Typical Backpacking Food

Eating is an essential part of the backpacking experience: It doesn't only boost your spirits after a long, hard day of slogging, it provides the caloric firepower to pull the slogging off in the first place. Crucially, a wilderness menu doesn't need to be unpalatable; the creative backpacker can feast just as well in the high country or swamps as at home.

Snacks

Eating energy-rich snacks along the trail keeps the muscles churning and the stomach satiated during strenuous trekking. Fruits, nuts and chocolate are time-tested treats, and premixed granola will go a long way to filling you up throughout the day. Cheeses are pleasant for munching, too, but their perishability varies.

Cold Foods

On short trips, some backpackers eschew stoves and subsist on cold foods like cheese, fruits, nuts, bread, smoked meats and jerky, peanut butter and the like--a perfectly reasonable option and one that conserves the energy otherwise expended in fuel and cooking water. Always keep in mind spoilage potential, and consume more perishable food items first. Cold-weather and winter backpacking trips may accommodate more items that require refrigeration.

Full Meals

Many backpackers rely mostly on dehydrated foods, which can be prepared by oneself with a food dehydrator or purchased at the store. While commercial dehydrated-meal packages are fine, investing in the equipment and knowledge necessary for drying your own food can pay dividends in the wide variety of meals you can make on the trail. Base ingredients like rice and pasta, both of which can be packed efficiently, can be incorporated into daily meals to boost carbohydrates and diversify the gustatory experience. Protein-rich beans are also invaluable additions to the backpack kitchen; dried beans, which must be soaked in water for an extended period to prepare for cooking, take up less room than water-packed canned beans. Potatoes will usually keep for a few weeks, or you can buy or prepare them in dehydrated form.

Other Ingredients

Packing along spices and sauces takes a little extra space, but these culinary accessories lend much flavor and variety to your wilderness meals. Cooking oils sealed in compact containers, or clarified butter or margarine, are usually worth their modest weight. Powdered milk and drink mixes give you more beverage options with hardly any extra weight or space required, and can make filtered and purified water more palatable where necessary.

Wild Foods

Some backpackers with the proper permits tote along their fishing gear to enliven dinner with a cooked trout or catfish. In some areas and seasons, and depending on the regulations pertaining to whatever land you are backpacking on, other wild foods--huckleberries or mushrooms, for example--may be a tasty supplement to your cuisine. Always take extreme care, however, to properly identify everything you gather and consume: Certain mushrooms, for example, can be fatal if ingested.