You know, I tried making some of my own meals but the extra weight just wasn't worth it to me. I made the mistake of doing that for a four day trip in Yellowstone and my pack was so heavy I almost tipped over several times fording streams. Bear canisters are quite small too, so size matters.
To be honest, you are so hungry after hiking 10 miles with a 50 pound pack, it could be cat food and it would taste delicious - although there are some freeze dried meals that are better than others (stick to simple ones that don't have too many ingredients - Nick likes the pasta style ones and I like spicy ones so I can taste some flavor - just discovered the sweet and sour pork and enjoyed it). Consider clean up - cheesy ones are hard to clean and you need to limit food waste if bears are around, even dish water. Also, you'd be surprised how expensive making your own meals can get!
That being said, I would like to try again, especially since I need to get a food dehydrator for the apricots in the back yard.
For lunches we do tortillas and peanut butter - good calories and lightweight/compact for packing (Nick ran into two grad students in Yosemite out collecting data for three months - they were subsisting almost entirely on tortillas and peanut butter). Snacks are beef jerky, swedish fish (don't do chocolate - it melts), and trail mix (if you can get fruit mixes with dried strawberry? Mmmmmmm). I also bring gels when I need extra energy/caffeine (although I always bring coffee - Starbucks Via packets are great for that).
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2014-06-10 05:19 pm (UTC)To be honest, you are so hungry after hiking 10 miles with a 50 pound pack, it could be cat food and it would taste delicious - although there are some freeze dried meals that are better than others (stick to simple ones that don't have too many ingredients - Nick likes the pasta style ones and I like spicy ones so I can taste some flavor - just discovered the sweet and sour pork and enjoyed it). Consider clean up - cheesy ones are hard to clean and you need to limit food waste if bears are around, even dish water. Also, you'd be surprised how expensive making your own meals can get!
That being said, I would like to try again, especially since I need to get a food dehydrator for the apricots in the back yard.
For lunches we do tortillas and peanut butter - good calories and lightweight/compact for packing (Nick ran into two grad students in Yosemite out collecting data for three months - they were subsisting almost entirely on tortillas and peanut butter). Snacks are beef jerky, swedish fish (don't do chocolate - it melts), and trail mix (if you can get fruit mixes with dried strawberry? Mmmmmmm). I also bring gels when I need extra energy/caffeine (although I always bring coffee - Starbucks Via packets are great for that).