Just before I left on my last trip, one of my readers, WildBBQBill, asked me to post a sample food list that can be eaten without bringing along a stove.

I’ve listed the meal plan for my last trip. This plan was designed to cover 2 full days and 2 half days, but can be easily chopped down for a weekend trip or extended for a longer period of time.

On average, I was eating about 3000 calories per day and my food bag weight came in under 6 pounds at the start of the trip. Breakfast on my first day was supplied by the people I stayed with the night before my trip and I got off the trail in the early afternoon, so no afternoon snack or dinner was required. I did have 2 extra probars, a snickers bar, 4 pieces of whole wheat bread and about 20 hard candies left over in my food bag at trip’s end.

Here’s what I ate on this trip. A more detailed explanation of each item is provided below.

1. Logan Bread is a very high calorie quick bread that you bake at home. I made a batch before my last trip using this recipe. It is very filling and provides you with a great alternative to cliff bars or power bars while providing more energy without a huge sugar kick. My last batch included dried cherries, cranberries and chopped walnuts but the variations you can make are endless. A 3 inch square contains about 500 calories.
2. FB Oatmeal stands for freezer bag oatmeal. I fill each bag with 3 packs of low sugar maple flavored Instant Oatmeal and add about 1 cup of raisins to it. This will rehydrate in about 5 minutes with cold water and is quite tasty. I usually add a pinch of salt to make sure that I’m keeping ahead of my electrolytes since I drink a lot of water when hiking. A serving contains about 600 calories.
3. Gu is a commercially available electrolyte gel that is an alternative to Gatorade. I was experimenting with it on this last trip since I had some muscle cramps on a very hot day during my previous section hike and thought I might have an electrolyte deficiency because I was sweating so much. I like the gel based formulation because it does not require the use of an extra bottle, but I have since concluded that all of the commercially available electrolyte replacement drinks and powders out there have as much electrolyte content as a single serving of wheat thins and are a rip-off. My cramps are also not electrolyte induced but due to muscular overuse.
4. 1/2 Gouda, Bread is a small 1/2 wheel of Gouda cheese and 3 slices of whole wheat bread. Gouda cheese is wrapped in wax and has a low level of water in it so it will last for several days on the trail. A meal like this packs about 800 calories and will help you recover after a long day of hiking. I bag every 3 pieces of bread in their own sandwich bag. This is probably overkill but it helps me ration what I eat.
5. PROBARs are delicious, high calorie, 100% organic fruit and nut bars that have about 350 calories per serving. They are quite tastey and more calorically dense than other commercial powerbar variants.
6. Snickers. Self-explanatory. These are not the ones with extra caffeine. They are still one of the best values in backpacking food and very easy to resupply.
7. 2 Chorizo. These are two, 3 inch spanish sausages that are loaded with nitrites, salt, and red pepper. They come shrink-wrapped, require no refrigeration and have a shelf-life of about a year. I eat these with 3 slices of whole wheat bread and altogether this meal delivers about 750 calories.

The advantage of section hiking over thru-hiking is that you are not bound by the limitations of resupply stops and you can bring a greater variety of food. However, the items I’ve listed above can be easily resupplied or substituted on longer hikes. Logan bread can be substituted with a lot of cliff bars (2 per serving) or a high calorie quick bread like pound cake, banana bread, and so forth, although these will crumble quickly and should be eaten early. Chorizo can be easily substituted with any salami, which will keep a day or so after you open it. The same goes with the Gouda. You can substitute it with any cheese that is completely enclosed in wax.

One final note. Backpacking without a stove should only be practiced in hot weather, when it is so warm outside that you can be completely drenched and not get cold. I do not recommend it across all seasons. Your stove and fuel are an essential element of your safety net in colder weather and should be part of your gear list.

Related posts:

1. 3 Day Backpacking Menu
2. Long Distance Backpacking Meals
3. Winter Backpacking Food
4. Advanced Freezer Bag Cooking for Non-Foodies
5. Boil-in-the-bag Backpacking Food