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Tag:

food

Scott Jurek and his two young children prepare a soba noodle dish on a picnic table at an outdoor pavilion.
Gaia GPSHow-To

8 Easy Car Camping Meals

by Abby Levene July 24, 2020
written by Abby Levene

The best part about car camping is you can bring almost anything with you. You can sleep in luxury on a memory foam mattress, rinse off with a portable shower, and bring as many games with you as you like. Perhaps most importantly, you don’t have to sacrifice culinary quality to chow under the stars. Bring a heavy cast iron dutch oven to bake lasagna, a cooler to keep your drinks icy cold, and even a grill to make kebabs. Car camping meals have almost no limit. To spark your creativity, eight outdoor enthusiasts shared their favorite easy car camping recipes.

Scott & Jenny Jurek: Japanese Noodles

A close up shows a bowl of soba noodles topped with steamed spinach, mushrooms, and tofu, and diced cherry tomatoes.

Scott and Jenny Jurek may be best known for setting the thru-hike record on the Appalachian Trail. But they accomplished an arguably more impressive feat last year when they bike packed around Japan for a month with their children, ages three and one at the time. Carrying all of their gear, the Jureks covered 600 miles and camped in a new location each night. “The kids had a blast,” Jenny says. “They didn’t want to leave!”

This family-friendly noodle recipe helped power them through their journey.

Recipe (feeds two to four)

  • 4 bundles of dry Japanese buckwheat noodles (360g)
  • 1 14oz package of extra firm organic tofu, cubed
  • 8 medium sized mushrooms
  • 1 cup cherry tomatoes, quartered
  • 3 cups fresh spinach, washed and stemmed
  • 3 tablespoons sesame oil
  • Soy sauce, drizzle to taste
  • Furikake (seaweed seasoned mix you can find at Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, any natural grocery store), sprinkle to taste

Instructions

  • Wash and cut the mushrooms into 1/4-inch slices.
  • In a large pot, add mushrooms and noodles to 3 quarts of boiling water, cook about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  • Add spinach to the pot for the final minute.
  • Drain well. Gently stir in sesame oil, being careful not to break the noodles.
  • Add tofu and tomatoes, drizzle soy sauce to your liking, and garnish with furikake.
  • If you like a little spice, sprinkle with any type of powdered chili. In Japan, the Jureks used Ichimi Togarashi. Enjoy!

You can find more recipes from Scott in his New York Times best seller Eat and Run.

Kelly Newlon: Roasted Sweet Potato with Chorizo and Greens

A close up shows a bowl of roasted sweet potatoes, sausage, and kale.

Kelly Newlon serves as the head chef and mastermind behind Real Athlete Diets, a performance-oriented catering service for athletes. A graduate of The Culinary Institute of America/Hyde Park, Newlon started working in professional kitchens at age 15. Newlon and her husband Morgan live just outside of Boulder, Colorado, where they spend much of their free time recreating and camping in the Rocky Mountains.

“We really love this one as far as camping and car camping are concerned,” Newlon says. “It is so easy to bake a sweet potato at home, bring it along and put the rest together when ready after a long day out in the woods. Three ingredients, SUPER easy, and really tasty. Any leftovers can always be rolled into a burrito for breakfast the next morning.”

Thanks to the seasoning and fat from the chorizo, no extra oil or spices are needed for the entire recipe.

Recipe (feeds two)

  • 1 lb. ground chorizo or (favorite vegan alternative + 1 tbs. olive oil)
  • 1 large sweet potato (keep that skin on!)
  • 2 cups chopped raw kale

Instructions

  • Before you leave home, preheat oven to 375°F.
  • Roast sweet potato, skin on, until very soft and fork tender. (60 to 75 minutes.)
  • Store sweet potato in sealed container, bag, or wrapping.
  • Cook chorizo in a large sauté pan over camp stove until done. When chorizo is done, turn off the heat. Add the sweet potato and gently break up with a wooden spoon or spatula. Once the sweet potato has been combined, add all of the kale at once and fold together. The heat from the chorizo and sweet potato will gently wilt the kale.

Thomas Woodson: Veggie Wraps

a tortilla wrap filled with avocado, cheese, sliced cucumber, spring mix, halved cherry tomatoes, and dressing sits cut in half on a cutting board.

Outdoor photographer, film maker, and avid outdoorsman Thomas Woodson works a Coleman stove as deftly as he navigates rapids on the Colorado River while holding a RED video camera. Woodson, who has built out, lived in, and sold, three Sprinter vans, has spent much of his adult life cooking in a car.

While he limits his car camping to photoshoots and adventures now, he thoroughly understands the need for delicious, easy to prepare and clean camping meals.

“I like this meal because tortillas are great for no-dish meals,” Woodson says. “Avocados and tomatoes don’t take up much cooler space, and they leave little trash to pack out.”

An open tortilla sits on a cutting board, topped with spring mix, halved cherry tomatoes, and salad dressing. A halved avocado, a cucumber, and some cheese also sit on the table.

Recipe (feeds one)

  • Flour tortilla
  • Avocado
  • Spring Mix
  • Cucumber
  • Cherry tomato
  • Asiago cheese
  • Cesar dressing

Instructions

  • Place ingredients on tortilla.
  • Fold tortilla into a burrito.
  • Grill!

Rick Stowe: Steak Kebobs

Rick Stowe, web editor Outdoor X4 Magazine, brings the same culinary attitude towards cooking outdoors as he does to cooking at home.

“We try to focus on simple dishes made with local meat and vegetables as much as possible,” Stowe says. “With some seasonings, good ingredients, and a nice bed of coals to impart some flavor you almost can’t go wrong.”

This philosophy explains why he loves making Steak Kebobs while on an adventure.

“Probably one of the best in-camp steak dishes we’ve made was on a backpacking trip on the Cumberland Trail,” Stowe says. “We packed in vacuum-sealed steaks, Yukon Gold potatoes, and vegetables and cooked them on a ridge surrounded by huge rock formations. It was such a great meal after hiking up to the summit that day. Freeze-dried options may be lighter, but on one-or-two-night trips it’s tough to beat something like that.”

The best part? The clean up is almost nonexistent.

A vegetable kebab sits on a cutting board, which is resting on top of a cooler. A person sits in the sand next to the cooler, gazing at a boat beached on the shore of a lake.

Recipe (feeds two)

  • two servings of steak
  • two servings of kabob-friendly vegetables. Rick used small peppers, zucchini, squash, onions, and mushrooms make good options.
  • 1 Tbsp course ground salt
  • 1 Tbsp black pepper
  • Olive oil

Instructions

  • Establish a good cooking fire. Rick usually uses his Firebox stove for adventurous grilling. If space allows, he prefers to combine 12 to 18 charcoal briquets with a small wood fire to get a consistently high temperature.
  • While the charcoal warms up, start the food prep: cut the steak into one-inch cubes and feed them onto the kabob sticks. Remember to leave room on the end to maneuver the sticks.
  • Season the steak with the salt. Alternatively, you can add your favorite steak season as well.
  • Once the grilling surface has heated up, place the kabobs over the highest heat. Try not to move them for a minute or two so that nice crust can form and trap the juices inside.
  • While the steak kabobs are cooking, you can prepare the peppers (or the vegetables of your choice) for grilling. For the peppers, cut off the caps and remove the seeds.
  • Thread the pepper slices onto their own kabob sicks. Lightly coat the peppers in olive oil.
  • Cook time for the steak varies, but Rick aims to only turn them once at around 3 minutes.
  • Once the steak is mostly cooked, move them to the side of the cooking surface and place the vegetable kabobs over the highest heat.
  • Depending on the temperature of your fire, the vegetables may only take a few minutes to grill to preference.
  • Once everything is ready, let it rest a moment, and then enjoy!

Nicole “Nik” Snell: Curried Quinoa Recipe

Nicole kneels in a campground next to a camping chair and tent, her car in the background.

Self-defense instructor and international speaker Nicole “Nik” Snell serves as the CEO of Girls Fight Back and a hike leader for Black Girls Trekkin’.

“For car camping, I usually pack and eat the simplest of items,” Snell says. “Since I’m vegan I usually bring my meals with me and reheat them over the fire or pack an ice chest and have something cold.”

Her Curried Quinoa recipe can be made ahead of time for a quick, easy, and nutritious meal away from home. You can also easily whip this dish up over a camp stove.

“The ingredients aren’t precise,” Snell says. “I like to have flexibility with the taste and what I have on hand!”

Recipe (feeds one to two)

  • 1 cup raw quinoa
  • 2 tbsp (maybe more) Vegannaise
  • 2 stalks celery
  • 1/8 cup chopped red onions (or more to taste)
  • 1 can of beans (whatever you like best!)
  • 1-2tsp Cumin
  • 1-2tsp Turmeric
  • 1-2tsp Curry Powder
  • Salt – to taste
  • 1tbsp lemon juice
  • 1/4 cup raisins

Instructions

  • Rinse quinoa then put in a pot with 2 cups water and bring to boil. Once boiling, bring to low heat, cover, and simmer for 12 minutes or until all water is absorbed. Remove from heat and allow to cool completely.
  • Chop celery into small pieces.
  • Chop onions into small pieces.
  • Rinse beans.
  • Mix in Vegannaise, celery, onion, beans, and spices. Mix well and coat thoroughly. If you need more of any ingredient, feel free to add to your own taste!
  • Add in raisins and stir.

Erin Shaw: Tin Foil Packet Dinner

New mom and ultra runner Erin Shaw spends nearly every weekend in the summer car camping with her toddler, Ethan, and husband, Matt. Her car camping meal go-to: tin foil packet dinners.

“The best part about these is that you can really do whatever you want,” Shaw says.

Shaw’s basic template includes potatoes (she likes small red rose or Yukon gold since they don’t require peeling, or sweet potato), onion, and two additional vegetables. She adds a protein, usually chicken or sausage, but you could substitute tofu. And olive oil or butter and fresh or dried herbs.

“Don’t forget the salt and pepper,” Shaw says. “And get creative!”

Recipe (feeds one)

  • Red rose or Yukon gold potatoes
  • Green beans
  • 1/4 yellow onion cut into strips
  • 1 zucchini
  • 1/4 red bell pepper
  • 1 small chicken breast chopped
  • oil
  • salt and pepper
  • garlic powder
  • fresh rosemary
  • red pepper flakes

Instructions

  • Get your fire going. You want all the glowing coals at the bottom of the fire.
  • Toss all the ingredients in olive oil, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, and garlic powder (be liberal with the salt because potatoes need it. Use red pepper flakes to your heat preference and about 1/2 tsp. of garlic powder).
  • Add a sprig of rosemary.
  • Wrap the foil packet by folding in the sides like an envelope. Add a second layer to get a tight leak-proof packet.
  • Arrange the hot coals so there is a layer at the edge of the fire.
  • Place the foil packet on the coals at the edge of the fire. You will want to keep an eye on them and listen. If they aren’t getting hot, you can move them closer, and If they seem to be getting too hot, you can move them further away. Generally, they take about 15-30 min to cook.
  • Pull your packet off the fire. Cut or peel open and enjoy!

Eliza Earle: Egg Tacos

Two tortillas each filled with a friend egg, avocado, salsa, and cheese sit on a plate. A block of cheese and half an avocado sit on a cutting board beside.

Photographer, filmmaker and all-around adventure athlete Eliza Earle reminds us that a proper car camping trip would be remiss without a hearty breakfast dish. Even if you don’t need the prospect of a warm breakfast to lure you from your warm sleeping bag in the morning, breakfast for dinner rarely disappoints.

But a good car camping recipe isn’t just delicious, it’s also easy to make and easy to clean up. Earle’s ingenious egg tacos hit the trifecta.

“These egg tacos are pretty simple,” Earle says. “But it’s the way that they’re made that really makes them a breakfast success. It’s mostly just a fun and easy way to cook everything at the same time, plus cooking the egg and cheese into the tortilla just creates a perfect taco without needing to assemble everything after cooking.”

Recipe (serves two)

  • 2 eggs
  • 2 tortillas
  • Cheese (as much as you like)
  • 1 avocado
  • Salsa
  • Salt and Pepper
  • Butter or oil
  • Whatever else you want to add!

Instructions

  • Heat a skillet with butter or oil and crack eggs as if you’re cooking a fried egg.
  • Place cheese and tortillas on top of the eggs as they fry in the pan (it should look upside down). As the egg fries, the cheese and tortilla cook with it. When ready, flip egg, cheese, and tortilla altogether. Now the egg will cook through the tortilla and the cheese will continue to melt.
  • When finished, transfer to a plate ad add avocado, salsa, salt and pepper.

Andrew Skurka: Beans and Rice

Car camping meals don’t have to be complicated. Mountain guide and adventure athlete Andrew Skurka’s backcountry Beans and Rice proves so easy and delicious that it’s worth bringing to the front country.

“There are memes made about this meal,” trail runner and long-distance backpacker Eli Zabielski says. “It’s stupid good.”

The secret to this humble pantry staple: Fritos. Skurka can’t remember exactly how or when this stroke of crunchy, salty genius hit. But he’s made Frito-filled Rice and Beans on every single one of his 75 guided backpacking trips over the past decade, plus dozens of personal trips.

“I’ve had this meal well over one-hundred times, probably closer to two-hundred,” Skurka says. “And it’s still one of my favorites. I always wish that I’d packed a slightly bigger portion.”

Recipe (feeds one)

  • 2oz instant beans (whole or refried)
  • 2.5oz instant rice
  • 1oz extra sharp cheddar cheese
  • 1oz Fritos
  • .2oz Taco seasoning
  • salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes to taste

Instructions

  • Add at least 12oz of water to stove pot.
  • Pour in beans, rice, taco seasoning, and any other spices at any time.
  • Cook, ideally to a simmer, for about 60 seconds. Stir to avoid boiling over.
  • Cut cheese into dice-sized pieces and add to meal.
  • Add Fritos just before consumption.

Skurka deliberately crafted this recipe to be soupy for easy clean-up. If you have access to running water and want to make a more at-home style version, only add 10 oz of water.

July 24, 2020
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Backcountry cooking with a view
AdventuresGaia GPS

How to Plan a Menu for a Long Distance Backpacking Trip

by Ashli Baldwin February 14, 2018
written by Ashli Baldwin

For many of us, menu planning for a backpacking trip is a last minute consideration. Stop off at a grocery on the way up to the mountains and grab the essentials: mac and cheese, ramen, oatmeal, and, of course, bars, bars, and more bars. But the longer your hike (around the third day of a backpacking trip is usually when it becomes tough to eat another energy bar), the more important it is to vary your diet, both to maintain a high interest in your food and to keep your energy levels up and active. If you’re planning your first long hike, whether it’s for six days or 60, you’ll want to spend some time considering what to eat, how much, and when.

What to Pack

Organizing your food in individual Ziploc baggies is a smart way to pack your food
Organizing your food in individual Ziploc baggies is a smart way to pack your food

Laura Lancaster

Before we get into what to pack, let’s start with how much to pack. Eyeballing it might work fine for an overnighter, but the longer your trip is the easier it is to get wrong. Pack too much food and you’ll end up needlessly hauling around extra weight. Pack too little food and you’ll spend the end of your trip uncomfortably rationing. Counting calories before a backcountry trip can help make the trip itself more enjoyable. But how many calories should you plan for?

Start by considering what your baseline metabolism is. In the frontcountry, I eat an average of 2000 calories a day. For a low-key backpacking trip (averaging 8 miles or less a day) I’ll typically pack 2500 calories per day. For higher-mileage days, I’ll bump up the calories to 3,000 a day. Other variables, such as hiking in snow or backpacking at elevation will also result in a calorie-bump increase. If you’re planning a trip for a month or longer, plan to add more calories after the first couple of weeks, regardless of any change in mileage. This will help account for the loss of fat stores in your body.

Breakfast

Oatmeal: The breakfast of backpacker champions
Oatmeal: The breakfast of backpacker champions

Laura Lancaster

Don’t let your backcountry breakfast be an afterthought. If you’re hiking long miles, you’ll typically be up by dawn, packing up your gear, ready to get a jump on the day. You’ll want breakfast to be fast, nutritious, and, depending on the season, hot. This is what my husband and I typically pack when we are out on a long trip:

    • Instant espresso (such as Cafe Bustelo)
    • Instant milk (to mix into the coffee)
    • Instant oatmeal with brown sugar, freeze dried fruit, and instant milk
    • Instant grits with powdered cheddar cheese and instant milk
    • Pastries, cinnamon rolls
    • Protein or breakfast shake

Before you leave for your trip, repackage your breakfasts into individual servings. A chilly morning when you’re trying to break down camp is not when you want to be fussing with pouring three quarters of a cup of oatmeal and two tablespoons of brown sugar into your ultralight titanium mug.

Also, before you hike out for the day, consider your next meal. If you’re hiking big days, it may only take an hour or so for your appetite to work up, especially for those of us that don’t like to eat big meals when we first wake up. A protein or breakfast shake during the first mile or two of your hike can help keep your energy up until that next break, while a pastry is the perfect calorie-dense food to have on hand in case you feel your blood sugar levels plummeting.

Lunch/Snacks

Lunch in the backcountry doesn't have to be—and probably shouldn't be—too heavy. Snacks are the way to go.
Lunch in the backcountry doesn’t have to be—and probably shouldn’t be—too heavy. Snacks are the way to go.

Laura Lancaster

The longer you spend in the backcountry, the more your idea of “lunch” will change. The norms of the frontcountry no longer apply, so you’re not obligated to stop for a one hour lunch break between noon and 1 p.m., especially if you’re still a couple of miles away from that perfect vista. But at the same time, when you are hungry, it’s best to stop and eat something then, so that you can keep your energy high for the long haul. I now like to think of “lunch” as everything that I’ll eat between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m.

While it’s great to get some healthy foods into your backpacking snacks, this shouldn’t be your sole focus. It’s just as important to seek out food that is calorie-rich and lightweight. That’s right. I’m talking about the bane of frontcountry diets: junk food.

The longer your backcountry trip, the deeper down the rabbit hole of junk food you should go. As you hike longer and longer days, you will start to reduce your body’s fat stores and your metabolism will start to change into a fat-burning machine. This means that you can get away with eating all sorts of things on a long backpacking trip that it’s better to avoid in normal life.

So when you’re at the store, look past the typical granola or energy bars that so many hikers bring along. This may sound self-evident, but food that feels like a chore in the frontcountry isn’t going to taste any better when you’re hiking. And if you pack something that you’re not excited about eating, the odds are that you simply won’t eat it, missing out on valuable calories and adding unnecessary weight to your pack. Below is a short list of snack and lunch foods that I’ll pack for my husband and myself when we’re out on a long trip:

    • Peanut butter
    • Dried sausage
    • Wheat crackers or pita chips
    • Chips (Fritos, Tim’s Cascades, Terra, etc.)
    • Candy (Snickers, Almond Joy, Paydays, Peanut M&Ms, etc.)
    • Dried fruit, such as coconut, mango, and apples
    • Wasabi peas
    • Flavored almonds
    • Avocado
    • Cookies
    • Caffeinated crystal light
    • Chocolate covered espresso beans

Dinner

Dinnertime in Sequoia National Park
Dinnertime in Sequoia National Park

oliveogarchy

Dinner, like lunch, doesn’t have to follow the norms of the frontcountry and, in fact, is much more efficient when it doesn’t. On long trips, many hikers will end up eating dinner as early as 3 p.m. to provide extra energy through the rest of the afternoon and to avoid the dangers associated with eating their dinner at their campsite. But the purpose of dinner in a backcountry menu remains the same: a nutritious meal that will not only help your body operate on all cylinders, but also serve as a source of motivation when you’re pushing through a particularly difficult section of trail or during inclement weather.

If you’re pressed for time, the easiest way to prep your dinners is to purchase prepackaged foods. Many hikers enjoy pre-packaged dinners by Mountain House, Backpacker’s Pantry, and the like. You can also find a number of backcountry-ready meals at the grocery store, such as Kraft Mac and Cheese, Idahoan Potatoes, Lipton Pastas, and the Near East selection of couscous and other grains. If you choose to go this route, I recommend taking the time to package some extra olive oil, tuna in foil packets, and your favorite spices. This will give you the ability to either flavor these pre-packaged foods to your own tastes or add in extra calories as needed.

If you have more time at your disposal, I strongly recommend putting together your own backpacking meals. Here are a number of resources available where you can learn more about what this involves:

    • CascadeDesigns.com
    • Backpacker.com/trail-chef
    • BackpackingChef.com
    • DirtyGourmet.com

A note on packaging food for longer hikes: For a six-day backpacking trip, I’ll pop any homemade backpacking meals with potentially perishable ingredients in the freezer in the days or weeks leading up to the hike. But if you’re going out for any longer than that, consider investing either in a vacuum sealer or oxygen absorbent packets.

Packing Your Food

Vacuum-sealed is the way to go
Vacuum-sealed is the way to go

Laura Lancaster

Is there anything more irritating than stopping for your first snack break of the day, only to discover that your food bag is stuffed at the bottom of your pack? Or to find an unmarked Ziploc bag and not know if you’re looking at powdered milk or powdered potatoes? Taking a few moments before your trip to consider how packing your food can save you from headaches and hassle during your trip.

The first, and most obvious piece of advice is to label everything—especially if you are repackaging food items. Label what it is, how many calories it has, cooking prep instructions, and the date that you packaged it on.

Another strategy favored by some long-distance backpackers is to individually pack up the food for each day in a separate gallon Ziploc bag. That will prevent a situation where the only food in your food bag on the 5th day is cereal bars and jerky.

If you’re hiking in bear country, naturally you’ll want (and frequently be required) to take along a bear canister. But even if you aren’t in bear country, consider taking extra precaution to protect your food from raccoons and other small rodents. Combining an Ursack and an Opsack will significantly reduce the odds that a mouse will get into your food bag, while offering significant protection against bears for a fraction of the weight.

Sending Yourself a Resupply Box

Resupply isn't as complicated as it first seems
Resupply isn’t as complicated as it first seems

Laura Lancaster

Depending on your route and the length, you may want to consider sending yourself a resupply box. This is an excellent way to reduce the weight of your pack at the outset of a trip. Once you’ve identified a place on the trail where you can send a resupply box, spend some time researching what limitations might exist. Can you send the box USPS or only via UPS and FedEx? Is the resupply location closed on Sundays? Will they charge a cash fee to accept a resupply? If you’re basing your resupply information off of a guidebook or other online resource, call ahead to make sure that your resupply drop off point is still accepting resupply boxes.

Take care when packaging your resupply box. Like with anything else that goes through the mail, your box has the potential to be smashed, crushed, left out in the pouring rain, or stuffed into a hot and humid warehouse. Using a bucket instead of a box, or securing your food inside of a large Tupperware container, can help protect your resupply box against both the elements and the potential for rodents.

Featured image provided by Laura Lancaster

February 14, 2018
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Gaia GPS

Better Food to Enhance Your Next Backpacking Trip

by Ashli Baldwin October 19, 2015
written by Ashli Baldwin

photo-1414016642750-7fdd78dc33d9

Frequent hikers and backpackers know how to cook dehydrated meals, but they can get boring pretty quickly. These 5 delicious treats can launch your backcountry cooking game into the next dimension.

Cheese

Surprisingly, cheese doesn’t always have to stay at home when you hit the trail. It lasts up to 5 days in your pack in moderate climates. The harder the cheese, the longer it keeps, and the less oily it gets. While a block of cheese will do the trick, some grocery stores carry individually wrapped bite size pieces. Wax-wrapped soft cheeses such as gouda can stay bacteria free for long periods of time. High fat foods like cheese give you an energy-dense pick-me-up that keeps you going on long days when the nearest juicy cheeseburger sizzles miles away.

 Zamorano Cheese By No machine-readable author provided. P. B. Obregón assumed (based on copyright claims). [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft...), CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses...) or CC BY-SA 2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses....5-2.0-1.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

via PB Obregon

Avocado

Another delicious and high fat food for lasting energy–a perfectly ripe avocado. Added to your mac and cheese and the end of a 20-mile day, it can brighten your spirits and recharge your batteries. Just remember that by Leave No Trace standards, you still will want to pack out the heavy pit.

Peppers

Green peppers, yellow peppers, jalapeño peppers, any peppers! A fresh pepper won’t bruise or puncture easily in your pack and can last for days. One feels rebellious when adding a crunchy green pepper to your pepperoni and peanut butter tortilla.

MxJDaPQQAGf9MgAJNiLA_Peppers_Albuquerque_2013

via unslpash.com

Hot Sauce

Mmmmm, hot sauce. The perfect addition to spice up any gourmet backcountry creation. Pick up some individual packets at your local fast food joint, or fill a small reusable bottle to the brim with Frank’s Red Hot Sauce. Tuna Mac and Cheese will take on new meaning.

Eggs

Sound like a recipe for disaster? Not necessarily. Eggs can go quite a while without seeing a refrigerator, but don’t take my word for it. Boil them for a quick and easy snack, but leave the shells on until chow time for maximum preservation. Cut an egg crate in half to protect your precious nourishment and enjoy.

There you have it

Five delicious foods you can bring on the trail that will turn you from professional water boiler to gourmet chef.

Once you start thinking outside the box, you can create amazing meals that guarantee an entirely new hiking experience.

Good luck fending off your hungry hiker buddies.

IMG_20140820_192658

Photo Courtesy of: Kyle Flood

 

October 19, 2015
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