of MRE's, eating two a day, weigh probably 20 pounds. I suppose this averages about 5 pounds more in the backpack than what the rule-of-thumb dictates at 1.5 to 2 pounds per day. I can live with that If I could just get 14 MRE's to fit in the pack!

[SGT Rock]

LOL, good luck. I have a feeling that after about 3 weeks you may very well give up on the MREs. The average weight of one is actually about 2 pounds per meal (the cases are really 25 pounds), and the latest models actually have less calories (check out Natick's Website) than 1200; 1200 is on the high side and that is only if you eat everything in the meal. Hikers ion a long hike will burn more than 2400 calories a day, so you are going to shoot short. Plus there are only 24 meal combinations, most of the stuff is the same except the main course.

If you consider that you could eat 3200 calories carrying only 2 pounds of daily food weight ad change your menue to suit your particular taste at the time of res-supply while maybe only spending about $25 for a week of chow compared to the 6 pounds it would require in MREs to get the same calories from MREs at a cost of about $13 a day from your supplier, or almost $100 a week to be stuck with the same food because the mail cost on a 25 pound box will be about $12 over and above the food cost per box, and you will have to cary a whole case of MREs to make 4 days of hiking when your hunger kicks in - that is 25 pounds of just food for a four day section. Even if you go short on calories, it would still be 16 pounds of just food.