Backpacking Food

Benefits of Dehydration Dehydrating your own backpacking meals is a great way to add variety to your backpacking menu, save money, and eat a healthy diet. But those benefits aside, I’ve found that dehydrated food help with backpack volume reduction, weight reduction, …

I just finished bagging all of the food I need for an upcoming trek through the 100 mile wilderness on the Maine section of the Appalachian Trail. All together, I packed 9 days worth of food in the 2 OPSACKs you see …

Dehydrating your food is an incredible way to add variety to your backpacking menu and improve the quality and quantity of food that you can bring along on strenuous hikes. Here’s a sample 9 day menu for the 100 mile Wilderness which …

Here’s a sample 3 day backpacking menu for a 44 mile section hike on the Vermont Appalachian Trail. When planning the contents of my food bag for such trips, there are two primary variables that I juggle: caloric density and variety. Caloric density …

One of the things that Sarah Kirkconnell, author of Freezer Bag Cooking, has taught me, is not to deprive yourself on the trail. In your quest to lighten your food bag, don't make the mistake I made, which is to package up …

Textured Vegetable Protein, known as TVP, is an excellent meat substitute that appears in many backpacking recipes because it is extremely lightweight and easy to prepare. It's also a great addition to homemade freezer bag meals because of it's nutritional value and …

Now that Autumn is upon us, the days are shorter, and there is less daylight for hiking. This is the time of year that I stop backpacking solo and try to make more elaborate dinners with friends to pass the hours between …

The food on my last 3-day section hike was so boring I thought I’d gag on the last day of my trip. I was lazy and brought along the same food for several days. So this week, I’ve worked out 4-day freezer …

A lot of backpackers really like having coffee in the morning. In fact, I have friends who are so fanatical about it that they roast there own coffee at home and bring coffee presses to make it on the trail. I like …

I'm traveling this week and just got back from a fantastic dinner at Carmines, and excellent Italian restaurant on Rush Street in Chicago. Incredible food. I had an appetizer tonight that I have been planning to bring on my next section hike …

I’ve become hooked on Probars. Those of you who read my post Powerbar Bakeoff will be amused because I now like them more than Amish powerbars. It was an accident, I swear! In order to do a fair evaluation of Probars, I …

Backpacking food can be really expensive if you buy commercially packaged meals and snacks. Most freeze-dried meals cost $5-8 dollars and powerbars can cost as much as $3.50 each. Your best alternative is to prepare your own meals and snacks or to …