Backpacking Power Meals

Two days into a backpacking trip that would take Matt, Bonnie, and I over three mountain passes, across 43 miles of Sierra Nevada wilderness, and to a high point of 11,400’ I reached a physical and psychological equilibrium.  Daily climbs up long series of switchbacks taxed my heart, lungs, quads, and calves and the subsequent descents into valleys strained my core and punished my feet.  Yet, overall, my energy level was high.  My meal planning was paying off.

Bonnie climbs a set of calorie-zapping switchbacks
to reach our campsite at Columbine Lake
in Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park.

Over the past several weeks, I had planned out meals and snacks for this trip and, more than for any previous backpacking adventure, I had tried to take a strategic approach, thinking primarily in terms of packing in enough calories to power six days of high level hiking.  The trip we were on started at 7,500’ at the end of the Mineral King Road in California’s Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park.  Although the trails were well maintained, therefore not as taxing as backpacking in the untrodden backcountry where we often find ourselves, the hiking did require non-stop calorie-zapping exertion from the moment we jostled our packs on and took the morning’s first step to when we’d set up camp.  I estimated that I burned between 4,000 and 5,500 calories per day, hiking between 5 and 8 ½ hours.  I planned to consume 2,500 to 3,000 calories each day to try to keep up with the energy demand.  This number of daily calories was far in excess of what Matt and I normally consume on shorter trips (typically we eat 1500 calories daily, less than I take in on a day of computer work).

Calorie count was my priority, but I also considered several other factors.  I tried to include food that would stimulate my appetite, since a high level of exertion combined with hot weather tends to suppress my appetite.  For example, I tried to incorporate a variety of tastes and textures – difficult to do with foods that will pack well and last for six days.  Additionally, I paid attention to weight and volume.  We wanted to get by with carrying one large bear canister for three people and that would be a stretch, even though we took advantage of on-trail food lockers at our first two campsites.  Finally, I looked for creative twists to enliven our menu – Matt and I have backpacked together since 1996 and have rarely changed up our backcountry menu.  I wanted to try something new on this outing.

Following is the menu I followed.  At the end, I’ve included reviews and notes.  Please keep in mind the calorie counts and expenditures in this article are based on package information, commonly available on-line tools, and My Fitness Pal app.

Day 1

5.25 hours backpacking

Breakfast (at trailhead): 635 Calories

2 mini bagels, Tom’s 100% whole wheat

2 Tbls Adam’s crunchy peanut butter

½ banana

20 Blue Diamond Smokehouse almonds

Lunch:  710 Calories

Triple decker peanut butter & jelly

(3 slices Dave’s Killer Bread thin sliced whole wheat, 4 Tbls Adam’s crunchy peanut butter, 2 Tbls strawberry preserves)

Trail Snacks: 536 Calories

1 Clif Bar

1 packet of GU energy gel

2Tbls homemade trail mix (nuts and dried fruit)

16 oz. of prepared Gatorade

Dinner: 773 Calories

Backpacker’s Pantry Charros Bean & Rice (two 8.3 oz. packages split 3 ways)

1 oz. white cheddar cheese

1 100% whole wheat tortilla

Dessert: 381 Calories

Snickers candy bar (small)

½ apple

Maxwell House instant coffee, French vanilla flavor

Matt brews custom combinations of French vanilla instant
 coffee, hot chocolate, and Starbucks Italian Roast
instant coffee (individual packets) for after dinner treat.

Day 2

7.75 hours backpacking

Breakfast:  500 Calories

1 cup granola, Firehouse Bakery (Anchorage, AK)

¼ cup powdered milk

Lunch:  710 Calories

Triple decker PBJ (same composition as Day 1)

Trail Snacks:  573 Calories

1 Clif Bar

1 packet GU energy gel

32 oz. prepared Gatorade

Dinner:  551 Calories

Backpacker’s Pantry Lasagna (2 packages split 3 ways)

½ apple

Dessert:  420 Calories

Snickers candy bar (large)

Maxwell House instant coffee, French vanilla flavor

Day 3

8.25 hours backpacking

Breakfast:  500 Calories

1 cup granola, Firehouse Bakery (Anchorage, AK)

¼ cup powdered milk

Lunch:  566 Calories

1.75 oz. smoked salmon

Outdoor Herbivore waldorf salad

Orchard Bar, cherry almond crunch flavor

Trail Snacks:  605 Calories

1 Clif Bar

1 packet GU energy gel

¼ cup homemade trail mix (nuts and dried fruit)

16 oz. prepared Gatorade

Dinner:  471 Calories

Mountain House Pasta Primavera (2 packages split 3 ways)

15 Blue Diamond Smokehouse almonds

Dessert:  420 Calories

Snickers candy bar (large)

Maxwell House instant coffee, French vanilla flavor

Day 4

8.25 hours backpacking

 

Here, we climb up to Sawtooth Pass on the last day
hiking, powered on by the previous night's
 Indian Vegetable Korma dinner with croutons.

Breakfast:  500 Calories

1 cup Kind Healthy Grains Cinnamon Oat Clusters

¼ cup powdered milk

Lunch:  470 Calories

1/4 cup whole roasted almonds

½ cup dried cranberries, sweetened with apple juice

2 Baby Bell cheese rounds

Trail Snacks:  605 Calories

1 Clif Bar

¼ cup trail mix, homemade (nuts and dried fruit)

1 packet GU energy gel

16 oz. prepared Gatorade

Dinner:  480 Calories

Alpine Aire Mountain Chili (2 packages split 3 ways)

1 100% whole wheat tortilla

Dessert:  350 Calories

Snickers candy bar (large)

Day 5

5 hours backpacking

Breakfast:  280 Calories

2 packets instant oatmeal, prepared, maple flavor

Lunch:  570 Calories

½ cup Granola (Firehouse Bakery)

1 packet (1.15 oz) Justin’s classic almond butter

2 Tbls Nestle’s butterscotch chips

Clean up was quick and easy when we incorporated
dehydrated dinners and cold granola into the menu.

Trail Snacks:  713 Calories

1 Clif Bar

¼ cup trail mix, homemade (nuts and dried fruit)

1 packet GU energy gel

32 oz. prepared Gatorade

Dinner:  580 Calories

Good to Go Indian Vegetable Korma (2 packages split 3 ways)

½ cup store bought croutons

Dessert:  350 Calories

Snickers candy bar (large)

Day 6

5 hours backpacking

Breakfast – No appetite, sick of Clif Bars!

Lunch/Trail Snacks:  603 Calories

1 Probar Base, Cookie Dough (20 grams of protein)

1 packet GU energy gel

32 oz. water bottle Gatorade

Dinner:  Celebratory Dinner in Visalia! 

Comments and Notes

Apples:  Apples are bulky, but it’s worth giving up some of your pack space in order to have something fresh on the trail.  Apples also produce less waste than, say, an orange.  Of all the fruit we’ve tried carrying, apples are the most resilient and long lasting.  Our hiking partner, Bonnie, had an apple in her pack on the fifth day of this trip – it was a little worn, but still tasted fine.

Cheese:  Be careful of taking cheese on the trail – particularly in warm weather.  We had good luck with a chunk of white cheddar that we packed in for dinner on our first night, but don’t expect most cheese to last longer than that.  That said, I took several rounds of Baby Bell white cheese packaged in wax.  These lasted very well for four days, and I’d guess they’d last longer than that.

Clif Bar:  Though I eventually get tired of eating Clif Bars, they are high calorie, come in a wide range of flavors and contain organic ingredients.  I especially like Blueberry Crisp, Banana Nut Bread, Chocolate Brownie, Crunchy Peanut Butter, and Oatmeal Raisin Walnut.

Croutons:  The store bought croutons packed surprisingly well and added welcome crunch to a dehydrated dinner.  They did not get crushed in the bear canister.

Gatorade:  I alternated between preparing Gatorade in my Camelback bladder at night and drinking it on the trail during the first few hours of the morning hike and preparing and consuming it later in the day.  I found it gave me a needed power boost in the afternoon and especially noticed it kicking in if I drank a substantial amount (such as 8 to 16 prepared ounces) along with a GU energy gel before starting up a session of switchbacks.  We used powdered Gatorade.  Although the Sierra Nevada water is lovely and pure, in other parts of the country Gatorade helps mask off-tasting water.

Granola:  A cold granola breakfast is a great alternative to hot oatmeal.  It’s sweet, contains substantial fat and is quick to prepare if you are trying to get an early start on the trail.  I pre-mixed 1 cup of granola with ¼ cup of powdered milk in individual plastic baggies.  In the morning, I placed the baggie in my mug, added water to the baggie, and ate out of the baggie.  This meant no clean up.

GU:  Gu has been my go-to energy gel for years.  The packets are small and I believe they give me a power boost.  They are sticky-messy if you’re not careful!  The flavor and texture reminds me of a cross between pudding and cake frosting.  Although Gu comes in a wide range of odd flavors, I typically stick with vanilla and chocolate.

 

Gu, Gatorade, ProBar, Orchard Bars and other dense,
 high calorie trail food powered me on this
43 mile backpacking trip.

Orchard Bars:  Our traditional backpacking power bar has long been the Clif Bar.  However, on long trips I lose my appetite for them eventually and get to the point where I can’t stomach the idea of another one.  On this trip, I tried the Orchard Bar, which contains fewer calories, but offers a very different (welcome) flavor and texture.  Orchard Bars are gooey, super sweet, and fruity-tart.  I find them in the produce section of Safeway.

ProBar:  I ate one of Matt’s ProBars on the last day of the trip and enjoyed it.  It’s high calorie compared to other power bars and was sweet and crunchy (I had the Cookie Dough flavor) – similar to a rice crispy treat.  It also has a high protein content compared to other bars.

Smoked Salmon: The SeaBear smoked salmon I took turned out to be messy (oily).  I’d highly recommend the flavor of smoked salmon for the trail (salty, delicious), but I’d go with a jerky instead.  Perhaps try Trader Joe’s wild salmon jerky.

Tortillas:  100% whole wheat tortillas were a great addition to our menu.  Tortillas are relatively high calorie for the amount of space and weight they take up.  They form beautifully to the outer wall of the bear canisters and last surprisingly well in warm conditions.  They are a nice fresh addition to a dehydrated chili or curry dinner.  They’d be great for breakfast as well with nut butter.

 

We enjoyed chatting, reading, and planning our
next day's route around a campfire while waiting up to
 40 minutes for our dinners to reconstitute at
 high elevations.

Dehydrated Dinners:  I decided on this trip to go all-in and rely on dehydrated dinners.  The last time Matt and I tried dehydrated food was ten years ago and the taste and consistency was so horrible we swore we’d never eat them again.  However, when I started shopping for this trip, I discovered a new range of vendors had popped up selling gourmet, vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, and otherwise fancy-schmancy dehydrated backpacker food.  Among them are Alpine Aire, Outdoor Herbivore, Backcountry Pantry, and Good to Go.  The old standard, Mountain House, is also still around.  The flavor and variety has vastly improved and I’d recommend these.  The benefit of the dehydrated food is primarily that it’s pre-made, so it’s easy to prepare, and doesn’t require as much fuel as other options.  You just bring water to boil, pour it into the bag, seal it, wait, and eat.  The down side to these meals is that they are bulky to carry and the used empty package is also bulky.  Note that at high elevations (such as the elevations at which we hiked this entire trip) requires doubling the soak time of all the meals.  We waited between 20 and 40 minutes for the dinners to reconstitute – that’s long enough to cool off.  We emptied the reconstituted dinners into our cook pot and reheated for just a few minutes before serving.

I’d highly recommend bringing along ingredients to supplement the dinners.  For example, try cheese, tortillas and croutons.

One last note, make sure to stir up and crunch up (with your fingers if necessary) the dry food before adding water.  Then, make sure to mix well with the water or you’ll end up with pockets of dry unhydrated foods in the corners and on the bottom.  Take a long handled spoon to mix – the packages are deeper than the typical camp spoon.

Backpacker’s Pantry:  The food was very good and we liked the flavors and consistency of both the Charros Beans & Rice and the Vegetable Lasagna.  However, the company needs to work on the package seals – they were hard to get closed.

Good to Go:  The Indian Korma we tried was my favorite meal of the trip.  The seasonings were fantastic and strong and the beans tasted and looked almost “real”.

Mountain House:  The dinner we tried was fine, but was the least favorite of the dinners for all of us.  The flavor was adequate, but the dinner was less filling and the quantities didn’t seem as substantial as the others.

Alpine Aire:  We liked the Mountain Chili, but it took a long time to reconstitute (40 minutes at high elevation).  Nonetheless, I’d recommend this dinner.

Outdoor Herbivore:  While the Waldorf Salad wasn’t my favorite of the dehydrated foods we sampled, I’d definitely eat it again.  It was a nice treat to have something to mix and eat for lunch on the trail.  Depending on the source of your water, the salad comes out almost cold.  It would also be good for breakfast or as a side dish for dinner.  Outdoor Herbivore makes a couple of other salads that I’ll eventually try.  Follow the instructions carefully and measure the amount of water.  I guessed at the amount and the sauce came out a little watery.  As a side note, we tried a couple of other dinners (Lickety-Split Lentils) for car camping later on the same vacation and they were also good.