backpacking meals & calories...

[brock77]

what do u bring for backpacking meals.... breaky,lunch and dinner per day, how many calories

[solo]

We have a few favorite meals that dehydrate well. Shepherd's pie and chili spaghetti. We just make a batch and put it in the dehydrator for a day. Then into a ziplock bag, and into the freezer. Recently we bought a Vaccuum sealer. For portion sizes I usually make one and a half times what I usually eat. We also take bannock to fill any hollow spots.

[rattling_junkie]

I am going on my first pack hunt on Sep. 1. This is what we are bringing.

Breakfast: Oatmeal with raisins and chocolate chips.
Lunch/Snack: snack mix and a Pro-Bar
Supper: Mountain House (2 person pack)

[hunter1993ap]

i just live off the land:razz:

[yota]

I am going on my first pack hunt on Sep. 1. This is what we are bringing.

Breakfast: Oatmeal with raisins and chocolate chips.
Lunch/Snack: snack mix and a Pro-Bar
Supper: Mountain House (2 person pack)

X2 this is pretty much the same as what I bring on my pack hunts quakers cinimmon apple oatmeal packs are awesome and mountian house does very good IMO for dinners its just the lunch/snack portion i wish i had some suggestions for instead of power bars or small bag of trail mix. i seem to long for dinner time to come sooner then later everyday I'm hiking.

[bosca]

Breakfast: Starbucks instant coffee (espresso, dark roast Columbian), Quaker Harvest apple cinnamon oatmeal packets with m&m trail mix mixed in.
Lunch: Pepperoni/jerky, assiago/parmigiano, pita bread and maybe a cup of wine load weight permitting.
Snack: chocolate chip cliff bar or trail mix or chocolate of some sort.
Dinner: Montain House beef stroganof, Chile or lasagnia or whatever the hunt might provide...Ie., little deer meat roasted over open fire...I CAN,T WAIT!!!:redface:

[Grousedaddy]

Hemp seed hearts google that and after reading about them i bet you bring a bag along on your trip!! Best hunting snack imho good luck on your hunt aswell !

[Rubberfist]

Year by year I've been refining what we bring on our backpack hunts, focusing on four objectives: minimizing weight, maximizing calories, ensuring adequate nutrition (i.e. properly balancing protein, fat, carbohydrates and fiber), and making sure everything tastes good...when you start wondering how that ground squirrel might taste, it's time to pack different food...

On this year's Stone sheep backpack archery hunt, this is exactly what we packed for each day:

1 x Starbucks instant coffee
2 x Myoplex or Lebrada high protein meal replacement shake mix
3 x Gu Energy gels (1 peanut butter, 1 espresso love, and 1 roctane blend of any flavour)
2 x Gu and/or Stinger energy chews
1 x chocolate bar (Mars, Snickers, Eat More, Cadbury Fruit & Nut and/or Wundabar hold up well - you want a bar that won't crumble and that is edible if it gets melty or smooshed)
1 x high carbohydrate bar (such as a Cliff or LaraBar)
1 x high protein bar (many brands to choose from such as Powerbar, Stinger or Cliff)
1 x Sunrype Fruit Plus Veggie or Fruit & Fiber bar
1 x 80 to 100g package of beef Jerky
1/2 cup of trail mix (typically a 50/50 fruit and nut blend with chocolate M&M's added)
1 x Stinger Waffle (these things weigh only 30 grams, have 160 calories, are wafer thin and taste great, especially with Gu peanut butter gel on them)
2 x Nuun or Stinger electrolyte tablets
1 x Mountain House double portion meal for dinner

http://i628.photobucket.com/albums/uu8/rubberfist007/todagin2012/todfood.jpg

Each daily ration provides over 3,100 calories, weighs around 1.5 pounds, at a cost of about $35.

This diet offers a healthy balance of protein/fat/carbohydrate/fibre, offers you several sources of caffeine for a boost (if you want it), has electrolyte balancers (slows down dehydration), provides histidine (reduces lactic acid build-up), amino acid complexes (which reduces the breakdown of your own muscles during very long periods of exertion), administers calories in chunks of about 100 per portion (warrants a long discussion but basically the body can only absorb about 300 or less calories per hour, the rest will sit in your stomach), digests very easily, and everything tastes good, especially the waffles.

As an aside, my main hunting partner is a meat and potatoes guy. If there is something he doesn't like in his ration, he'll be offering it to you every day ("You want some of these here wasabi rice cracker things you packed us?") and will go hungry rather than put it down. This year, he at everything, including the "jizzy" energy gels.

In terms of what we ate and when, breakfast typically consisted of the Starbucks, a meal replacement shake and one of the bars (whichever one was most appealing at the time).

With respect to the rest of the day, we snacked at regular intervals; even if it was just a piece of jerky, or a couple energy chews, or a handful of trail mix, the key was to maintain a steady stream of 100 to 300 calories per hour with plenty of water.

Before a big ascent or a stalk, we always ate something to give us energy (i.e. a gel) along with some protein (jerky or a bar, or part thereof).

Dinner was comprised of the Mountain House.

Each day's ration is organized in a separate ziploc bag (except the Mountain House which are left at camp), as opposed to having everything lumped together. Every morning, we grabbed a new daily ration and put it in our packs - this reduced likelihood of f*cking up and not bringing enough food, or the wrong food, or no food. Any food left over from the previous day(s) goes into a cache bag which can be used as one sees fit (i.e. to supplement a given day, or to build up for an additional hunt day if that is required).

Obviously this isn't gospel (there are many alternates to the items listed).

[longstonec]

No red river cereal?

[yukon john]

I'm a slow typer, so I will just link it
http://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/showthread.php?69151-Surviving-Mountain-House&highlight=surviving+house

[ryanb]

Breakfast: granola packed into a ziplock bag with powdered milk, just add water. I can't stomach oatmeal. Starbucks instant coffee.

Lunch: no lunch, just all day snacks. Consists of 2 granola bars. 1 fruit bar. 2-3 pepperoni sticks. Jerky. Milk chocolate.

Dinner is mountain house.
Dessert: freeze dried ice cream bar every second day + a swig of scotch from flask.

It's pretty well impossible to not be in a calorie deficit when mountain hunting. You just have to try to balance your food for decent energy and nutrition. A little padding around the waist helps I suppose.

[anglo-saxon]

what do u bring for backpacking meals.... breaky,lunch and dinner per day, how many calories

Do a search. There's more information on old threads on this topic than you could shake a stick at!

One thing I do know is that the older I get, the less inclined I am to put highly processed foods into me that someone else has made in a factory and filled with all manner of unpronounceable chemicals. So, wherever possible, I now try to take "whole food" as much as possible. For a steady flow of energy you need complex carbs. For me, a baked potato is about the best thing these is. It's portable, keeps fresh in tin foil, can be eaten cold, and it's all-natural. Nothing like a little salt on a baked tater to give you a boost. You do need protein in order to re-build cells, plus it gives you that "satisfied" feeling after a meal. I do plan to start making my own jerky and that will be on the menu, too. For fats, there'll be some in the jerky, but I also like to take a block of hard cheese. It keeps well and has lots of protein and fat. Nuts and dehydrated fruit are good. Whole onions are an awesome way to pack fresh food. I take small ones that I can eat in one go as bacteria will tend to build up on a sliced one. As long as they are good and hard before you pack them, they will stay fresh for days and are a great addition to the menu, plus LOTS of vitamin C. Garlic, too for that matter. Nothing like an evening fry-up with some garlic and onions to end the day. I avoid too much processed sugar as it causes dehydration (same reason I avoid the drink chrystals).

I avoid Starbucks like the plague. Firstly because IMO the entire premise is gay (you should never need a degree in Latin to order a damned coffee!), and secondly because they refused to support our troops overseas, so f%^& 'em!

[cuervosail]

Some great advice here. I don't recognize a lot of those brand names. Where did you source them?

[yukon john]

"they refused to support our troops overseas, so f%^& 'em"
Not actually true http://www.snopes.com/politics/military/starbucks.asp And the instant coffee ''via'' is awesome on the mtn.

[Tarp Man]

Pm rubberfist he can set you up in a flash

[anglo-saxon]

You gotta love Google. I did say "our" troops. Last I looked we are Canadian, not American. Starbucks were conspicuous by their absence in Afghanistan. The Yanks had Grean Beans and we had Tims. Not a Starbucks in sight. There's no real love of the military in that comapany, just tepid lip service, comparably.

In addition, they have apparently declared support for same-sex marriage (via their FaceBook page Jan 25th)...shocker!! and they are anti-gun rights. Wow, who'd have guessed that one??!!

[hunter1993ap]

i tend to pack natural foods as well, i like the idea of potatoes and onions even tho they are a little on the heavy side.

[Blockcaver]

For lunch I took "Finn Crisp" rye crisp (Canadian Superstore), some Asiago cheese (COSTCO) and tuna/salmon packed in foil pouches (US purchase). Love it with a little high quality trail mix for desert. Two weeks on the mountain and I am ready to eat more it right now.

[vip_ruger]

This years caribou hunt and maybe a few other critters :) this is one days food
Breakfast : oatmeal apple cinnamon packet with a handfull of dried fruit mixed in
All day snacks(lunch): Jerky,one handfull of trailmix,fruitbar,cliffbar,a couple sour keys chewy candy, Engery vitamins to mix in water
Supper:Mountain house pro pack
Tea at supper followed shot out of the mickey

[Krico]

Anglo-Saxon you must really hate processed food. I can't imagine packing baked potatoes, onions, garlic and blocks of cheese on a backpack hunt. More so than the weight I just have no interest in preparing or cooking food after a long day of hunting/hiking/climbing. I barely feel like boiling water for Mountain House sometimes.

Another big thumbs up for the Starbucks Via. Earlier this month we enjoyed iced mokas made with snow and cold water, it was a nice treat in 30 degree weather.

[buck nash]

I've been trying to find gluten free freeze dried meals since my son is alergic. It really limits your options. Throw in the fact that he doesn't like anything spicy and the list of options gets smaller still. So this summer we experimented with building our own instant freeze dried meals for some of our 2-3 day kayaking trips.

Most of our recipes used instant potatoes, minute rice or noodles for the carbs. From there we added all sorts of other stuff which was easy to get in bulk like dried onions, parsley, peppers, freeze dried chicken, freeze dried veg, fake(soy)ground beef, dried shrimp etc. and whatever seasonings and/or powdered sauces we felt like trying. Freeze dried peas and corn was the only thing from mountain house.

It took a bit of shopping around to find the ingredients and a bit of thought to put it together but we both enjoyed our meals (well most of them anyways) and paid a fraction of what we'd have paid for mountain house or alpine aire etc.

We also made our own home made jerky as well as home made energy bars using dried fruit, nuts, and seeds with home made caramel as a binder. Again this costs much less and yeilds a much better product plus gives us total control of the ingredients.

This started from the desire to avoid alergic reations (a cranky five year old with the $hits and hives does not make a very enjoyable companion in the woods) but we found we feel well fed and more satisfied when we eat stuff we like. Some of the meals require a bit more prep time and fuel but the daily rations weigh about the same as store bought stuff.

[swampthing]

I am probably fatter than most backpackers so I eat pretty good.
Breakfast: poptart with 2 nescafe instant coffee.
Coffeebreak : cliff bar, cheese stick, trailmix.
Lunch : tortilla shell with small can tuna or ham, trailmix, cheesestick
Coffeebreak : fruitbar, finish up the trailmix, dried fruit, jerky.
Supper : mountain house, coffee

I pack each days food in a large ziplock back. I also carry energy gels and energy jujubes. A couple crystal light individual packets go into each days food as well. I never go hungry.

[Bistchen]

SCHMALZ !!!

No kidding, this stuff gives you energy, packs light and keeps you warm if its cold out. You can get it for free from most butcher shops. I spread it on a granola bar or other baked good stuff. A little bit is all you need.

I'm quite surprised that most of you guys are really eating light. I don't know about you but when i'm backpacking, glassing all day, on my feet and in outdoor temperatures I get hungry. Your body burns A LOT of calories. I find that if I don't eat enough im sluggish, tired and super hungry the next day, and my performance at finding game gets quite poor.

A typical day in the Alpine:

Breakfast : 3 packs Quaker oatmeal with a bit of Almond Butter and crasians/raisans mixed in. Starbucks VIA coffee.
Snack: Granola Bar with Schmalz
Lunch: Tuna fish with a wrap and trail mix
Snack: Clif Bar with some dried fruit
Dinner : Mountain House or Backpackers pantry. (something with a higher fat but lower sodium content)
Dessert: Tea and some chocolate

[CLoverdale]

I've always packed lots of jerky. I make it at home and it's cheap.
Use Inside Round Roast and put it in the freezer until it starts to firm up. Cut it in thin strips along the grain. Soak in Soya, Worchestrshire, (hot sauce if preferred) brown sugar and salt. Be careful with the salt, it's easy to over salt the meat because of the salt in the soya. Referigerate for 24 hours.
Put one oven rack at the top and the other at the bottom, cover the bottom one in foil. Use a toothpick to hang each strip of meat from the top rack. (Try not to let them touch). This way you can get a whole roast worth in the oven in one go. Set the oven to 175 degrees. Leave the door open a bit and in five hours or so it's done. if you don't leave the door partly open it will cook rather than dry. No processed food and no additives.
We always buy Cliff Bars for snacks. Costco has them for cheap and they are a decent wholesome snack.
Aalso want to throw in a vote for the Nunn electrolyte tablets. They give a great boost, the're light and no added sugar.

[Rob]

Breakfast: some harvest crunch with dried blue berries and powdered milk, just add a little water
rest of day: 1/4 cup trail mix, deer jerky, cliff bar,some other small snack
Supper: ichi ban broken up in a zip lok bag (no seasoning) 1/2 pouch cream of veg. Knorr soup mix, some p-nuts, add hot water a let sit for a couple mins.