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You Gotta Eat!
Food planning for any trip – backpacking or RV camping – is fun for me. It’s a part of the planning process I really enjoy, trying to find new recipes or combinations of foods to try. Sometimes its new methods of cooking. Now I don’t try to get crazy on the trail and try that new thing there….it’s tested before my boots hit the dirt! But at the end of a long day, who wants a crappy meal? There’s also a happy balance between taste and nutritional needs. You expend significantly more calories carrying a heavy pack over varying terrain so you want to make sure you account for that.
Considerations for Food Types
There are so many options for food on the trail, and you have to find what works for you and your specific needs and trip type.
- Do I want to cook my meals? Breakfast, lunch AND dinner, or just some?
- Do I want to buy ‘just add water’ meals?
- Do I want to dehydrate my own foods?
- Do I want to buy off the shelf components and assemble?
- What dietary restrictions do I have?
- What water will I have available?
- Do I need to fit all of this in a bear canister?
You get the idea….it’s not difficult, but it’s not simple either. You have to plan at least a little bit! Sure it’d be easy to grab a bunch of Mountain House meals that you add 2-4 cups of biling water too….but if you have a dry camp one night, is that the best option?
Meal Planning Considerations
I’m a bit of a Foodie, so I like fresh, flavorful meals. I also love to cook and try new things (except mushrooms. For some reason I just don’t like them at all….I keep trying!!), and try new combinations of flavors.
I also have a dehydrator, an Excalibur 9-tray that I picked up years ago after I outgrew my Nesco one. I’ll save the topic of dehydrators for another blog entry. I really like the Excalibur and can turn out some pretty great meals, or meal components. When you dehydrate your own you know what you’re getting….quality meats, seasoned to your specific tastes.
During the off-season I will often play with recipes, trying them out on the kitchen stove, then eventually using my cook set in the kitchen, and finally trail testing them on a day hike before they make the final cut. I have a Google Sheets spreadsheet where I track my trials and tribulations.
I use the spreadsheet to track different meal ideas for breakfasts, lunches, dinners, desserts and snacks. Many of the entries are just thought starters and never make it on the trail, while others are tried and true favorites that go every time until I get sick of them. Ultimately I should know the weight of each meal, the calories, and the required water to complete it (warm or cold). If I’m needing to get super detailed I’ll track the fuel needs also – how long does it take to boil the required water at the elevation and\or temperature I’ll be at? I’ve not had the need to get that detailed, but I certainly can by weighing the fuel canister before\after testing a meal, and adjusting loosely for elevation or temperature.
My Meal Plan Approach
Once I had my permit in hand for my March 2021 hike it was time to start the food planning. I knew there would be new meals to try and different approaches to food based on my current tastes and desires. And since this was likely going to be a solo trip I had to carry it all, no shared gear or sharing of meals.
I like oatmeal but only if I combine my own ingredients to what I like: oatmeal, milk powder, brown sugar, flax seed, protein powder, dried fruits and sometimes nuts. I package the base ingredients in a single ziploc freezer bag, then have a bag of dried fruits, nuts, etc. that I will throw in based on my cravings for the day. And while I can eat it most days, I cannot eat it every day. So I supplement that with another favorite: cheesy bacon cous cous. Soooo goood.
My personal preference for lunch has turned into more snacks than actual meals. I found I’d pack lunches then never eat them, or eat a couple. Extra weight I didn’t need.
What I decided to take for ‘eat while I’m hiking’ snacks this trip was Snickers bars, trail mix and beef jerky. The Snickers turned out to be an awesome treat! I really enjoyed them and glad I packed one per day.
It’s always tough to decide weeks, if not months, ahead of time what you’ll be craving, so I tried to provide myself with lots of variety: beef, chicken, cheesy, pasta and every combination of those things. When I plan the menu I make sure to compare it to the available water for that night’s camp. I tend to lean towards ultra-conservative water use at a dry camp rather than carry a ton of water. So other than those nights the meals are whatever I’m in the mood for when I stop.
My Grand Canyon 2021 Meal Plan
You can see in the above spreadsheet what I planned for my meals. As I write an entry for each day on the trail I’ll list what I ate and my thoughts on it at the time.
My overall plan was to eat hot breakfasts, mostly oatmeal because I do enjoy it, it keeps me full and provides me with much needed energy. I also took Cheesy Bacon Cous Cous for 2 breakfasts for variety, but admittedly its heavy so I almost skipped it.
Lunches were all intended to be no cook. When I’m hiking I don’t really want to stop, boil water and make a meal. It just takes too much time and when I’m on the move I don’t tend to have that type of appetite. I have tried cold soaking a pasta salad in the past and that worked ok, but didn’t knock my dusty hiking socks off.
Dinners were a variety of things – beef, chicken, pasta, rice or lentils based meals. I wanted to make sure I had options for whatever I was in the mood for that night.
On previous hikes with my kids I had taken desserts and found I really enjoyed them! Sometimes you just need a little something sweet. Pudding was a favorite – instant pudding with milk powder, just add cold water. I carried down little sponge cakes and dehydrated strawberries once….soo good. Pudding was all that made this trip.
Lastly was snacks, stuff I could eat while I was walking or on a brief break without unpacking my entire pack or busting out a stove. This was homemade beef jerky, trail mix of my own concoction, and shelf stable salami and cheese packs.
Food Storage in the Grand Canyon
Whenever you backpack and carry food you need some kind of food storage. I own both tbe BearVault BV500 and a Ursack Minor bag, and of course a variety of dry sacks of various sizes I can use and hang if needed.
For the Grand Cayon there are two main pests – mice and ravens. Both tend to be at the more popular, heavily visited areas moreso than the less popular remote areas. There are pros and cons to each type of food bag, understanding your campsites and options help. Will there be food poles for hanging a food bag? Food lockers? Trees?
I knew I would have to contend with both mice and ravens, there would not be food poles, and there would only be trees in some places. I ultimately took the Ursack and was super happy with that decision. The BearVault is just too big and bulky, so complete overkill for this trip. The Ursack Minor weighs in at 4.5 ounces where the Bear Vault BV500 comes in at 39.05! Huge difference when you don’t need actual bear protection. Note: the Ursack Minor is a “critter bag” and not bear proof. It’s about half the weight of the bear proof versions, so for me, it was worth the investment to meet my needs.
The picture on the left is my total food stash for the trip, the picture on the right is a few days in. I’ll provide a daily trip entry with my thoughts on the daily foods, and a wrap-up with my final thoughts. My total food weight including the Ursack was 210 ounces, or just over 13 pounds. That averages out to a little under 2 pounds per day, possibly a little high as I was aiming for 1.5 pounds/day. I had about 4 pounds leftover, was not able to find the actual weight I was sure I took.
The Ursack was a great choice for this trip, it held everything I needed it to, was easy to pack and got smaller every day. I only had a single run-in with a mouse that I’m aware of, they just kept nawing on it but made no progress.
You’ll be able to see more about my meal choices, recipes and my review on the daily trip posts.
