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Posted by WildeGeek on April 14, 2008 at 10:19:28 am EDT
In reply to Ultralight backpacking...good foods to take? posted by gsdavis on April 13, 2008 at 10:05:07 pm EDT

Most of my calories come from on-the-trail snacking. Someone aptly said, "lunch starts at breakfast and ends at dinner," when you're on a long-distance hike. The most-fuel per unit weight is going to be nut mixes, carefully-chosen energy bars, dried fruits, and perhaps whole-grain tortillas with dried hummus or a tube of peanut butter. Breakfast becomes, rather than a main meal, sort of a kick-start. Dinner becomes, rather than a main meal, a ceremonial hot meal at the end of the day.

In warm weather, for breakfast, I'll usually take a cold cereal and supplement it with a hot drink. Something like Grape Nuts or a nutty granola of some kind is pretty dense. I'll usually mix powdered milk, dehydrated berries, chopped peanuts and brazil nuts, and some kind of sweetener in with mine ahead of time.

For dinner I'll package a home-made dehydrated meal, or choose one of the commercial dehydrated meals that minimize packing material per unit calorie. Sometimes I wind up taking my kitchen scale to my local outfitter when choosing pre-packaged meals. I compare the weight they publish for the food with the weight of the entire package and look for the most food for the least packaging. Also, I calculate calories versus food weight, and try to get the most calories for the least food weight.

A good guideline for through-hikers going ultralight and trying to cover the bigger miles is that at least 60% of your calories should come from daytime, on-the-trail snacking.

I don't worry too much about food weight when going on ultralight hikes. I just make sure I take enough calories, try to minimize the food packaging where ever possible. And I realize that my sub-10-pound base weight will be all I'm carrying toward the end of the trip.

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