Backpacking Food from the Appalachian Trail (5 Day Ultralight Meal Plan)

what is up Chris here fine of Greenville a meals today we're gonna go over a five-day four-night backpacking meal plan last time I made one of these was kind of a breakdown of what a typical resupply looked like when I was through hiking that place in trail I've tweaked a few things since then though and wanted to go over them first off let's go over four basic backpacking food criteria number one keep it light weight so nothing can for example no cans of baked beans and we also really want to minimize water weight so for example maybe you pack dried fruit instead of fresh fruit two pounds per day is a good rough rule of thumb your aim is to try to keep your food as light and packable as possible while also providing enough nutrition which brings us to number two get sufficient nutrition your burn rate will vary drastically depending on your gender your weight how many miles you're hiking and you really want to make sure you get a couple thousand calories a day if not several thousand calories a day and in addition to calories make sure to keep an eye on the other macros sources of protein carbs fat fiber now I've kept my meal plan to pretty natural ingredients and tried to get the nutrition from a variety of sources everyone's diet is different though so just use this as a benchmark for yourself and what you might want number three make sure all food is easy to prepare I personally only cook in the evening and the daytime I just want to hike and enjoy the scenery and the evening however I like to unwind and take out the stove and make a hot meal even then though I keep my meals to one-pot meals meaning I can cook the entire meal and a single pot it really helps simplify the cooking process and minimize cleanup and finally taste I am big on variety not just as in sweet and salty and spicy but also texture a lot of backpacking food has a tendency to be very mealy so I really try to make sure I have some other textures in there especially crispy and crunchy items now these are broken up by breakfast snacks lunch and at the top dinner with a little bit of stuff after dinner starting off with breakfast we have what I have been calling the concoction which get the lot of questions the recipe is constantly evolving this one though is oats pea protein powder and cookie mix I've added other things like milk powder seeds almond flour you name it I love it it's tasty within filling with the protein and fiber and really the best part is I can add cold water and mix it up in the morning when I just want to pack up and get going next up coffee I used to use these instant coffee packets like this I've since switched to pour over coffee pour over coffee is night and day better in my opinion I've never been a huge coffee connoisseur who will bring a French press nor a grinder out there but this is a great middle option these filters are super simple you add coffee grounds in here pour hot water on top of them and the company strains out the bottom into your cup this one is too small and will probably burn your hand holding it so check out some bigger ones with a lip I know MSR makes a good one these are simple lightweight easy to clean and reusable then we've got snacks I'll mix these up as I want throughout the days mid-morning with no real set schedule we've got trail mix nothing fancy here are classic nuts raisins M&Ms and banana chips blend I also have dried mango kind of like a fruit leather or candy when I just really want something sweet almond butter nice and fatty and filling i'll eat it by the spoonful kale i really like to pack some greens on the trail I've been a seaweed fan for a while but the taste admittedly gets to me sometimes it kind of reminds me of fish food dried kale however tastes delicious and is really crispy this one in particular comes with some coated with like ground sunflower and sesame seeds really good then we got potato chips these are actually Cape Cod take up a lot of volume and usually get smashed down very early on but I still love the crunch and they add a lot of fat carbs and sodium next up lunch green building meals I started making these after through hiking the Appalachian Trail wanted to make a high-calorie ready-to-eat meal with all natural ingredients each pouch comes with two meal bars that provide 650 plus calories with a lot of carbs protein fat fiber and sodium so I've got a variety of all five flavors here I really like to eat these as a fast lunch then we've got dinner basically have precooked chicken packets as a protein source then instant rice and rice noodles as a carb base and soy sauce olive oil and sriracha as seasonings again I like to get some greens out there so I have a head of broccoli on the side ideally it would be added in and cooked with some of this but I'm totally fine to eat it raw so probably do two nights with the instant rice and chicken and two nights with the rice noodles and chicken well mix and matching the condiments and how I want them the rice and the noodles both cook very fast that's why I like them you can use a lot of other meats and car bases in here though tuna salmon beef jerky couscous all sorts of stuff and after dinner I'll have tea this is chamomile and ginger helps I mean get a good night rest after a long day of hiking and also packed some fruit gummies I love candy and always try to pack something on a trail to look forward to at the end of the day and I don't have it here but I usually packed some sort of whiskey as well again I just like having something to look forward to the end of the day it's really nice having two by the fire so there you go five days of food really hope you enjoyed peace

Channel: Greenbelly

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Id: dF-LtRKsMhA

Length: 5min 45sec (345 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 06 2020