I’m looking to hear what you’re packing for long backpack
trips (7-10 days). Mountain house, self made, etc?

Thank you!

I'll start with the caveat that I follow a high fat, low carbohydrate approach to nutrition and avoid grains in my diet. And I usually consume around 3,000 calories daily. YMMV.

In the back country I usually run a combination of an instant Keto/Bulletproof coffee, freeze dried meals, dried or smoked meats, plantain chips and some nuts and dried fruits, and a protein supplement to have with dinner. I also have experimented with taking butter, ghee, tallow, and butter of the gods in with me to add to freeze dried meals to up the fat content.

For freeze dried meals I usually use egg based meals since most of them (not all) tend to not have any added grains and are the best bang for the buck on a caloric basis in my experience.


Freeze dried brands Brands I've used and am using this year.

Heathers Choice
Wild Zora
Peak Refuel - double portions in each pouch and the chicken coconut curry is delicious.
Packit Gourmet
Mountain House
Outdoor Pantry
Pinnacle Foods

Paleo Pro protein powder

Fat Fuel coffee - If you aren't used to eating a high fat diet don't try these for the first time on opening morning... I also add a table spoon of beef gelatin to each pack.


Brands I'm aware of but have not tried or used yet.

Stowaway Gourmet
Backpackers Pantry
Good2Go
Trailtopia
Alpine Aire
Mary Janes Farm

Thank you!

I appreciate the recommendation and will look into these suggestions. I certainly want to try them before my hunt.

Hey Jason, I've eaten a lot of Backpacker's Pantry and Mountain House, but I have switched mostly to Peak Refuel. As mentioned, the chicken coconut curry is pretty good. The beef stroganoff is great, and most of the pasta dishes are likewise quite good. Their breakfast skillet is excellent, and the biscuits and gravy are pretty darn good too. If you like faster cold breakfasts, the mountain berry granola is very good. That said, I often make my own breakfasts with my favorite cereal, dried fruit, and powdered milk in a Ziploc (or more recently my new Foodsaver).

I bought a bunch of the peak berry granola.

I bought lots of mountain house as well. I’m about ready. Thanks

My wife makes mine up with what I like to eat. Freeze dries it and packs it for me.

Heather's Choice
I met Heather at Barney's a few years back and she will do custom orders, which is a huge selling point for me as I have an onion allergy.

I also pack a few ziplock's of mixed nuts and cranberries, plus some M&M's

I also have a UL mesh coffee filter which clips on to the rim of my plastic travel cup that I bought from REI. I've found it works best with a paper filter in the mesh bag. Saves effort on cleaning it too.

quote:

Originally posted by TREE 'EM:
Heather's Choice
I met Heather at Barney's a few years back and she will do custom orders, which is a huge selling point for me as I have an onion allergy.

I also pack a few ziplock's of mixed nuts and cranberries, plus some M&M's

I also have a UL mesh coffee filter which clips on to the rim of my plastic travel cup that I bought from REI. I've found it works best with a paper filter in the mesh bag. Saves effort on cleaning it too.

That’s good to know about Heathers. My wife also has an onion allergy. Other than her (and now you), I have never met another person allergic to onions.

Thanks for all the help guys. I ended up going with Peak, Mountain House and some other dehydrated soups (cannot remember the name). I also bought a bunch of the starkist packs that I found surprisingly very good. I will use these when I am out hunting and do not have time to cook.

I just returned from an 11 day Mountain Goat hunt and was yet again reminded of an observation I have every time I’m in the back country and using freeze dried meals. With the exception of Heathers Choice the rest of the manufacture of freeze dried backpacking meals are out to lunch with respect to the cook times they publish on their packaging. Most brands recommend around 10 minutes of cook time which in my experience is complete horseschit… Heathers Choice recommends 20 minutes + 1 minute for every 1,000’ of elevation ASL. This gets meals pretty close to cooked and reconstituted and works well for the other brands as well.

Thanks David.

I just returned from sheep hunt and mainly ate the Mountain House dinners and the Peak Breakfasts (granola). For the most part, I like them. I did not like the Chicken Teriyaki as it was terrible in my opinion. The stroganoff, Chicken Dumplings and Chile Mac were good.
the second leg of my trip I took salt. This helped a lot!!

I am now stuck with a full tote of extra meals and miscellaneous snacks that was left over (yeah I bought WAAAY too much). I guess I will save it for next year.

Man, I can't believe I forgot to mention extra spices! Sorry about that. I carry, a bit of salt, steak seasoning, and my favorite, powdered green chile, to enhance the flavor of backpacking meals.

BTW, that sheep hunt was awesome! A desert bighorn is my dream animal. I loved your report.

Thanks and I like your user name! That hunt was certainly a dream and I hope you draw a tag in the future.

I had one of those ahhhh moments when my guide pulled out hot sauce and seasoning. I’ll be prepared for elk and deer hunting tomorrow.

Strangely, this backpacking has kind of grown on me.

quote:

Originally posted by DesertRam:
Man, I can't believe I forgot to mention extra spices! Sorry about that. I carry, a bit of salt, steak seasoning, and my favorite, powdered green chile, to enhance the flavor of backpacking meals.

BTW, that sheep hunt was awesome! A desert bighorn is my dream animal. I loved your report.

salt, pepper, garlic powder and or any other spices you might like.

While I don’t backpack like I used to I still get out some.

All of the brands listed above have been GTG for me.

One trick I learned a long time ago is buy a
Pouch of anything I dot. Have experience with and try it beforehand. I usually drive up in the high country somewhere and just make it at altitude at a trail head or a rest area. I prep it with only the items from my pack and only the slices I carry with me.

I have avoided a lot of bad meals this way.

I also make some items online if my own such as rice and tuna dishes.

One item I use mostly as breakfast and as a snack is called Matt Food.

Take your favorite peanut butter and put a BIG bowl (this becomes important later). Then storm in somewhere between 1/2 and a whole bear if honey. Now start adding in powdered milk till it is the consistency you desire. So w line it runnier I line it fairly hard and thick. If you mess it up just add more of each ingredient as needed. You can also add chopped note fruits and things like oats as you desire.

If it’s a cold breakfast morning I can just smear it on a bagel or two and be moving. I need fuel at a break just eat a big spoon full.


One other truck I’ll throw out there is I toss a big squeeze of butter into almost every meal I’m
Making for extra fat and calories. I sometimes use olive oil instead for the same reason.

My wife has talked me into buying a food dehydrator. We will use this for food storage and I’m going to experiment with some meals and other items.
In reality, looking back, the mountain house and other brands were just okay in my opinion. As expensive as they are, I’m going to try a few more options.

quote:

In reality, looking back, the mountain house and other brands were just okay in my opinion.

I have a butt load of many different brands now for backpacking. By the way, I clearly recall the days when there were literally NO commercially prepared backpacking meals and we constructed them from scratch. This was also long before the day of top ramen, dehydrated noodle meals, power or survival bars, etc. There was a small rudimentary survival type of store on the Canyon Road leading north out of Provo, Utah and we would go there to buy a few needed ingredients(like powdered eggs, powdered cocoa, tang, powdered milk, etc.) to make our own. We made our meals with either home made dehydrated items or other things that we could conjure up in our imaginations and find from the local grocery stores. Anything powdered was always a target, bullion cubes were also a must. But that was also back in the day when our only backpack frames for backpacking were the U.S. Army green wooden backpack frames that were World War II issued, surplused and purchased at the local Bob's Army and Navy store. We've come a long way baby!

quote:

Originally posted by Use Enough Gun:

quote:

In reality, looking back, the mountain house and other brands were just okay in my opinion.

I have a butt load of many different brands now for backpacking. By the way, I clearly recall the days when there were literally NO commercially prepared backpacking meals and we constructed them from scratch. This was also long before the day of top ramen, dehydrated noodle meals, power or survival bars, etc. There was a small rudimentary survival type of store on the Canyon Road leading north out of Provo, Utah and we would go there to buy a few needed ingredients(like powdered eggs, powdered cocoa, tang, powdered milk, etc.) to make our own. We made our meals with either home made dehydrated items or other things that we could conjure up in our imaginations and find from the local grocery stores. Anything powdered was always a target, bullion cubes were also a must. But that was also back in the day when our only backpack frames for backpacking were the U.S. Army green wooden backpack frames that were World War II issued, surplused and purchased at the local Bob's Army and Navy store. We've come a long way baby!

Is it not amazing that we were even able to survive back then ? I definitely have some new ideas going into the next hunting season. Now, the hard part is drawing a tag. I guess there is always the Utah General Deer tag if I really want to do a lot of hiking

quote:

Is it not amazing that we were even able to survive back then ?

Jason: We not only survived, we thrived!

quote:

Originally posted by Use Enough Gun:

quote:

Is it not amazing that we were even able to survive back then ?

Jason: We not only survived, we thrived!

You have that right! I really miss the Utah of old! Everyone knew everybody and we mostly agreed on everything.

quote:

I really miss the Utah of old! Everyone knew everybody and we mostly agreed on everything.

Yes, so true. Unfortunately, the development of and fame of Park City, Deer Valley, the Olympics and other things (like the Californication migration into Utah) have brought all kinds of folks to the Beehive State. In fact, I recall when my parents took me to this old abandoned mining town, that at that time had only a handful of residents and told me all about the town-Park City-as it was similar to Eureka, Utah where many of my relatives had worked early on in the mines in the Tintic mining district, some of which were owned by multi-millionaire Jesse Knight. My days growing up in Utah Valley spanned multi generations of living relatives, with some born in the late 1880's forward. Hunting and fishing were multi-generational family affairs, as were yearly family reunions, etc. Everyone knew everyone else. Low to non existent crime, with everyone leaving their keys in their cars and their front doors unlocked. Children playing outside until dark with no worries, etc. etc. etc. I, in fact, was one of the first in our little town of Spanish Fork, to be born in the tiny two room Hughes Memorial Hospital and not in a house. The best of times! No longer! But, I digress. . . . . . . .