Packing Food For A Hiking Trip

A short hike doesn't require more than a granola bar and a water bottle. However, long hikes and overnight hikes mean packing along your food. "Backpacker" magazine correspondent Jaime Bard notes that packing the right food correctly is a major challenge of long hikes.

Weight, Size and Durability

Heavy foods make for a heavy pack. Light but large foods take up too much space. Fragile foods deteriorate or get crushed over a day in a backpack. Planning and packing your hiking menu means accounting for all three considerations. Outdoor Places recommends tough, compact foods such as beef jerky, trail mix, hard cheese, crackers and peanut butter for foods to pack while hiking.

Remember Water

Bring 1/2 gallon of drinking water per person per day, plus that much again if you won't have access to nonpotable water for cleaning up. A gallon of water weighs just over 7 lbs. and takes up a chunk of backpack space. You can hang water off the clips in your pack, or carry it in thermoses and canteens, but you will want to account for the weight and space.

Re-Use Containers

Bard recommends packing food in resealable, preferably collapsible containers such as locking baggies. You can fold these up to create extra space as you eat your supplies, or use the containers to hold wet clothes and other items you want to separate from the rest of your pack.

Animal-Proof Storage

Bears, raccoons and other animals are attracted to the smell of food and will go to surprising lengths to get at yours. Back country hiker Pat Whitesell suggests bringing 10 to 15 feet of rope per pack if you hike overnight. Use the rope to string up your packs, hanging from a tree branch at least 8 feet off the ground and 6 feet from the tree. This will keep animals out. Hang your supplies 20 to 50 yards from your campsite so that exploring animals don't stumble into you.

Pack Tools

If you need tools to access your food, bring them. This includes can openers, bottle openers, knife, fork, one sharp knife and cooking utensils. If you don't want to cook over a fire, you'll also want to bring a camp stove. Note that many of your needed tools are taken care of with a single, compact pocket knife or multitool.

Get Sample Sizes

Bard suggests bringing seasonings, condiments and other ingredients in sample-sized containers. You can get these for free at fast-food restaurants or inexpensively in most stores. These containers are the right size, and often come in burnable packaging.