Food Matters

As an active outdoorswoman, avid backpacker, and generally a hungry person I think about food and nutrition a lot. Like most of the time.

Hmmmmm.... bacon!

And I think about food matters even more when I'm pushing myself to my physical (and mental) limits outdoors.
Another thing I think about a lot is money; somehow food and money are the two closely related objects I can never really get enough of. Preparing for my latest big adventure I have spent some quality time trying to figure out the best ratio of food/nutrition to weight and money.

I considered a few options for our backpacking food and I'll explain them below all scientific and such.

Option 1: Freeze-dried Foods.

Everybody loves/hates Mountain House, or at least everybody who backpacks enough have tried it at least once.

Best flavor

That stuff is good: only required hot water, no cooking, doesn't dirty your dishes, you can use the hot pouch as a hot bottle under your jacket while waiting, there's meat in there, it's salty, you don't have to prepare in advance. Fantastic! Sign me up! Oh, wait... $8-11 per dinner??? It's like eating out at a restaurant, expect it's freeze-dried dehydrated crap you'd never eat unless you were camping in the woods! Going for just an overnight trip I could justify taking a freeze-dried meal for dinner. But for 9 day trip? My insignificant paycheck could not afford such luxury.


Option 2: Graze off the Land.

All the hipsters in Seattle are going Paleo, running around barefoot, doing cross-fit, and pooping into squat-toilets.

I hope they actually remember to take their pants off!

It only would be the most natural thing when going into the wilderness for 9 days to live like Nature intended. Hilary and I would take our heavy boots off (and let our feet free!), smear camo-dirt on our faces for sun protection, and go hunt for mushrooms, berries, pikas, fish the lakes, and just fucking be one with the Universe.

I am not new to barefoot backpacking

 No need to carry pounds of food, stove and fuel, cooking gear, no need to spend money! What a great idea!

Aside from not having ever hunted or fished, I am not as familiar with American continent's mushrooms and edible plants as I once used to be with the European ones. There was no certainty that we would not just go hungry for 9 days and die if we tried to live of the land. Without special training, extra gear to catch game, and knowledge to not poison ourselves I had to leave this idea being just a magical Utopian dream that it is.

Option 3: Make Own Gourmet Meals.

Gourmet lunch from last spring's trip to Olympic Coast. Check out smoked salmon!

A long long time ago I hiked the whole length of Wonderland Trail carrying food you could find at your own kitchen, two stoves (old version of Dragonfly and Jetboil), crazy amount of fuel, kitchen gear, and a water pump. Those were the old days where people had no choice but to use old-fashioned gear like that and be suspicious of freeze-dried meals. My backpack was about 50 lbs at any given point even though we only had to carry max 4 days worth of food (Rainier is cool like that bc you can cache in your food!). I survived and I learned. Now was the time to use my old-school knowledge and modern time gear to create the best backpacking gourmet meals!

Firstly, Hilary went on a mission to buy bulk items at some cheap grocery store in Federal Way. Here's what she got:

• Angel hair pasta
• Instant mashed potatoes
• Quinoa
• Instant refried beans
• Old-fashioned oatmeal
• Shelf-stable grated parmesan cheese

Then I went to QFC and Fred Meyer and got these:

• Instant Alfredo and Pesto sauce packets
• Tuna and Salmon packets
• Mac & Cheese box
• Bacon bits 
• Instant chocolate pudding
• Zip-lock bags

Finally, at REI we got this:

•  Freeze-dried veggies
• Backcounry Pantry dry whole milk
• 2 Mountain House meals 

After experimenting and researching on them Internets I packed the food in zip lock bags and labeled them.

Figuring out the right ratio chocolate pudding to dry milk and water with brand new Dragonfly. Cinnamon graham crackers on top :-D

All dinners and breakfasts for 9 days!

 We brought all of the above plus:

• A bag of fresh spinach (made us 2 days worth of salad)
• Mandarins and two peaches
• Larabars (they are the shit!!!)
• Powerbars 
• A huge bag of trail mix
• Salty pretzels
• A tube of almond butter
• 6 sausages (kinda like jerkey)

On the trail we collected wild blueberries and huckleberries for our snacks and morning oatmeal, so there was the Living off the Land component and 2 nights we ate Mountain House meals because we had no energy for anything else. Perfect ratio!

When we walked out of the forest we only had a bit of oatmeal and quinoa remaining, one Larabar, and 2 sausages. That's it! 

Here are couple websites I found very helpful:

• http://www.trailcooking.com/
• http://briangreen.net/2010/12/homemade-lara-type-bars.html
• http://powerhungry.com/2011/09/homemade-trio-bars-and-homemade-kind-bars/

If you got any awesome homemade backpacking meal recipes, share them with me here!