Best foods to stack up on before trekking on a long journey?

[DKott25]

What are the most essential foods to bring before a long journey? Food that will last and give you numerous servings such as rice.

[randyt]

jerky and pinole, with some pemmican thrown in.

[kyratshooter]

Sardines, tuna, smoked bacon, grits and gorp.

[hunter63]

Dried beans....and your rice.........
Tabasco...you can eat anything with enough tabasco...

[crashdive123]

Depends on the length of journey, mode of transportation and anticipated activity level.

[Lamewolf]

Always make sure its something you like. Nothing worse than living on foods you don't like !

[madmax]

Rice and jerky. Get ready to be bored with it.

[finallyME]

I am going to comment on what I take when I go backpacking. This can be for an overnight to a week or so. When the time frame is so short, It really doesn't matter THAT much what you take. You don't need to worry too much about nutrition. I try and minimize weight while maximizing calories. I shoot for 3500 to 4000 calories a day and about 1.5 lbs of food for a day. In order to hit these goals, I try to go high on fat and low on carbs. This also helps me maintain constant energy throughout the day, instead of "bonking".
One thing to consider is cook or no cook. For cooking while backpacking, I try to do simple boil water meals. That means I boil 2 cups of water and pour it into my food to rehydrate. That means the food is either dehydrated or freeze dried. Water is heavy, and why carry it if you don't have to. Instant rice, instant noodles, olive oil, freeze dried meat, foil packet meat, freeze dried veggies.
For no cook, look for shelf stable meat.

For long term...more than a month.....nutrition plays a major role. So does how much energy you expend. Through Hikers are known to have a hard time getting enough calories. They pretty much dump as much fat and carbs on their food as they can...just to not waste away to nothing. You also have to make sure you get enough vitamins.

[richbat]

I am going to comment on what I take when I go backpacking. This can be for an overnight to a week or so. When the time frame is so short, It really doesn't matter THAT much what you take. You don't need to worry too much about nutrition. I try and minimize weight while maximizing calories. I shoot for 3500 to 4000 calories a day and about 1.5 lbs of food for a day. In order to hit these goals, I try to go high on fat and low on carbs. This also helps me maintain constant energy throughout the day, instead of "bonking".
One thing to consider is cook or no cook. For cooking while backpacking, I try to do simple boil water meals. That means I boil 2 cups of water and pour it into my food to rehydrate. That means the food is either dehydrated or freeze dried. Water is heavy, and why carry it if you don't have to. Instant rice, instant noodles, olive oil, freeze dried meat, foil packet meat, freeze dried veggies.
For no cook, look for shelf stable meat.

For long term...more than a month.....nutrition plays a major role. So does how much energy you expend. Through Hikers are known to have a hard time getting enough calories. They pretty much dump as much fat and carbs on their food as they can...just to not waste away to nothing. You also have to make sure you get enough vitamins.

Couldn't agree more.Dehydrated foods are a great idea,Oatmeal,Ramen Noodles,Granola/Trail Mix,Spam,Vienna Sausages,Crakers,Peanut Butter and the list goes on.Drinks other than water,Gatorade, the small travel packs of Crystal Light,again travel packs of instant coffee,tea and so on.Keep small food and drink items to decrease pack weight and room,you'll be a lot more happy at the days end and still have your wanted amount of calories.Vitamins,I'd say just get something like a Multi-Vitamin and be done with that aspect.

[Auban]

variety. dont do what i did and take nothing but peanut butter and rice.


to this day, i cant stand peanut butter...

[hayshaker]

as long as your quite active the sodium should not be such an issue.
i carry L,U,R,P,S and spam, jerky,ramin noodles,freezed dry friuts, tasters choice coffee,spice packs,powderd peanut butter
and coconut powder,small bottle tobasco sauce,medicinal teas,honey.

[Auban]

Hayshaker, do you have a link for the "LURPS"? Im not sure what you are referring to...

[hayshaker]

lurps is a acronym for long range patrol ration. they are made for special ops units.
thier freeze dry meals w/o all the other stuff contained in say MRE,S the meals all average about 4.50,oz
except the breakfast which are 2.65,oz

[hayshaker]

oregon freeze dry is the contractor. try the freeze dry guy.com

[Auban]

lurps is a acronym for long range patrol ration. they are made for special ops units.
thier freeze dry meals w/o all the other stuff contained in say MRE,S the meals all average about 4.50,oz
except the breakfast which are 2.65,oz

ok. i know what you are talking about. i asked because i have seen three different rations being called "lurps".
i am in a special ops unit, and what we use for long patrols is a cold weather/ long range patrol ration. supposedly, it replaced the old dehydrated lurps. its basically an MRE with a dehydrated entree and more calories.

[DSJohnson]

I agree with FinallyME. If you are going out and only intend on being "out" for less than two weeks and hiking uphill is the hardest work you will be doing then I do it this way
1. Things I like that I have eaten before. I carry a lot of the sealed packaged tuna, salmon and even the pre-cooked ground beef in addition some some of the more common Freeze Dried stuff. Minute Rice, Boxed rice meals(think Zatarain's Gumbo or Red Beans and Rice) repacked into zip locks and Ramen noddles complete the main course with dark chocolate always in my pack. Tea, Gator-aid and real Kool-Aid are what I make bug juice with.
2. Things are easy to prepare and not much hassle or residue.
3. Things that are light weight and do NOT take up much room

If I am planning on being in the woods for longer than 10 to 12 nights I almost always either set up a cache or arrange for some type of resupply unless I am out during a legal hunting season or I am fishing. If I am going to set up a base camp then I rely on potatoes, pinto beans, rice, All Purpose flour, and Jiffy Corn meal mix to be the foundation for the menus, Oh and Bacon, lots of bacon.

I have eaten/tried just about every Mountain House entree out there and I like several of them. I have tried just about every type of U.S. military ration used since 1960 or so. K rations, C rations, LURPS, In flight Rations, MREs. I have used parched corn, jerky and real home made pemmican. I have carried smoked meats and hard tack also. I have also "foraged/lived off the land(LOL)" for at least half of my calories a couple of trips also and I have found that I usually end up very deficient in my menu. I have tried just living off of "Hi Energy" protein bars for two or three days at a time, a couple of times. I found that I need copious amounts of drinking water when I am using the protein bars.

In my kit that I carry in my pickup truck all the time there is a beef stew MRE, 4 different types of protein bars, three 5 oz packages of salmon, 2 packages of Sardines in Mustard, some condiments(mustard, Tabasco, salt and red pepper. Dove Dark Chocolate bars, tea bags and 8 oz of sugar in a ziplock finish it out I think. I like hot tea with lots of sweet to it.
I figure if some some weird reason I have to live in my pickup for a couple of days I can do it fine and if, God forbid, I had to abandon my vehicle I can pick out of that what I want to carry.

[Auban]

The worst thing I ever did in regards to food was bring out just one kind of food. It tasted good at first, but by the end i could barely stand to eat it.

Ya live you learn...

I did find that crackers are a great "on the move" snack. Every time I'm in the field, I save the crackers from the MREs. Then, as I'm moving, I just break little pieces off and slowly eat them. It also helps me stay hydrated because it keeps me drinking water to wash it down.

[hayshaker]

Auban i have the white cold weather ration an the tan ones their really the same it seems except
for the color of the package no? I miss the lasangna w-meatsauce they were reall good.oh ever vaccum seal your own freeze dry friuts? i get no-10 cans and break them down into small pouches then vaccum seal to have as a side dish.i also bring
dried shredded cuttle fish that,s really good as well.

[finallyME]

I have used parched corn, jerky and real home made pemmican.

How did the pemmican go?

[DSJohnson]

How did the pemmican go?

I am not a big fan of pemmican. I have tried making pemmican several times over the years. my best batch I made with store bought cherries. I have used deer and elk and beef also. I have not found that it makes me a lot of difference which meat I use. I have used deer meat most of the time. As far as the berries/fruit go I have tried store bought blue berries, home grown blue berries, wild mulberries, persimmons, home grown black berries. To me the biggest trick is getting the grease to meat ratio right. I made my first batch when I was about 16 and in the BSA. It was pretty much a mess. I did not have access to a blender or food processor so I just pounded my meat up into smaller little pieces but not into dust. I used store bought dried blueberries. I used lard instead of beef fat. So it was greasy and messy all the time. Since then I have gotten better and read more recipes. Now I buy fresh cherries, dry them myself, use a blender to make everything into dust and use really clean beef tallow. I roll my pemmican into a kind of "rope" about 3/4" in diameter and cut in pieces about 2" long and wrap them in Saran wrap and store them in ziplocks. I do not freeze them but store them in my cellar. I use pemmican when I am doing "period" treks and trail rides but it would not be my first choice if I have a choice.