Trail Food

[yoshi187]

Four of us will be doing the Eagle Creek to Wahtum Lake Loop this weekend and it has been a while since I've gone on an overnight hike. What do you like to eat for dinner on the trail? How are the freeze dried meals; are they worth it? Any suggestions would be great. Also, based on some previous posts we'll be doing the loop backwards. We will start on Friday and end on Monday coming down the last 7 1/2 miles on the eagle creek trail (slow I know, but leisure for some out-of-shape 30somethings). Are there any side trails we should take?

[joerunner]

I exist on pb&j and cliff bars while on the trail. This way I don't have to worry about eating and cooking utensils or ways to heat up the food.

It sounds like your talking about doing more of an "out and back" rather then a loop. As an alternative Wahtum lake lends itself to a great loop trip using the pct to Ruckle creek trail back to Eagle creek. As a side trip make sure to go up to Chindere Mt. Its a short hike and very much worth it. Snow will probably be an issue up there.

[jeffstatt]

(Is Wahtum melted out yet? Last couple reports we got were from a few weeks back and there was still plenty of snow up there . I'd also expect lots of blow downs and overgrowth on the stretch between 7 1/2 camp and Wahtum Lake - but there are others with more up-to-date info than I have)

To answer your question I always end up grabbing Mt House at the last minute from Winco because I run out of time with other preparations. I always get Chili Mac and Beef - they're pretty good. "worth it"? hmmm they are pricey - but I keep buying it so they must not be too bad.

I'm very interested to try some of the fun stuff people are doing with dehydrators.

Other stuff I bring: a bunch of Propel in those little individual powder packs, oatmeal, bagels, a ziplock with chunky peanut butter. Sometimes raw almonds. Usually some Jerky. My luxury items are Milky Way with Almonds. I freeze them the night before I head out so they aren't too mushy and melted by the time I need them. M&M's are a yummy dessert too.

[drm]

The food thing is very much for individual references.

I always eat freeze-dried for dinner, but some people hate it. I really like a hot meal at the end of the day. Trail mix, energy bars, fruit, etc, are for mid-day meals for me.

[Paul]

for dinner, I eat the 16oz Mountain House Chili mac, beef Stroganoff, and Pasta Primavera meals.

I also make a few freezer bag meals: Thai peanut Ramen, cream of spinach couscous, cheezy rice, and chicken and cranberry rice.

For lunch it's always a packet of tuna and a packet of horshradish on a tortilla.

Make sure you bring a good desert, you earned it. I like to bring Hostess Zingers and Snickers. When I have a few people I like to bring an instant cheesecake.

[Spoonie_B]

If you have the time to prepare it, I highly recommend freezer bag cooking. Sarbar is a poster here and her book and website (http://www.freezerbagcooking.com/) are terrific. I started using this method a couple years ago and will never go back. I like a hot meal at the end of the day too, and sometimes for lunch and breakfast as well. I find home-packed meals to be tastier and cheaper than the freeze-dried stuff. I also bring tortillas, tuna packets, condiment packets, peanut butter, Clif bars including their Mojo and Nectar bars, and trail mix in varying quantites depending on the trip.

[Aimless]

I heartily second spoonie's recommendation of Sarbar's book, but since you say you haven't been overnight in a long time, and I presume you aren't planning on taking a lot of overnights in the near future, then Sarbar's approach might seem a bit more of a committment than you were intending.

If that turns out to be the case, then you can either buy some freeze-dried meals (btw, don't ever believe the serving sizes on them) or else go the supermarket and buy some Lipton Side Dishes (about 5.5 oz , packaged in an envelope) and add a small can of chicken or a pouch of tuna, or some jerky, or whatnot, and have an edible meal for less than half the cost of freeze-dried.

Good luck!

[yoshi187]

Thank you all for the suggestions on food; we may try some freeze dried food at least one night. I actually was looking at some of the youtube videos on the freezerbag chef (Sara was her name I believe) which is what made me search here for other suggestions. I am the cook at home-not my wife; I enjoy making gourmet meals while camping, but the equipment arsenal will be much different.

We are going to do the loop and not the out and back. I have been keeping a close eye on the reports coming in the last few weeks and have been somewhat optimistic that enough snow will be melted by the weekend for us to complete it. We do have a GPS and have already plugged in several coordinates along the trail. If we don't make it; oh well, we'll have some Jack Daniels and a couple fishing poles. I'll post a report and some pictures when we get back.

Thanks again all!

[sarbar]

Without shamelessly plugging myself (oh who am I kidding!) have you watched our other cooking videos? http://www.youtube.com/user/trailcooking Those are our one pot recipes - more is coming.

But anyhoo - you can rarely go wrong with lots of snacks. Often we have a simple breakfast (if hot outside it is cold food) then take about 5-6 snacks to eat till dinner. If it is an easy day I will stop and have a full lunch, otherwise my food tends to be high in potassium to ward off cramps with lots of variety of carbs, fruit, etc. (I can't eat most bars now due to having braces on) It never hurts to carry a tiny bit extra of junk food for when one just doesn't want to go on. It helps bad moods. Not that I know anything about that.......

For dinner we each get a meal we picked - my son eats more than me now. And dessert? Well yeah! I don't hike to suffer Depending on the trip it might be steamed cake, chocolate bars or pudding pies - cheesecake is the best as well!

[Grannyhiker]

Instant puddings make great desserts (add appropriate amount of dried milk and put in plastic bag before leaving home; then add appropriate amount of water, mix thoroughly, shake the bag for a several minutes and then let it stand for 20 minutes).

However, if you take both chocolate pudding mix and cocoa on the same trip, it's a good idea to label the bags prominently on both sides of the bag with a thick felt tip pen. I found this out on a just-concluded trip with the grandkids, when our breakfast cocoa the second day was awfully hard to mix and ended up being quite thick.... Fortunately, we had enough "SomeMore" ingredients left over to use for dessert the last night of the trip! Everyone also got 2 cups of cocoa for the last breakfast. I do not, however, recommend instant chocolate pudding as a beverage!