it's been awhile for me..any improvement in backpacking food?

[vash]

i remember backpacker's pantry..chili mac. on one trip, i wanted to starve. there is a horrid flavor profile..i can still remember it.

any improvements in recent years? i need some good suggestions. brand, and specific "flavors" and meals. i will need to eat this for 5-6 days straight.

i assume the internet is the best place to get some decent stuff for the cheap? walking into a REI would be the most expensive option, right?

[legion]

Mmmmm.....Pemican bars.

Hated them on the first day. Thought they were gourmet cuisine by day 14.

[vash]

ok..pocahontas!

[VINMAN]

Originally Posted by legion

Mmmmm.....Pemican bars.

Hated them on the first day. Thought they were gourmet cuisine by day 14.

Remember Hershey's "Tropical Bars"? yuck. chocolate concrete!

[vash]

Originally Posted by VINMAN

Remember Hershey's "Tropical Bars"? yuck. chocolate concrete!

hahahah. but you had to eat those in 110+ degrees..i bet they were "soft and normal" at that temp.

[VINMAN]

I havent been keeping up with the backpacking food lately. Most of the time I just hit the supermarkets for lightweight stuff.. Back in the day I remember raiding the camping aisles in Hermans World of Sports, and buying up all the Mountain House freeze dried foods. They were barely edible back then, cant picture them getting much better! I use MREs alot now, I just break em down and toss all the unneccesary stuff to lighten them up.

[craigster59]

I usually just hit the supermarket and get instant oatmeal, canned tuna, ramen noodles and this Lipton rice is good and cheap, just add freeze dried chicken...

[Joeaksa]

Snake. Tastes just like chicken!

[cgarr]

[Evans, Marv]

In my younger days, I spent so much time on the trail I couldn't afford to use feeeze dried products. I would buy a couple of freeze dried things to keep in case of emergency. Vinni & Craigster offer really good advise about trail food. Especially if you are only going to be out for 5 or 6 days, I wouldn't worry about freeze dried food. I did much the same as they advised by buying my stuff in supermarkets.
You can repackage much of your food into packets and bag them for a day's worth of food - or you can bag them by catagory: breakfasts, lunches, dinners, snacks, drinks, etc. This is the way I usually like to do it. A couple of things I like to take are Bisquick and some good mashed potato buds. You can make tons of stuff out of them. You can even bread fish with both of them if you want to bread fish. Remember to take some high energy things for snacks like suasage & cheese - although I can't stand dry salamy to this day because I ate so much of it. Take a container or small containers of things to spice up you cooking. I usually take a lot of garlic salt, some paprika & a couple of other things. Also remember to take some powder to make drinks out of that have electrolites. I would make soup with the potato buds, and sometimes "trout" pizza with Bisquick if I caught some trout. The possibilitied are endless. I still have a couple of caches up there. One at Rae Lakes and the other in Lake Basin. I assume you will be putting food in a bear vault. They seem to require that now days. Also, don't forget to take a couple of things like duct tape and guerrilla tape (not whole rolls but just roll up a small amount). The duct tape is great for putting over potential blister areas when they start to warm up but before the blister develope. They're both handy for repairs. I could go on & on.
Oh, one more thing. You might think about taking some fibertabs to take daily and maybe some stool softener. Good luck.

[vash]

jezes..marv..lots to digest!! thanks.

that applebees card is looking pretty good!

ya. my only point of reference are some 75 milers with some good friends. we ate so much..we could hardly keep up with the calories. thanks for the fiber tip..i will use that one FOR SURE!! hopefully, we have some venison tenderloins at the campsite..and marmot cakes. ughh!

[Evans, Marv]

Another imortant thing. It's a pain, but you are taking good water filtering equipment aren't you??? In the old days, you just carried a Sierra cup and dipped it into any stream and drank it. Those days are long past. I got giardia in 1987, and it was pretty bad. I was lucky it developed after I got back. I went to the doctor & told him I was suspicious I had it. He gave me a stool kit and told me to take it home & bring a specimen back. I told him, "Hell, I'll fire one up for you right now." And I did.

[legion]

To this day, nothing tastes better than cold mountain stream water with a hint of Polar Pure.

[Superman]

The dehydrated meals (like Mountain House) are plentiful, and available at large stores that sell everything from celery to chicken wire. They generally contain two "portions," but I'm usually hungry enough to gobble the entire packet. Taste is great if you're on your veranda with a glass of tawny port, but after eight thousand feet of elevation gain, anything that will make a turd will seem delicious.

You boil the water, then pour it into the packet. That kills the germs.

I take tiny little iodine pills with me, to disinfect the drinking water. They color the water but you know what? Vitamin C returns the water to clear. Some folks report they don't like the taste, so to handle both the taste issue and the color problem, I take a bit of Tang with me. Various flavors. After disinfection, it eliminates the iodine color and gives the water a slight sweet taste. Yummy. I don't add large volumes like a kid would. Just enough to make the water tasty.

[vash]

i have a real water purifyer. think it is made by "first aide" or something. REI guy said it was the only real true purifyer..and not just a filter.

i also take about a million water tabs..i could clear the lake. hate how they take so long to do the job..and i seem to remember it needing darkness to work.

[porsche4life]

I think you mean First Need.... Yes they are very good. When I went to philmont we had a First Need, a Katadyn, and an MSR... The first need was the best...

As far as the food.... I found the Philmont meals in '07 to be not all that bad...

If all the stars align right I will tell you how the meals in '11 are...

[vash]

first need..yea..that be it. the ONLY unit suitable for the back country in cambodia.

havent used it that much. turns out you can buy EVIAN at a 7eleven even in cambodia.

[Talewinds]

I like most of what Mountain House and Backpacker's Pantry have to offer. (Natural High and Alpine Aire brand entrees are GROSS!)
The Backpacker's Pantry salmo pesto is incredible IMHO as long as you wait til about day 5 out on the trail so that you've been removed from civilized cooking for long enough.

I generally dislike most of the varieties of power bar type stuff, but I LOVE Cliff Nectar bars, any flavor.

The dehydrated, packaged breakfasts like dried milk/blueberries or dried milk/bananas is very good too I think.

I used to use Java Juice for coffee, but it was messy. I've switched to the Starbucks VIA now. Light weight, clean, powdered. Nice.

[flatbutt]

Instant rice works well. If you bring dried beans you must start them soaking when you first wake up but they pack light. Noodles! Lots of noodles. And Lipton soup mixes.

[RWebb]

Originally Posted by Superman

...

You boil the water, then pour it into the packet. That kills the germs.

...

Be careful as boiling will only kill some "germs."

Water boils before reaching 100 oC at altitude. Also, you may need to boil for 20 minutes or more.

I would filter all water these days.

And if you are in an area like the Klamath region or some other place with serpentine soils, some of the streams have arsenic or heavy metals in them. No way to get that out.