Trail eats

Our first big vacation and road trip together, and my first long backpacking excursion, was out to Utah in Canyonlands National Park. Zach has already mentioned what Canyonlands has taught him, but my biggest takeaway?

Never pack out a massive gallon bag of your homemade granola.

My granola was delicious. It was a healthy trail snack to boot. We ate a lot of it. But we literally carried a roughly FIVE POUND bag of granola around with us, and ate maybe 1/4 of it during the week. A three mile trek between sites in Canyonlands feels like 10 miles on flat ground, and it was miserable to be so poorly prepared and lugging so much extra weight. Obviously a huge priority for three months of backcountry and driving time is keeping food cheap and lightweight. We've gotten a lot better at managing our trail meals, though sometimes our food ends up looking pretty disgusting.



This was some dry package of jambalaya, I think?

There are some great resources out there for backcountry cooking, and I've taken a gander at a few books, but they frustrate me to no end. Many suggest that you take on complicated recipes that involve pre-trip prep in the kitchen and packing out small vials of truffle oil, roasted red peppers, or orange zest, etc, and I will. not. do. this. I can't imagine the chaos our packs would be if we had a whole section devoted to teensy little containers of condiments and spices. Not to mention that we won't have any sort of kitchen to do pre-trip prep in while we're on the road.

So we rely on some very no-frills meals. Who needs gourmet food when you're outside? At meal times, even with tent camping, I find that I'm grateful and ravenous for any food at all, and a standard package of red rice and beans feels like a total feast. If you're enjoying the same comforts and flavors of home while you're outdoors, I think you're doing it wrong. So does John Muir.

A three month trip is a special case, so I've been trying to poke around for some easy meals. Those packages of rice & beans might get boring after the first month. I turned to Backpacker.com and found a few helpful suggestions, like this simplistic Pad Thai knock-off. I don't know why we've never bought those little pouches of chicken or tuna before, that seems like an obvious choice for protein. I think I'll start compiling a list of ideas and have an experiment day to see what packs the most calories and protein while being the lightest, easiest to throw together, and cheapest.

Or we'll just have to forage.