Wilderness camping—also referred to as primitive camping—involves hiking into a remote wilderness area away from a designated campground. This requires planning and preparation for your gear and nutrition. To maintain energy on the trail, nutrition needs to be one of your main concerns, but choosing the right foods to eat can be overwhelming. Using your resources and being creative, however, can ensure that your wilderness camping trip involves delicious meals.
Types
Removing a cooler, refrigerator or other storage requires nonperishable food items during a wilderness camping trip. Avoid heavy food items, such as canned goods, that don’t supply a high amount of calories for the weight. Popular choices include energy bars, trail mix, nuts, military issued MREs, freeze-dried meals, dehydrated foods and homemade recipes from scratch. A wide range of types of food gives you versatility for what to eat while in the wilderness.
Methods
Cooking methods for wilderness camping typically include a backpacking stove or campfire. Some wilderness areas, however, prohibit campfires making a backpacking stove essential for preparing a hot meal. Along with the stove, you will need a mess kit and eating utensil. You can use the skillet or pan in the mess kit to prepare food or boil water for a freeze dried meal. If you need to boil water, you will need a water filtration system and hydration bladder to carry the water to the campsite. Breakfast and dinner are the most common meals for preparing, as you are typically in camp during these times. Lunch and snacks are commonly eaten along the trail and don’t involve extensive preparation.
Recipes
If you are considering making a homemade recipe in the wilderness, you can easily pack several nonperishable items to mix together at camp. The most popular recipes include breakfast items and trail bars. A backcountry breakfast recipe from the Quiet Journey website uses instant oatmeal, powdered milk, raisins, mixed nuts and brown sugar to make a hot breakfast. Another recipe that you can prepare before the trip and store in your backpack is for trail bars. The Wilderness Dining website combines oats, wheat germ, chocolate chips, honey and brown sugar to make a calorie-packed bar.
Benefits
Your primary goal for wilderness camping food is to consume enough calories to maintain energy levels while hiking. As you are hiking throughout the day, consume foods that are easy to digest. Foods high in carbohydrates such as crackers, pretzels or granola bars provide quick energy. Consume protein throughout the day with a balanced meal of carbohydrates, protein and fat for dinner.
Considerations
While in the wilderness, you don’t have easy access to a trash can, so always consider the cooking method and ease of clean up. Preparing a sophisticated wilderness meal makes it difficult to clean up and pack out trash. Plan each day’s nutrition and add variety for each meal. Aim for foods that provide a high amount of calories in relationship to their weight.
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