So I'm planning a 5 day hunting trip with some buddies and I'm a little stumped on what to drag up the mountain side to sustain myself.
Generally hunting in my circle involves two or more camp trailers and a shower/bathroom/TV room within walking distance. We all know we are in for trouble but heck it should be fun.

My biggest concern is water, and my question is: Do you pack up your own water or are the filters enough to get you by? I mean 5 days is minimum 80 oz, which is a gallon and a pint, so that weighs around 8.5 lbs???
As for food, most I can think of is Protein Bars and Tuna foil packs.
The other two things I plan to look out for will be the amount of beer snuck up the mountain and the moment when someone realizes the forgot to bring 'mountain money'.

Get a purifier. You will not be able to carry enough water for one day of exertion let alone 5 days. I like to bring a bagel and peanut butter for each morning plus a instant oatmeal. It is light(weight wise) and filling. Lunch and daily snacks are tuna, like you said, at least 2 energy bars a day plus trail mix(HOMEMADE MIXTURE). Dinner is a double meal of dehyrdrated backpack food and dessert is a candy bar. Sounds like a lot of calories, but you need them. Also, you can bring gatoraide, cytomax, or another energy drink packet to break-up the only water cycle. I also bring instant coffee in a vacuum seal bag to reduce size. Bring a coffee pot with the measurements marked on the side for the meals and to boil water for coffee. SORRY, NO BEER!! It is heavy as heck and you will be jettisoning it or drinking it on the hike in. Oh yeah, lots of advil, even if you are in shape. One last thing don't forget duct tape.....Great for blisters stopping bleeding cuts etc......Lastly, might want to take a trip for a weekend and see what works for you and what does not. One more word......I like the propane burner you can screw onto a green bottle.....No fuss like gas and two fit into the side pocket of a backpack nicely.

80 ounces of water for 5 days?!?!? You're gonna be reeeeeal thirsty. On backpacking trips I usually drink about 96 ounces, per day. 5 days worth would weigh 60 pounds (128oz per gallon)... The best thing going now for backpacking and water is Aquamira. Google it and get some. Just as effective as filters, and takes up far less room. As far as food goes, you'll need a well balanced diet. The best things for that are MILITARY MRE'S. Not the knock-off brands, but the real deal. You're not "supposed" to be able to buy them, but they're available. Look around for internet auctions They can be bulky, but each meal contains around 1200+ calories, nutritionally balanced to meet the needs of combat soldiers in the field. They have water activated heaters in them too. I do take a little alcohol on backpacking trips to finish off a hard day. Pack in HIGH proof alcohol. Most bang for the buck, and very compact and lightweight. Also doubles nicely as a fire starter if you need... Food and water are the most important elements to successful backpacking. Don't skimp. It will ruin your trip.

I use purifier, for some and boil some also. My meals are instant oatmeal for breakfast with suger and a little jerky and some type of breakfast bar. Fot lunch when I am out hunting some hard candy to suck on, dried fruit more jerky and a candy bar. For dinner I use MT. House freeze dried meals If one is working hard about 1.5 more then the meal size says. Or one can take a 2 person pack add some rice or noddles and have enough for 2 people. I take some freeze dried veggies also. They help bulk up the meals.

For drink I take tang and most ot the time drink it hot. It is amazeing how boiled water get old after a few days. Do some careful plaing it is real easy to weigh ones self down with to much food. But on the other hand it is just as easy not to bring enough.

I also bring salt and pepper and some garlic powder really helps the taste of stuff.

I have found that as I get older Iam 50 I find myself bring less food.

No offense, p dog, but in my opinion, the MT house meals are really on the light side of calorie intake, especially if one is working hard. A two person meal only has 500 calories, total!! Eat three, two person servings a day, and you're still 25% UNDER the RDA for calorie intake for normally active people. Unless you don't eat much, those meals are way under powered for most of the population. Eat well, hunt hard...

I love to take a tub of halvah. The romans marched on the stuff-it's tried and true. You can increase your calories by eating halvah really fast as it's calorie dense. Dried fruit and nuts are very calorie rich also. The fruit swells in your stomach after you drink water and it fills you quite nicely. Go look around your favorite grocery store and you'll be surprised at the instant/dry foods available. There are all kinds of noodles and soups, etc. You can add a few tablespoons of bran to them and increase the fiber that these foods sadly lack. Bring some dried sausages and jerky etc. and you'll be set.

A few apples or carrots although relatively heavy will be nice for the first couple days, the longer you stay out the less good nutrition you will get and it's good to try and stock up on vitamins early in the trip. You'll be lacking them in the later stages.

Also look at the bulk section-that's the place to make your own trail mix. If you put the stuff you like into it, it will be a treat to eat instead of a chore. I like dried mango,pineapple, apples, banana chips, apricots, almonds, those corn kernels, pistacios, etc. I hate peanuts in that stuff and the premixed ones are full of el cheapo peanuts...ug. I also put MANY large chunks of callebaut chololate (dark and white) this is also calorie rich and gets me a little caffeine throughout the day. A two pound bag like that will be lunch and snacks for 3 days easy. I don't put any salted items in the trail mix because it salts the whole lot and I personally don't like that. A pack of noodles will have all the salt you need for many days anyway.

the chef

Oh man......guys.....this ain't hardcore camping or packing.......I think I saw several tailers mentioned.?!

Water..........if you boil it you can do what ever with it. I am sure the streams will provide you with all the water you want (well, depending on where you are).

Lots of miles on these old feet and of all the trail food on the market I have to agree with ManCannon on the value of the "real" MREs. Can't tell you how many of these I've eaten, especially this past year. Break them down, carry what is necessary. Bury the heater when you are done, it will break down and decompose. Little weighty perhaps but don't require water. Just my experience guys,
SFC E7

ManCannon No offense taken.

Each person needs vari a bit As I found that as I have gotten older I carry less food. When I was in my 20's I good eat like a horse and not gain weight when I hit 30's I had to eat less and still put extra pounds on it I did not watch it, 40's need even less now that I am in my 50's I just find I need less food to go around. I am fairly active run 3 times a week bike a 100 miles a week and lift in the mornings before a I go to work.

I find that the MT. house stuff is tastey and a good start. I use it as a good base offen adding stuff as needed.

I don't know how many times I have come across back packers way over loaded with extra food One would have thought they had a horse along to carry it. Did it my self the first couple of times.

As I said before it takes careful planing and a couple of trips under ones belt before one learns what is right for them.

Take the food you need not what you think you well need doing that well overload you quickly.

As for MRE's I eaten a lot of them to But I find them to be to heavey for extended trips away from the trail head. But one can break them apart and the main course's can be use for something differant.

Good hunting and Good eating.

Trailers were mentioned. Puma is accustomed to hunting from trailers....seems this is a back packing trip though. Any food that is heat and eat is yummy but there is extra water in it, lots of water in fact. If you can get water where you're going for heavens sakes don't pack it in with you. That applies to both food items and your canteen. Water filters are great because they can clean up some pretty bad water, the two part chemicals are nice though because they are a lot lighter. So I guess what you need to decide is what the water quality is in the area you're going to. If a couple drops of chemical will kill the bad things and the water is clean enough to drink, then that's what you need. I've packed in beer too, only a couple cans but dam is it tasty at the top!!

the chef

I have seen but not used those cylindrical filters that are suppose to remove all the nasty items out of the water, but they are slow and producing any kind of volume, other than what you are actually drinking, would seem to be a problem.

Thanks for all the replies!

So after doing some research it looks like there are going to be at least two streams within a short distance from where we will setup. It is about a 4 hour walk to where we want to go. And yes ,no trailers this time! My brother (the instigator) is getting two Katadyn(sp) water purifiers. That should take a few pounds out of my pack.
I was also checking around for some kind of easy packing lantern, have seen a few dynamo ones but will most likely stick to propane as we can use for warmth too.

Bluepuma: You mentioned using a propane lantern, but you probably meant a propane/butane lantern. Pure propane requires thick (heavy) steel-walled containers to hold the pressure, not good for backpacking. Propane/butane mixtures can be contained in a thin-walled (light) cartridge, which is what you want. You can also get stoves that use the cartridges so you won’t have to carry two kinds of fuel. If you’re going to bring a lantern for sure, I’d suggest getting both a stove (or two, they’re small and light) and lantern that run on the propane/butane cartridges. I’ve use these lanterns for years, and recently got one from primus that’s ideal for backpacking. It’s got a wire mesh globe instead of glass, and it’s about the size of a small child’s fist. I forget the model name/number, but I’m sure you can find it on the Primus website, or on the REI website. If you do get a cartridge stove, check out the MSR Pocket Rocket. They’re so light you won’t even know you’re packing them.

As far as grub goes, think of your food as fuel and try to bring the foods that pack the most calories into the smallest packages. Dense foods with a lot of fat are good, like hard salami and cheeses. With crackers or dense bread, this is all I need for lunch, maybe with a tin or two of sardines or smoke oysters thrown in for variety. These are heavy, so you need to balance them out with lightweight dehydrated foods like the Mountain House or the Lipton Noodle mixes that only require water, and things like oatmeal. I like to bring the foil packages of chicken and add them to the noodle mixes, along with a couple of tablespoons of clarified butter or ghee. This really adds taste and calories without too much weight. Some people like instant oatmeal, but I’ve never been a big fan of it. I bring the regular kind, it only takes 5minutes to cook in the morning. Add some chopped walnuts, raisins, a little cinnamon and some of the clarified butter and you’ll have a meal with plenty of calories that will power you up the hills and keep you going until lunchtime.

And bring plenty of snacks like the protein bars for between meals.

I’ve also used the Katadyn Hiker (used to be made by Pur) water filters for years, and they are the way to go IMO. Also, IMO, you won’t need to bring two filters, one is plenty for a short trip. Also, filtering water is a chore that will take you 15-20 minutes a day so it’s best to have a collapsible container so you can filter a lot at once and store it. I like the MSR Dromedary bags, and usually bring a couple of six liter bags to store filtered water. Be careful to keep them from freezing, though.

Also, check out the message board/forum on this website : www.kifaru.net

It has tons of backpack hunting info., as a matter of fact thisis where I heard about the Primus lantern and if you did a search there on the camping/backpacking forum I'm sure you'd find discussions of lanterns, stoves, you name it.

And good luck on your hunt.

Update: bluepuma, the propane/butane lantern I was describing above is the Primus Alpine Micron, and you can order one here:

http://moontrail.com/primus-micronlantern.php

or here:

www.backcountrygear.com

A good discussion of backpacking lanterns is on this thread:

http://forums.kifaru.net/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=4;t=000311

And again, if you go to this forum, you can do a key word search on many bakcpacking subjects and come up with good advice from guys who know backpack hunting.

quote:

As far as grub goes, think of your food as fuel and try to bring the foods that pack the most calories into the smallest packages. Dense foods with a lot of fat are good

Be very careful here... Food is fuel, but it's not all created equal. Fat does have a very high calorie to weight ratio, but the body isn't a very efficient converter of fat to energy. Carbohydrates, simple and complex, combined with protein, make the best food combination. Extraction of energy from these foods is fast and efficient, delivering a better "total" output than the same amount (calories) of fat.

Good point on the carbohydrates, but I'd have to disagree that a carb/protein mix is best. Also, if you read the post I was recommending the addition of high-calorie fats (and protein, we're talking cheese, salami, saridnes, etc.) to carbohydrates, not a fats only diet. A backpacker during hunting season needs a lot of calories just to stay warm. Not to mention cover several miles daily, especially if you're in the mountains. While it's true that carbohydrates are essential, most backpacking foods, including the ones mentioned in all the posts above like oatmeal, Mountian House and Lipton Noddle mixes, and even "protein bars" are loaded with carbohydrates. So getting enough carbohydrates in the diet is rarely a problem. In cold weather backpacking/hunting situations, getting enough calories can be a problem and the way to make sure you get enough calories is by mixing in fat in the form of things like cheese, salami, and sardines as mentioned above. These foods are also high in protein, and if eaten with crackers or dense breads as described above will provide a good mix of carbs, protein, and fat.

I know this diet works because it's what I use elk hunting in the Rockies out of a backpack. I cover anywhere from 2 to 8 miles in a day, and I can tell a huge difference between a carbohydrate only breakfast like oatmeal, and one where I mix in fats in the form of ghee or clarified butter and/or walnuts.

Bluepuma,
Take a water filter for when you need it. Have some sort of water container as well, either MSR dromedary bags or the collapsible, clear plastic water containers to keep at camp. If possible, camp close to a spring or where water drips/streams from the hillside. That water should be clean enough (no visible critters or matter) that you can drop in a few Katadyn micropur tablets to disinfect the water.
http://www.katadyn.ch/site/us/home/outdoor_products/our...icropur_mp1_tablets/
You can also get a Katadyn camp filter to let gravity filter water for you. Should not be used when below freezing.
http://www.katadyn.ch/site/us/home/outdoor_products/our...ts/endurance_series/
For adding flavor to water, look for the single serve Crystal Light lemonade packets. They are great to add to a 32 oz nalgene bottle.
Food- I use a combination of items:
Breakfast is 1 or 2 cups of cocoa and either 2 packs instant oatmeal or a mountain house granola with blueberries with hot or cold water.
Lunch is 1 or 2 multi grain bagels with beef jerky and a candy bar.
Dinner is a mountain house 2 serving entree.
Add a couple of candy bars plus a granola bar or 2 to each day and you are set. Just eat often during the day instead of waiting for a huge lunch all at once. Freeze drieds will save you alot of weight compared to most other meals. Drink lots of water each day.