Packing food for an outdoor excursion can be a daunting task.  Often times meal planning becomes a last minute thought, and people simply “grab something” and hit the road.  Instead of feeling overwhelmed with what to eat for the duration of your trip, try following these 4 steps to find the right foods to fit your journey.

HOW TO PACK FOOD FOR A TRIP

Narrow down your food options by focusing on these four critical details: storage/weight, refrigeration, duration of trip, and cooking device.  By asking yourself what resources you have available, you will get a better understanding of the right type of foods to pack.

The above chart organizes the four meal planning factors that will have the biggest influence on the types of foods to pack for an adventure.

For example, if you have limited storage space, weight concerns, no refrigeration, cooking with a JetBoil, and your trip lasts for 3 days; you will need lightweight, caloric dense, one pot meals with non-perishable foods. As another example, if you have endless storage space, with refrigeration, and no weight concerns for the entire trip; that means that you can essentially pack anything that pairs with your cooking device.

Think of the first example as an ultralight backpacking meal, and the second example as a meal that you would make if you had an RV.  In both situations you need nutritious food that supports your outdoor activities, but in the first example you have a lot of limitations that prevent you from packing many items, especially fresh and perishable ingredients.  Knowing your limitations allows you to eliminate foods that don’t fit your criteria so you can easily focus on the right types of foods to pack.

BACKCOUNTRY NUTRITION

The next step in outdoor meal planning is familiarizing yourself with the diet that you need.  Being active requires more calories and a different type of nutrition than if you were spending the day indoors.  For this reason, I recommend having a look at the Adventure Dining Guide nutritional overview.  The tips listed in this link will help you determine the amount of pack weight you should allocate to food, as well as the types of foods you will need to support a backcountry diet.

BEST LIGHTWEIGHT FOODS

After familiarizing yourself with your trip limitations based on the meal planning chart, you can then narrow down the type of foods to bring.  If your trip has a lot of limitations the best foods are going to be lightweight, high caloric density, and non-perishable.  Examples of good foods to pack in this situation are: peanut butter, canned tuna, hard cheese, dehydrated meals, dried fruits, whole wheat crackers, beef jerky, olive oil, mixed nuts, couscous, salami, dark chocolate, oatmeal, and sun dried tomatoes.  This is just a sample of backcountry staples, check out Backpacker for a more in depth and detailed shopping list.

The most important thing to remember is to pack foods that keep up with you.  If you have a busy and active adventure agenda, you very likely will not have a lot of time to commit to cooking.  Plan ahead by packing quick snacks, such as energy bars, in easy to reach pockets.  This way you have food readily accessible when you stop for breaks.  Also plan on bringing meals that don’t take a lot of time and effort to prepare.  For example, to reconstitute a dehydrated meal all you have to do is add water.  Or you can make a quick cooking pasta, such as couscous, and simply top with dehydrated fruits and nuts for a hearty dinner.  There are many great meals that you can make in the backcountry, and once you know the type of foods that best fit your expedition, you can easily plan for your big adventure.

AT HOME EXPERIMENTATION

The final step to meal planning for a backcountry trip is to practice at home.  Familiarizing yourself with how long foods take to cook, how they taste and how easily they can be prepared will help you prepare for the trip.  If you’re using a stove in the backcountry for the first time, or trying a never before attempted recipe, you will come across a lot more challenges in an already difficult environment.  Practicing at home gives you the opportunity to master your meal so your backcountry cooking experience is easy and successful.

Tori Sowul is a force of energy!  She is a passionate outdoors woman who spends a great deal of time ripping along Utah’s mountain bike trails. In addition to being a ski and bike enthusiast, Tori is also co-founder of spreadstoke.com!

As you can imagine, Tori is a busy woman with a hectic schedule, which is exactly why she shared a recipe for her homemade energy goo.  She often needs a boost of energy when she’s out on the trail, and this recipe has just that.  There are both simple and complex carbs for quick and sustained energy, along with a vitamins to support tired muscles.  And, the best part about Tori’s Goo is that it can be made at home using common, inexpensive ingredients.

Here’s how to make Tori’s Goo (makes 15 servings):

Ingredients:

• 3 tbsp Honey
• 3/4 tsp Black Molasses
• 1 tbsp Peanut Butter
• 1 cup Cooked Quinoa
• 1 pinch Salt
• 1/2 tsp Ground Coffee

Instructions:

1. Combine ingredients. Mix everything together.
2. Put 2 tbsp. goo into individual serving plastic bags. *Make sure you use a reliable container to hold the goo, otherwise you will have a big sticky mess to deal with.
3. Consume goo on the trail for simple backcountry energy. Store goo in refrigerator when waiting to be used, to ensure food safety

For more trail friendly recipes visit: http://www.adventurediningguide.com/recipes

Last winter Justin ‘Trauma’ Lichter and his partner Shawn ‘Pepper’ Forry completed the first winter thru hike of the Pacific Crest Trail.  For those unfamiliar with the “PCT” it is a 2650 mile trail from Canada to Mexico that cuts through 3 US states including Washington, Oregon and California.  This diverse trail crosses deserts, mountain ranges, deep forests, glaciers and volcanic peaks, and is considered one of the most difficult hikes in the world….in the summer!

For the western US states the winter of 2014-15 was very mild compared to normal winters.  Many areas reported record low snowpack, which might lead one to believe that this would be a great year to attempt a winter thru hike on the PCT.  However, it turns out the lack of snowfall and unpredictable weather patterns were a major challenge that almost forced Trauma and Pepper to abandon their expedition.  Not too long after starting in Washington, Trauma and Pepper found themselves caught in an unexpected storm that left them debilitated with frostbite.  Later on the trail they had to ditch their ski touring setup (due to lack of snowpack) and rely on snowshoe travel, which takes more time and burns more calories.  Thru hiking in the winter is filled with challenges, especially when it comes to food.

For many long stretches, the PCT is a desolate trail that cuts through uninhabited wilderness.  Trauma and Pepper often went weeks without seeing another person.  Many small towns with re-supply stations along the PCT close for the winter, which meant Trauma and Pepper had to be meticulous with their meal planning.  Cold weather and minimal pack space greatly limited the types of food Trauma and Pepper could eat.  According to Trauma, “our breaks were centered around eating. Any time we stopped we would spend that time ingesting calories. And if we took a break we couldn’t sit still very long because of the cold, so we had to keep moving.”  The most efficient calories came from conveniently stored nutrition bars.  The guys rotated between Lara Bar, Pro Bar and Kind Bar and ate 10 bars each per day, receiving 1/3 of their daily calories from bars.

Cooking at night proved to be another serious challenge.  Often times Trauma and Pepper had to melt snow for the next days water supply, since they frequently did not have a running water supply available.  Due to the terrible snowpack there was often “sugary” snow, which does not hold much water content and takes up to 2 hours to boil down for the next days needed water supply.  After a long day of hard work, the guys were often hungry, tired and ready to sleep, but had to commit an extra two hours of work to melt water.  This left little time for cooking dinner.  Trauma and Pepper relied on quick one-pot calorie dense-meals such as, Top Ramen, Knorr Sides, angel hair pasta, cheese, beef jerky, instant mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, or any combination of these.  Trauma was especially a fan of the instant mashed potatoes because they can be made without bringing the water to a boil, which saved time and fuel.

Snacks were another essential in their backcountry pantry.  While dinner was cooking or snow was melting, Trauma would often snack on chocolate chips, Justin’s Hazelnut Butter, and Justin’s single serving almond butters.  The single serving packets were especially handy because they were easy to ingest and provided quick calories to his tired body.

In addition to making food, getting supplies was often another daunting task.  Trauma and Pepper had to hike miles off the trail to find open grocery stores or to access post offices with re-supply boxes that they had mailed to themselves before they embarked on their journey.  One much appreciated surprise came from a ‘trail angel’ who hiked miles to leave an anonymous supply box at a remote location.  Even though they were often isolated, the support from the PCT trail community was received throughout Trauma and Pepper’s trip.

After an astonishingly fast 132 days Trauma and Pepper reached the US/Mexico boarder to complete the first successful winter thru hike of the PCT.  As they signed the book at the end they were greeted by friends, family, and a champagne celebration to end their historic journey.

Check out the Adventure Dining Guide episode to learn more about Trauma’s PCT cooking challenges.

Cream cheese in the backcountry??? Absolutely!!!  Richard Orth from BAKpocket Products is a college student who knows what it takes to enjoy luxury camping on a college budget.  In this episode he makes his restaurant inspired Pesto Tortellini and shares a few tips on saving money in the backcountry. 

What do you do when you want to go camping or backpacking and there is a fire ban in effect? On this episode you will learn how to prepare “Fire Ban Tacos”, a no-cook alternative to camping without a fire.

Learn how to make an Australian camp bread called “Damper” from free ski legend Keri Herman.

Adventure Dining Guide heads into the Colorado backcountry with Summit County natives Jake Black and Tanner Banks.  Tanner explains how to start a healthy fire in the snow using an avalanche shovel, while Jake cooks up his Venison Hobo Hot Pockets.  This fun episode has some great pointers to help you get cooking during the winter.

To watch the full episode and learn the secrets to Jake and Tanner’s successful meal check out www.adventurediningguide.com.

Adventure Dining Guide is a culinary web series that takes you out of the kitchen and into the great outdoors.  This show was created to give backcountry dining the recognition it deserves, and inspire others to make their next adventure more gourmet.  Join host Michelle Shea as she hits the trial with athletes, chefs and outdoor enthusiasts to learn how to eat civilized, miles from civilization.