Simple Backpacking Food - What I pack for longer mileage

This is meant to give the most basic info on what to carry with you on longer mileage days. This food is lightweight and does not take up a lot of volume, which is perfect for high mileage days.
Breakfast : 2 packets Oatmeal 220 calories / Breakfast Essentials
Snacks
4oz peanuts 1/4 cup raisins 800 calories
2 string cheese 180 calories
Crackers 220 calories
Lunch
Whole grain bagel 260 calories
Creamy peanut butter to go 250 calories
or
Ramen and Tuna/Instant Potatoes
Fruit snacks 90 calories
Dried fruit 45 calories
2 kind minis 160 calories
Lara bar 220 calories
Dinner
Knorr rice wide 600 calories
Buffalo tuna 70 calories
Total before olive oil 3115
Very interesting article with food science
thru-hiker.com/articles/PackL...
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[@thomasguentner856]

Vegetarian here. I add textured vegetable protein (soy flakes) to my knorr sides along with dehydrated veggies - usually prepped ahead of time for freezer bag cooking. I also eat a good bit of cous cous the same way. For winter backpacking, I like a half and half of stuffing and mashed potatoes for dinner. Every dinner gets a Cholula hot sauce packet and a single serve packet of olive oil. Payday bars, oatmeal cream pies, and peanut butter filled pretzel bites are my go to snacks. Theres also a cinnamon toast crunch protien bar that is amazing. In colder months oatmeal with added carnation instant breakfast and freeze dried fruits is a solid breakfast. Carnation instant breakfast mixed with instant coffe and a chocolate greens superfood powder make an awesome cold soak shake for breakfast. half a packet of hot chocolate makes any instant coffee instantly better. Cold soaked refried beans on a wrap with a cheese stick makes a great lunch as does packed out zucchini bread or banana bread. Will also never turn down a blueberry muffin. LMNT electrolyte mixes are killer - especially chocolate salt, watermelon salt, and... believe it or not, mango habanero!

[@miken7629]

I like to add the BBQ Pulled Pork packets from Walmart to the Mash Potatoes, let the steam from the potatoes heat up the BBQ. My go to breakfast is 1/5 cups cereal + 1/4 cup NIDO + water, shake, instant milk & cereal. Cannot resupply this on trail but I love 50/50 mix Minute Rice & Dehydrated Refried Beans + taco seasoning + equal parts boiling water, asked outfitters to stock Dehydrated Refried Beans but they ignore me. I always bring 1 pound of Walnut halves from bakery section at Walmart, 3000 calories shelf stable, no cook, mostly Fat.

[@jessicathompson236]

We also make sure to carry walnuts. I add them to my trail mix every single trip.

[@stevewright2241]

The Knorr pasta sides can be made with powdered milk and work out really well. For butter use squeeze parkey margarine. It doesn’t spoil.

[@samshaw3613]

Try Putting a vanilla breakfast essential. In with your oatmeal. It's game changing.

[@elliemay3147]

I get tired of the same recipes. Here are a couple of my favorites. Pina colada oatmeal- Oats,vanilla packet, dehydrated pineapple and coconut. Peanut butter cup oatmeal - Oats, chocolate packet, peanut butter or pb powder, nuts. Both work cold soaked

[@db.mc2]

Thanks Jason 👊 Appreciate you my friend 🙏

[@SinchuwusOutside]

You always have great content! We're planning a weekend trip at Oil Creek, I sent this to my daughter for some ideas. Thanks again! -dave

[@ALORDW]

I just marvel at how relaxed and great you've gotten in your videos. The first of your videos I watched was the Cranberry 50 in NY state, Big difference between then and now.

[@FrozensAdventures]

I think thru hikes will do that to a person :)

[@gregharmon3797]

Great video Jason!!

[@tonyabrowninghikes]

My favorite backpacking topic! This looks pretty similar to my setup. Except lunch i like to make cold soak pasta salad or refried beans & chicken packet burrito. Welch's berries & cherries is where it is at ❤

[@GemintheMud]

Many thanks. Very helpful.

[@michaelcrawford9425]

Thanks for sharing!!!

[@russbennett1601]

I have been following your channel for quite some time, and I like seeing the changes to your food compared to your earlier video on what you carried. I based my pack out similar to yours, and it actually looks a lot like what you have now. One thing I do in the morning, I will actually keep a small, wide mouth water bottle and combine the Taster's Choice and Carnation High Protein together and drink it cold. You can rinse the bottle with water and drink the muddy water after to clean out the bottle, lol. While I don't do as high mileage yet, I am a larger guy and typically hike in the high summer heat, in the 80s and 90s. Electrolytes are essential as I have found out the hard way. I made the mistake twice, ending up in some pretty dangerous health situations that I only realized afterwards how serious it was. Once I learned the need for salt and learned how to balance it with my water intake, I have had much healthier and happier hikes! With my upcoming hikes where I can pre-pack, I am considering finding stand up vacuum seal bags, maybe with a zip seal on the top, and prepackaging my dry ingredients for meals where I would only need to open and add hot water. I feel it would add a little more convenience and a little less bulk.

[@TheCoolwhipped]

I work in a factory environment where temperatures will reach well above 100 degrees with 100% humidity in the summer. LMNT electrolytes are by far the best thing I've found for replenishing electrolytes and keeping hydrated. They have little to no sugar and are packed full of various electrolytes. Raspberry and watermelon are my favorites, but I've been told that the chocolate is delicious as well if you like sea salted chocolates.

[@bigchief7798]

I bring emergen-c pack for each day. Great vitamins and electrolytes. Another great video!

[@stitch3163]

Good one, Jason. I used to go out for a multi-day trip with a huge bag of gorp and some oatmeal/coffee for the mornings. Times have changed, apparently.

[@zachbarber]

Powdered milk works well with the pasta sides but be careful because it boils over quickly,puts your stove out burns the hell out of you and gets all over everything. Good to see you doing videos. Thanks for the recap.

[@davidson_oldbull_sectionhiker]

Thanks Frozen. I’ve been using Honey Stingers waffles with Justin Peanut Butter packets. They are great.

[@hikingwithdoc7904]

For the Knorr noodles I've been using Nido powdered milk and sub olive oil for butter. Have to add a little more water for the milk, but this combo is just good as the real recipe on the package.

[@BorneoGirlAdventure]

Very smart 👍🏻👍🏻

[@41degreesN12degreesE]

I can definitely say to skip the string cheese in hot weather. Discovered the cheese sticks in my pack were bloated and super funky after driving 10 hours across TX. Needless to say they went straight to the trash. The unopened pepperoni was still good. Also, Liquid IV is amazing for electrolytes.

[@jessicathompson236]

Add that freeze dried fruit to peanut butter/almond butter/seed spread/nutt butter & chocolate mix, jam/jelly and honey or maple syrup on a tortilla, in a pita or naan bread. (It's basically the funky monkey or chunky monkey sandwich) Two tortillas 180 calories Almond butter 220 calories Jam/jelly 45 calories Honey or maple syrup 50-100 calories. Plus the freeze dried fruit of your choice usually between 20 and 110 calories (It's great to dip the wrap in maple syrup) As you can see it's pretty packed with nutrition and calories. (It's great for when you need that boost) It's one of my favorite go to breakfasts or snacks. (warm or cold) Banana chips and chocolate nutt butter to dip them in is another quick one.

[@rodoutdoors]

Awesome. This is great, My goto 'staple' meals are freeze dried refried beans + instant rice, ramen bomb + chicken creations, and oatmeal w/ nuts & dried fruits. Then add around that. Ready to eat lunches vary. It's usually peanut butter and some protein bars. Snack sized Snickers, cookies, or nuts. I switched to Boulder Salt for electrolytes. I wanted to try it for daily use and Nuun tablets are way too expensive. I picked up a 8oz bag for $16 and you only need 1/4 teaspoon per serving. Or 113 servings.

[@tristanschweigl]

Nice 😁 That's exactly what I was eating on the AT last year ✌🏻 I did MetreX protein bars and Propel electrolytes. Also the peanut butter squeeze and honey on tortillas ☺️

[@davidschmude]

Knorr rice side on a tortilla with Taco Bell mild taco sauce. Throw in some Starkist chicken from a package, if you like. Dee-licious !!

[@MeOutside]

Nothing beats the good old fashioned ramen bomb. So many ways to customize. Spam singles always hit the spot too; I call them meat popsicles. As far as electrolytes go LMNT works. It’s salty as eff but that’s your electrolytes. Oh and cherry Coke; not the most healthy but the sugar and caffeine keep you going. Dr Pepper and Mountain Dew are staples as well.

[@uptrail7169]

We are very similar when it comes to food choices. I wanted to hike the SHT ag as in this year, but my wife is backing out of it. Maybe another year especially if we hike the AT in the future. You have one of the very few backpacking channels that I still watch regularly. Most of them are only in it for the money and are what I call fake channels. It's funny when they have a new favorite piece of gear every week. 😂

[@FrozensAdventures]

I'd love to be one of those channels that can do this for a living but I'm not just gonna talk about the same crap every week. I recently got into MyLifeOutdoors, he's almost "one of those" channels but has interesting content. Also if you haven't followed Jupiter yet, he's really good.

[@jessicathompson236]

I'd suggest adding in honey or agave in one of those bottles.

[@OldPackMule]

I have granola and keep a bag of powdered milk in the bag with it(to mix at the meal) as a breakfast. Not the same as real milk but ok for a quick cold breakfast. Still love those Larabars. One at the base of every big climb gets me up and over. May I suggest Next Mile freeze dried meals (the beef flavors. ). Some of the best freeze dried meals on trail and though they are more expensive than a typical mountain house, they sure were welcome on the cold rainy nights this spring.

[@Dflyguy420]

I like those yakisoba ramens that come in the square dish, I just take everything out of the packaging and put it in a ziploc. Ate too much top ramen when I was 18 and broke and can’t stomach it anymore

[@ChrisfromFL]

Jason, My question has nothing to do about this video and I wish I had thought about this question in January, but better late than ever. As a hammocker, who lives in Florida where the trees pretty much have leaves on the whole year, how would I determine if a tree might become widow maker? This winter I will be heading up to the AT to see if I need to upgrade my gear for colder temperatures and have no idea how to decided which trees are safe to hang from when there aren't any leaves.

[@frstesiste7670]

I have the same attitude when it comes to trail food. If it's enough calories and don't taste awful I'm fine. If it's cheap too then even better. To me Snickers are out. Melt too easily and get too hard in the cold - doesn't even have to be that cold. In stead I use trail mix like you do, but add M&Ms - try mix up the type, but the "standard" ones seem to work best. They almost never melt, and they are small enough to soften pretty fast in the mouth when it's cold. Oatmeal is fine for breakfast, but I use just whatever breakfast cereal I find and use powder milk (sometimes difficult to find). It's pretty inexpensive combination, and it's easy to add extra dried fruit or whatever to mix up things a bit. The disadvantage is that the pot gets dirty, but since I'm going to boil water in the evening anyway it gets sterilized at the next use so fairly clean is good enough. I'm all for using Ramans, Knorr and similar instead of freeze dried backpacker meals. It's a lot less expensive and have almost as good weight to calorie ratios. Since I'm already carrying powder milk for breakfast, I can use types that requires milk. My main struggle on the trail is getting enough proteins and fat, enough calories are pretty easy.

[@jessicathompson236]

Soak the flat jerky pieces and add it to the mashed potatoes with gravy (you can also get the bacon pieces in a pouch) Hormels real crumbled bacon original is 4.3 oz and 425 calories per packet.

[@jimbojones6169]

Snickers for the win!

[@julainenelson4204]

They now have protein snickers

[@jimbojones6169]

@@julainenelson4204 i tried them… and the taste was not the same and they are expensive. During my hikes i rotate between Snickers bars and a Costco nut bar. Clif bar is my third choice.

[@TaylortheNahamshaHiker]

I'm inspired to fuel better after watching this! The half gallon of ice cream for breakfast did NOT do my body well yesterday 😅

[@FrozensAdventures]

At least you didn't figure out that you are lactose intolerant 15 minutes after finishing the half gallon challenge like I did 😂

[@TaylortheNahamshaHiker]

@Outdoor Adventures nooooo!!

[@tomyoder3950]

Old faction dill pickle in sealed packaging is excellent source of electrolytes works well!

[@1DrBar]

Fair enough, you did say that you eat like this purely for calories, but I think that long term hikers would really do themselves a favor and also consult a nutritionist. I've often eaten similarly to this when I hiked in the seventies and eighties. But my wife got set up with a nutritionist and I've slowly changed my cooking approach over the last eight or so years - and feel much better for it. It's partly age, I suspect, that one eventually ignore caring better for their bodies, but at any age, good nutrition restores the body and heals it better also.

[@rebeccamueller8790]

Gosh, yes! Did you see that study on thru hikers who had lab panels before and after their hike, and the labs were worse after 😮 I can't remember the exact details but it was eye opening. You truly can't outrun a bad diet

[@NotASheep100]

Good vid...me and wife been experimenting with cold soak oats an nuts, cold soak coffee( using fine powderd coffee) Anything we can pick up along the way.... Unfortunatly got food poisoning on last backpacking trip ...took 10 days to recover ..couldnt eat properly for a week....lost loads weight. 😮 Love peanut butter for calories..mmmmmm

[@roberttrinies7698]

Do you know what gave you the food poisoning?

[@davidrehm9681]

Love the video...BUT where is the fruit? Technically raisins are but I'm a firm believer in eating fruit. It will give you energy, will help hydrate you, etc... Bananas and avocado are my 2 must takes. I'm also looking at the whole days worth of food and I personally ask where is the good doses of vitamin C with each meal, which is extremely important. Oops, spoke too soon - I see you have fruit after all. Awesome.

[@bigmanlilcoat]

I use the chocolate peanut butter kind bars, 200 cal each.

[@chrisrondeau9912]

I bring a lot of the same except I stopped bringing tuna fish or spam single serves...they weigh too much for the calories they provide. same with baked goods. I add olive oil packets or fried onion crisps to my rice, ramen or mashed potatoes to increase the calories/ounce ratio.

[@bjf10]

Man, I don't know how you can handle that nescafe crap, but more power to you lol.

[@FrozensAdventures]

I dont know either. I enjoy a light roast and tasters choice is readily available at any store.

[@bjf10]

@@FrozensAdventures to each their own!

[@bird.1980]

Does anyone know if you can do the same with Grits and eat out fo the package? I always use a ziploc freezer bag

[@deerless999]

My breakfast I mix two dry cereals, slivered almonds, and powdered milk, in a zip baggie, just squirt in water, very light weight and filling. Try adding Whey protein powder to coffee…. I use double chocolate.. makes the nasty taste mocha…

[@Doc_Watson]

Coffee - have you tried the Nescafe Clasico Dark Roast sticks? I like it better than the Taster's Choice sticks you have in the video. Same company, different flavor/roast, typically same price. The breakfast essentials with granola or muesli and some hot or cold water is good if you like cereal in the morning.

[@FrozensAdventures]

I actually prefer a light or medium roast. From my understanding light roast has more caffeine than dark roasts.

[@Doc_Watson]

@@FrozensAdventures I understand that lighter roasts have more caffeine too, I just have a preference for dark strong coffee. I'll do two, sometimes three sticks to a 12oz cup.

[@jamesroachjr4074]

I got burned out on oatmeal, so I use either instant grits or cream of wheat.

[@sarahrenaud2237]

Whats the name of the squirt bottle for the olive oil and where did you get it?

[@8470tony]

More protein especially before bed. Your muscles are rebuilding the most during sleep. Gonna turn into a noodle with all those carbs.

[@FrozensAdventures]

You really think too many carbs still?

[@lynx7906]

@@FrozensAdventures I will agree. Start your day, into lunch, by eating carbs, slide that into some fats, and end your day with more protein to heal your muscles.

[@8470tony]

Easy rule of thumb, if the food is white, it’s high in carbs. Got the great White Sea there. Good steps with peanut butter & nuts. Pack it gourmet and other cottage industry meal shops have high protein meals for evenings. Although, if budget is part of the consideration, then dehydrating your own meals is a possibility. All that processed carbohydrate food will also turn you into a pickle. A pickled noodle.

[@FrozensAdventures]

While I love packit gourmet it's not feasible (nor budget friendly as you pointed out) on a thru hike.

[@billseay6399]

Hey Thanks love the info brother keep on humping

[@CarlsonAdventures]

I have been using Cascade’s trekking poles for years. How about you give them to me or Hey Cascade Mountain Tech. How about sending me a new pair to review. 😊

[@FrozensAdventures]

They are my wife's. They are great but I'm so used to a quiet leki pole. The CMT poles are loud when moving fast.

[@adamholt6898]

Would you say you have a plethora of piñatas? 3 amigos reference!

[@fishntools]

Nix the Snickers and peanuts for Payday bars

[@FrozensAdventures]

😝

[@thomasguentner856]

Agree. Paydays don't have chocolate that would melt and have a better calorie/ fat/ protein ratio.

[@FrozensAdventures]

I'll honestly have to give them another try. I remember not liking them much. But that was years ago.

[@Testicleeze]

Did you cook the Knorr in the bag?

[@FrozensAdventures]

Yes!

[@1DrBar]

How many days on average do you carry food on a long hike before you stop for resuply?

[@FrozensAdventures]

4-5 is about what I do.

[@joefryfry]

How many pounds is a day of food? My general rule of thumb is 2 lbs per day, but currently pack just under that.

[@FrozensAdventures]

About 2lbs per day

[@joefryfry]

Easily my least favorite part of planning and eating on the trail. Ate so many spam tortillas I can’t even smell the things any more.

[@ub3r133tn355]

interesting timing with HomemadeWanderlust...again...

[@FrozensAdventures]

I don't follow her anymore. Are we both releasing videos at the same time?

[@lucky1124]

I know everyone keeps saying electrolytes are important but. WHY. What exactly is it they do or prevent?

[@FrozensAdventures]

Low electrolytes remove salt and thus electric signals from your brain to the rest of your body. That's my understanding anyway.

[@MAGICHORSEMAN]

Hi

[@riff2072]

Hi Magic

[@FrozensAdventures]

Hi

[@CharlesBlank]

i clicked the thumbs down button 5 times! but then i clicked the like button 10 times!

[@kevinchrist1658]

Most of this food is chemical filler and preservative garbage and a waste of plastic wrappers. Just bring some organic quinoa and ghee, nuts, potatoes, and a couple lemons/limes/oranges and you're done.

[@FrozensAdventures]

The body needs around 3000 calories for the days I hike on a long distance trail. I just don't see myself carrying that much weight in the food you are suggesting.

[@teresaodle857]

Not very much of that food is healthy for you

[@Swearengen1980]

I'll never understand how people can function burning so much energy, but eating mostly crappy empty carbs. Calories don't mean really mean a damn thing when it's mostly processed carbs. Fat, protein and some whole carbs. Olive oil fills some of that, not adequate for how my body burns. You also chose the least beneficial nuts one can possible eat.

[@jakegreen326]

yea, good bye Keta diet))) anything else I can eat on the hikes?

[@FrozensAdventures]

As one person from the other extreme: " Just bring some organic quinoa and ghee, nuts, potatoes, and a couple lemons/limes/oranges and you're done."