Whether you are headed out for a day hike or planning a week-long journey through the wilderness, you must plan the trip properly. To plan any hike, you must first determine your route. This involves researching the area, checking trail maps, looking at aerial photos, talking to conservation agents, reading topographical maps, and possibly even scouting the area yourself. In order to plan the trip accurately, you also need to know the hiking pace of your and your group. Prior to your trip, you should complete some day hikes as a group on flat ground and on steep slopes to determine an average rate of travel.
Once you have plotted your course on the map, you should note mile markers along the trail. I also like to mark landmarks along the way and intersections with other trails. Finally, I plan out potential campsites along the way so we have good options for each evening of rest. This means finding flat areas that will not flood, but that are still close to a clean source of water.
Now that you have all of this planning done, you need to figure out your supplies for the trip. You should first determine what gear each person should bring to cover all of your needs but keep your pack weights to a bare minimum. This can be tough to determine, so be sure to load up your packs with the right amount of weight and do a test run to be sure you can handle it.
You next need to plan out your food and water needs. You should determine out a specific number of calories for each person, and a certain amount of water for each person. You can often purify water that you find along the way, but you should plan on bringing most if not all of your food. If you stop to do much hunting, fishing, trapping, or foraging you will likely not meet your distance targets for each day. You have to keep the pace that you planned.
In addition to planning the number of calories to pack, you must also consider the types of food to bring. You will need to get to the maximum amount of energy and nutrition out of the smallest amount of weight and volume possible. You also need foods that require no refrigeration and can be cooked quickly and easily. This means lots of dried and preserved foods.
When you are planning for a day trip that will last a few hours, this may just mean packing a few snacks. My family often will bring apples and granola bars with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch. However, I recently completed a long-distance challenge on which I had to pack food to last me on a four-day, 45-mile hike through the Ozark Mountains. I brought oatmeal, peanut butter, cooked bacon, and pre-cooked pancakes for my breakfasts. There were plenty of meal replacement bars for lunch and for snacks. Then I had rice and jerky to cook up for dinner with fruit cups for dessert. I was glad I had all of this nutritional variety with me considering how exhausted I was each day. In this article, we will cover how to pack food for easy hikes and long distance journeys alike.
Points of Focus
Whenever you pack food for a hike, you should have certain specific priorities. The most important by far is the weight and volume of the food you are packing. Each person will have a maximum on the weight and volume of the pack they can carry over a long distance. When you add up the maximum figures for all hikers and then subtract out other gear, you will have a remaining amount of weight and volume to carry for the group. If you want to simplify the process you can trust each person to pack for themselves. The downside to this is that the slowest member of your group will set the pace for everyone. If one person miscalculates, it affects everyone.
To keep the weight and volume low, you should focus on dry foods like granola, oatmeal, nuts, and jerky. You can bring wet foods packed in light packaging like MREs or fruit cups, but they will weigh more than dry goods. This is also going to be the case for fresh meats, cheeses, veggies, or fruits. The worst option is canned goods, so leave those in your food storage at home.
Your second priority is getting as much nutrition as you can out of these foods. While you probably count calories or fats in normal life to maintain your weight, this process is the opposite. You want to load up on calories and fats along with bunches of protein, vitamins, and minerals. It is easy to pack bunches of just a few items, but you do want some variety in your diet. You may be snacking on dry jerky or nuts all day, but at some point you will want something hot to eat or maybe something sweet. It will be more enjoyable, easier on your stomach, and will provide more nutrients in the end.
Your final priority should be convenience and efficiency. Ideal foods for hikes are foods that do not need to be cooked. Anything you can eat right out of the package is perfect, so I like dried snacks, fruit cups, and sometimes MREs. You want to avoid building a fire whenever possible. Your second best options are foods that must be cooked but just need water added. This could be pancake mix, pasta, rice, or oatmeal. I prefer to have a hot breakfast and dinner, but lunch and snacks are typically not cooked. For cooked foods, I just need to pack a metal bowl or cup and cook over the fire. You will not want to make any gourmet meals after 10 plus miles of hiking each day. Also, be cautious with spices or acidic foods. When I am hiking all day, my stomach gets upset easier. You do not want to deal with nausea or diarrhea on a hike.
Short Hikes and Day Hikes
When you hike for just a few hours or for a single day, packing food is easier. If you wanted to, you could probably complete the entire hike without bringing any food. However, it is much more enjoyable if you keep your energy up. You also will be sleeping in your own bed that night, so you can push a little harder and carry more weight if you want. You can also spend more time and effort cooking a real meal if you want to. You should still plan considering size and weight, and you should still focus on foods high in calories and fats. Don’t get lazy and pack a bunch of sugary foods that will make you crash.
In most cases, we have a big breakfast at home before we head out on shorter hikes or day hikes. It is just easier than packing extra food and cooking in the wild. If you can be home in time for dinner, then you can just pack snacks and sandwiches for lunch. You do not need any cooking or fire-building gear this way. Often, this is the route we take. We do sit down for a real lunch, but it is all cold finger foods. This allows us to carry much less weight and to cover ground faster.
Since you are just out for the day, you can feel free to bring fresh foods like cheese, cured meat, vegetables, or fruits. These foods can go in a little soft shell cooler or you can just pack them in a zipper bag. If they are chilled before you head out, they will stay cold in your pack for a few hours. Then you can sit down and build a charcuterie board for everyone. I also take the typical dry snacks like jerky, nuts, granola, and energy bars.
Long-Distance Hikes
Unlike on short trips and day hikes, you must be more selective on the food items that you bring on multi-day hikes. You can still bring some fresh foods, but you will need to leave the cooler at home. You cannot take the extra weight. If you are going to bring some apples, cheese, or summer sausage you should just bring enough to eat in the first couple of days. These foods will get beaten up in your pack if they stay in there for too long.
Again, you want to focus on dry goods that can either be eaten as is or just by cooking with water. Foods that will have the calories and fats you need are oatmeal, rice, soup mixes, dried meat, pancake mix, powdered eggs, pasta, and dried fish. When you can just add water and cook dinner over a fire, it reduces the weight of the food while still giving you a hot and nutritious meal.
Do be sure to bring some items for variety as we discussed before. You will probably have lots of dry snacks to munch on all day. These are convenient, but your jaw will be ready for some softer foods. I like fruits for a little boost in natural sugars. In addition, I try to bring some fats, salt, and oils into my diet. This could be butter, oil, salt packets, animal fat, or even foods like peanut butter. I add peanut butter to my pancakes in the morning for a fattier meal. As a last resort, you should always have meal replacement bars or pills. These are not tasty, but they provide the nutrients needed to survive if you are completely out of other foods.
A good hiking menu is all about planning. If you properly plan your trip, everyone should have plenty of energy. You should also have very little food left over in your packs at the end of your trip. I remember a longer hike a few years back when I came home with almost half of the food I packed. This was a huge red flag that I packed too much food. Since then I have adjusted my planning strategy.
Planning your meals is not just about efficiency. You also want to enjoy your meals or you may not enjoy your hike. Try this planning process for a few shorter hikes to get the hang of it. Then make the needed changes when you go on longer trips. If you can, add flavor to your foods whenever possible. For example, I like to add dried vegetables to rice and pasta or dried fruits to oatmeal. These flavor bombs along with herbs and spices are added at home before I pack my foods. If you are careful about planning and packing your meals, your hike will be fun and your meals will be fulfilling.