Fuel for the Gruel

One of the best things about being on trail is being able to eat whatever you want. There’s no limit. Chocolate for breakfast, double dinners, midnight snacks, candy for lunch - anything goes. A question I get asked a lot is 'What do you eat on trail? Do you carry your food?‘. Yes, I do carry my food and I need a lot of it. What I look for when going to a store is nutrition which is light but at the same time rich in calories. 2000 KJ per 100 grams is a good caloric density to shoot for, but it’s just as important to get food you crave, even if it doesn’t seem ‘smart‘ because it might be too heavy.

Here's an example of what I eat on a normal day on trail:

Breakfast
- Muesli with powdered milk
- Instant coffee
- One muffin with Hazelnut Chocolate spread.

Snack
- Nuts, nuts and more nuts
- Dried apricots

Lunch
- One muffin topped with salami and/or cheese. Most people would go for tortilla wraps because they’re less bulky, but I just can’t bear them anymore. I also can't eat any more cereal bars. So over them.
- A third of a chocolate bar
- A couple of dates  
- An apple, if I'm fresh out of town

Snack
- More nuts
- Cookies & crackers & chips

Dinner
- Instant pasta side with broccoli. I usually add some dried peas or salami or cheese to the mix to make things more exciting.
- More chocolate
- More cookies
- A cup of tea
- Hazelnut spread

Pasta side with a bit of fresh spring onion and egg. Looks pretty damn delicious to me!

Obviously straight out of town.

Beef with freeze-dried vegetables and rice.

Breakfast <3

One of my favourites. Pasta with broccoli.

Ramenbomb with salami. Best lunch.

This looks terrible but it was pretty amazing. Thought I did a good job.

The Bag

My food bag usually weighs around two to three kilos depending on how long I am going to be in the woods for. I carry it at the bottom of my pack right next to my sleeping bag, because it’s the heaviest thing I have with me. Therefore, I want to have it as close to my back as possible for good weight distribution. I have my snacks in my belt pockets for easy access during the day, and I usually carry chips or cookies in the mesh. Those never last long though. I shove everything into an 8 liter dry bag but depending on where you hike that may vary quite a bit. In bear country you'd obviously use an ursack or a bear vault where as in NZ none of that is necessary.

Storage

At night, I put all my snacks back into the bag, close it and then put it into my backpack next to my feet. If I'm at a hut I'll hang it somewhere so mice and other critters can't reach it, which is easier said then done because they've got some Tom-Cruise-Mission-Impossible tricks up their sleeves to get into any pack.

Repackage

A trick to reduce the volume and the weight of your food is to take everything out of its original packaging and repacked it into smaller zip lock bags. It may be a frowned upon move but if you grab the zip lock bags from the bulk section at the supermarket they're free. But you didn’t hear that from me. They take up less space than normal packaging and they're reusable and make great trashbags. This way you won't end up carrying bulky trash around for days. Not environment-friendly, but great if you want to keep your pack light.

Before.

After.

Yes yes the cucumber. I know. It was a left over from the night before so I brought it and ate it the same day.

Here’s an example of what I pack for a four-day trip.

2x Instant Pasta Sides
1x Cous Cous
1x Freeze-dried beef & vegetable & rice meal
1x Ramen
4x Muesli pre packaged in zip lock bags
Powdered milk
2x Apples
1x Big chocolate bar
4x Instant coffee sachets
3x Tea bags
1x Cheese
1x Salami
1x Tub of Hazelnut chocolate spread
6x Muffins
1x Freeze dried peas to spice things up
Nuts
Dried apricots
Cookies
Candy
-
1x Back-Up Ramen for emergencies

Cold soaking

I cold soaked most of the time while on the PCT and half of the time on TA to save weight, but honestly… it’s not great. You get over cold cous-cous after a while and having a hot meal or tea at the end of a crazy day is just worth the weight in my oppinion. Just get a pocket rocket and the smallest gas canister and you’re set. A Jet-Boil is awesome but bulkier than a pocket rocket, but the latter uses less fuel which is nice. Each to their own.

If you do end up cold soaking, cous-cous is the way to go. Pasta works too but it takes a while. I would not try any rice dishes because soaking those would take all day and if you carry that, you might as well carry a gas canister. You know what I mean jelly bean?

Gourmet-Tip

If you head out on a long trip, always carry a pack of dried mash potato flakes with you to add more calories to meals. Adding mashers to ramen for example, is a true trail classic and called 'Ramen Bomb'. Delicioussssssssss. Or just add nutella to everything. That’s also a way to do things. One cracker, one nutella. Perfect ratio.