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Home Forums Trails John Muir Trail Menu?

Viewing 12 posts - 1 through 12 (of 12 total)
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  • #14719
    Ryan Lawrence
    Participant

    Hey! Anyone have a menu or know of a good resource for what to bring on a long hike? The longest I have done is 8 days and by the end of it, I was sick of eating the same things. I am hoping to backpacking the JMT with my wife the summer of 2016 and will more or less be following the guide on here… I know it’s a long ways away, but am excited! Any help is greatly appreciated!

    Best,
    Ryan

    #14726
    Chuck Gerner
    Participant

    Ryan, I have devised a few backpacking menus before, but I have a few questions before I can advise.

    1, how many days do you want in your menu before it starts repeating? 3, 5, the entire trip?
    2, how much time and energy are you willing to put into the food? Grocery store only, or are you willing to go into assembling pre-dehydrated/powdered ingredients, or are you thinking to 100% DIY it and rack up some miles on a home dehydrator? Because all are options.
    3, what are some of your favorite foods, or styles of cuisine? What spices or textures or sauces appeal to your palate?

    Always glad to help a fellow who loves a hot meal at the end of a long day’s hike!

    #14736
    Ryan Lawrence
    Participant

    Hi Chuck!

    Thank you for your help! I would like to go 5-7 days before my menu starts repeating. I figure then I would only be eating the same thing 3-4 times on the trip.

    As for time and energy, I’m willing to put in a moderate amount. I am absolutely willing to go into powered/dehydrated food to save on weight. And I have a home dehydrator, so am MORE than willing to make up some meals on that. So, I guess I would like a mix of dehydrated foods and some more “grocery store” foods.

    I am not a picky eater at all – in fact, I love just about everything. My wife always complains that we don’t get enough veggies in on the trail, so it would be nice to be able to include more of those. Some of my favorite foods include pizza, eggs, pastas, anything Mexican, any type of potato.

    Thanks again for your help!

    -Ryan

    #14778
    Chuck Gerner
    Participant

    Ryan,

    I put together an epic post that covered every aspect of food on the trail. I then proceeded to lose it all when I clicked ‘submit’, was sent to a page stating that I was not logged in, and lost everything. So I will sum up!

    You should dehydrate two dinners, and use pre-dehydrated ingredients for four – or three, if you might want to have a cold dinner on a rough day and don’t feel like cooking. Breakfast should be 3-4 days cooking in the cycle and 2-3 days granola, cereal or ready-to-eat items.

    You’ll need a dehydrated veg ‘sampler’ – I got Harmony House’s and it has 30 varieties of TVP, beans and vegetables. Protip: dehydrated leeks still crunch when reconstituted.

    I also recommend powdered butter, milk (Peak whole milk is actually quite good), and cheese as mandatory ingredients to increase flavor and calorie density. Also the powdered milk makes cereal/granola with milk on the trail totally viable! Combine with powdered egg etc. and you’ve got homebrew dry pancake mix or ready-to-go omelettes.

    You’ll need off the shelf grocery store starch bases: instant rice, oats, mash, and couscous. You should also get a dehydrated pasta, macaroni or equivalent. Fast prep and you can swap bases to add variety – turn Beef Paprikash with Macaroni into Beef Paprikash with Rice.

    Dehydrated eggs should be cooked in a pan, or boiled in a bag, or else it tastes like a lot of slightly cooked yolk. Add some mashed potato flakes to really firm up and be cooked if bag cooking.

    Here are some of my recipes:

    Kelly’s Mac&Cheese v1.1(1000)
    3/4c macaroni 600cal
    2T powder milk 80cal
    6T cheese powder 210
    1T butter powder 100cal
    Garlic&onion powder&black pepper
    12oz water
    Soak mac 10. Boil for 3, pour all into bag. Stir powder and insulate for 10.

    Taco Mac and cheese(650kcal)
    1/3c taco bits 145cal
    1/4c mix peppers toms onion
    1tsp jalapeño
    3/4c macaroni
    5T cheddar powder
    1.5tb milk powder
    13oz water
    Powders in Sep bag.
    Add all but powder n wait 15 then boil for 3 then pour into bag. Stir in powder and insulate for 10.

    Beefy Tomato Couscous(1100)0p9
    1c quick couscous 600cal
    (Get the kind w parm packet!)
    1/4c tomato bits 100cal
    1/4c beef chunk TVP 160cal
    2T dried onion 40cal
    1T dried parsley 5cal
    2T tomato powder 60cal
    1.5t bullion40cal (CRUSH FIRST!!)
    .5t cumin
    .5t garlic
    1T butter powder 100cal
    20oz water
    Boil water and add. Stir and insulate for 10. Fluff, salt to taste.

    Cave Oats(960cal)(weight?)0p7
    1c Quick Oats 300cal
    1/4c nuts 150cal
    1/4c dried fruit 150cal
    1/4c dried coconut 150cal
    1/3c milk powder 210cal
    15oz water
    Eat hot or cold. (Better hot. )

    Colcannon Mashers (810cal)(0p6)
    3/4c instant mash 180cal
    4T butter powder 400cal
    3T bacon bits 120cal
    2T dehyd shred cabbage 30cal
    1T dehyd shallots 15cal
    1T dehyd leeks 15cal
    1t dry parsley 5cal
    Pinch GND blk pepper
    Double pinch garlic
    14oz water
    Boil water add to mix. Stir well & insulate for 10. Fluff and eat.

    Frontier Pudding
    1 pkg instant pudding
    6T milk powder
    14oz water
    Add all to double-seal freezer bag and stir, don’t just shake – break the clumps! Wait 10-15. Say something inane like, ‘Frontier Pudding’s on, yall!!’

    Trail Scramble 780 0p6
    1/4c insta mash 60
    8T Powdered egg 320
    1/3c Ham TVP 145
    2T Onion 40
    2T Bell pepper 40
    2T diced potato 40
    1T leek 20
    2T Cheese powder 70
    Dash milk powder 10
    7-8oz water
    If cooking in a pan, keep vegetables seperate and add 5oz of water and allow to soak for 10. Then add it all together in the pan for the cooking along with the last 1-2oz of water.

    (This is a Scottish dish of savory, garlicky, bacony oats!)
    Skirlie (865)
    1c quick oats 300
    2T onion 40
    1T each grnpepper carrot 40
    4T butter powder 400
    1T bacony bits 40
    1T milk powder 40
    2t garlic powder 5
    18oz water

    Beefish Paprikash w. Rice(1125)0p12
    1/2c Beefy chunks 300
    3/4c Instant rice 255
    2T butter powder 200
    1T Paprika 5
    8T Sour cream powder 320
    1T dehyd onion 20
    1t garlic powder 5
    1 bullion cube beef 25
    15oz water

    Anything With Milk
    1.5c cereal or granola
    3T milk powder
    8oz cold water

    Bacon Egg & Cheese Grits 400
    2 packets Quaker inst ched grits 200
    2T balcony bits 80
    1T cheddar powder 40
    2T egg powder 80
    9oz water

    #14779
    Chuck Gerner
    Participant

    Also, plan for meals that have a lot of strong flavor – onion, garlic, chili pepper, paprika – it’ll appeal more clearly and the flavors won’t get lost in the mix.

    And don’t have any bar or gorp-combo or meat-stick etc. repeat itself more than once within each cycle. If there’s something you love – I’m a fan of the Epic buffalo bacon cranberry – feel free to double or triple up on it. Having 24-30 different kinds of lunch item may seem like a lot, but if you get four types of bar from each of three makers you can easily make up twelve discrete items from nuts, fruits, jerky and the like.

    #14782
    Ryan Lawrence
    Participant

    Hey Chuck,

    Awww, sorry to hear about the lost post!! That stinks.

    This is so helpful for me! Not even just for a long trip, but some really great recipe ideas for shorter or even weekend trips. I think that is a great idea to mix up the meals by switching out some of the ingredients for others as well.

    Those recipes all look easy to put together they sound delicious. I am a big fan of a warm meal after hiking all day, but agree that a few cold meals are good to sprinkle in on those days that you just want to set up camp, eat and not worry about anything else (aka, clean up).

    I am thinking that I also might sprinkle in a few already packaged dehydrated meals. Some of them are decent tasting – it’s just the incredible amount of sodium (and sometimes questionable ingredients) that make me only want a few of them… maybe one per cycle or one per two cycles…

    I really appreciate you including the amount of water to include. I always struggle with that and it’s usually an experiment for myself on how much – first time, too much water, second time not enough, third just about right 🙂

    Are those recipes single servings or for two? My wife and I will be traveling together.

    Also, any cold lunch ideas? My go-to is always something in a tortilla – usually with tuna and cheese, or a meat and cheese, or peanut butter and craisins.

    Thanks again for your input! I’m considering a 40ish mile backpacking trip in Zion this September, so I will have to test these out before the JMT.

    Best,
    Ryan

    #14803
    Chuck Gerner
    Participant

    I often do the same thing with the commercial dehydrated meals, have one or two every few days. The salt I agree 100%, but the texture can often be too thick, verging on gloopy – carageenan, guar gum, that kind of stuff. You’ve really gotta play with the water, as you say.

    And even though I do like the commercial pre-packaged meals, they do… things to one’s digestive system sometimes.

    BTW the water numbers are evolved over time to my tastes; I tend to like thicker sauces so maybe go up an ounce, caveat emptor. The plus side of that is you can always add that ounce later (it may be wasteful to get a stove going to boil a mere ounce of water, but you’re worth it!) and it’ll add a boost of warmth as well as moisture. I guess err on the side of not enough water with dehydrated stuff as a rule of thumb. Until of course you get it juuuust right.

    As far as servings go, most of the recipes are at about 1000 calories, which for me is enough (with maybe a sweet bar for dessert) for my own dinner. Any of the dinner meals can be split between two people, however, if you don’t want to just have a single course as the whole meal.

    With respect to lunch ideas, I don’t think you need any – tortillas with a variety of fillings is a great way to go! Tortillas and even pita are great and loaded with ready carbs as well as being mixable with cheese, peanut butter, summer sauage, tuna etc. All I would recommend are not only the packets of tuna but there are now packets of tuna salad and chicken salad.

    #14814
    Ryan Lawrence
    Participant

    Hi again, Chuck!

    Thank you for all this very useful information! I think that sounds like a great plan. I’m with you, I like my meals to be a little bit thicker – much better than too watery. That’s good to know that most of the meals are around 1,000 calories. I think I’ll go ahead and split them for my wife and I, and then add in some snacks that we can have if we are still hungry afterwards. Peanut butter MMs are great to wash down dinner with! 🙂

    Lunch plans sound good too – there is a ton you can do and I was surprised how well cheese can hold up…and how that can really make some lunches so much better!

    I’m not very picky when it comes to breakfast, too – usually some oatmeal with some added dry fruit, granola bars, and coffee are my standards. You can get a variety of flavors like you mentioned to keep things interested. Bars are great for those mornings when you just want to hit the trail, but a warm meal and coffee when you have some more time is the best on a chilly morning.

    Thanks again for your input – much appreciated!

    -Ryan

    #14815
    Chuck Gerner
    Participant

    Glad to help. And oh, oh, oh! Last but not least: PB2 peanut butter powder and dried bananas with your oatmeal. That is all.

    #14816
    Ryan Lawrence
    Participant

    YUM! Dried bananas are the best – and so easy to dehydrate. Brilliant adding them to oatmeal with PB2!!!

    #15332
    Pete Butler
    Participant

    Hello. Do you think the dry (dehydrated) ingredients could be pre- measured, mixed and re sealed together in a vacuum seal-a-meal? Same with powders…butter, milk, cheese, spices?
    I have the Harmony House dehydrated vegetable sampler…want to come up with some decent tasting combos, then re seal 2 portion meals in the sea-a-meal-

    #15913
    Chuck Gerner
    Participant

    Pete, what you are describing is exactly what I did for my JMT section hike! See the above meals list – which I created using the Harmony House Backpacker’s Sampler; it adds some meat-ish dehydrates to their dehydrated veg sampler.

    You could also just carry all the ingredients bagged individually, but at the end of the day I just wanted to boil some water, add it to the bag, and eat my hot delicious mush.

    The only ingredient I found useful NOT mixing in and instead keeping in its own bag was whole milk powder. If I mixed the milk first, it behaved more like actual milk – when I pre-added milk powder to pudding mix all I got was thick chocolate milk; when I mixed the milk first and added it, I ended up with a semi-thick set.

    Other tips:

    1. Bullion cubes are great but crush them before adding to the bag!
    2. Quart freezer bags + dry ingredients + boiling water + time = near-zero cleanup.
    2. Make yourself a pot cozy out of dual-sided, foil-lined thin plastic insulation. That way your bag of tasty will be able to sit and soak for longer before cooling.
    4. Dehydrated leeks crunch when rehydrated! I cannot stress this enough!!
    5. Leave yourself open to the possibility that your tastes may change on the trail. I found myself still wanting a big rich fat-and-protein enhanced dinner and breakfast, but during the day I became repulsed by all of my nutrition bars – I just wanted to micro-snack, eat like one peanut every minute, forever. An entire nutrition bar, I found, slowed me down with the digestion process, creating troughs and peaks of energy which didn’t help me at all! Allow yourself to be open to flexibility.

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