Backpacking and Hiking Tips #5

-Gear:  Food and Cooking-

Yes, before you say it, this is another post about gear.  Remember that there is a lot of gear that you may carry while on an outing.

Food:  As with everything, light and easy to make/use is key to backpacking/hiking food.  Do NOT use cans and heavy items.  If you go to any outdoor store such as Bass Pro and Dick's you can find pouch bags of food.  These are light-weight, already set for about 1-4 servings (based on brand and size), and are easy to make.  Remember, that when backpacking you want a balanced set of food, since you will be on the trail and burning more calories than when at home.  As for when just taking a day hike, pick simple food like trail mix (ones filled with nuts and dehydrated fruit provide the most nutrition and variety of daily needs.  Remember, if it doesn't fit in your bag or adds a lot of weight, avoid it, try to find an alternative.

While backpacking at Devil's Marbleyard, a friend and I made small Pizzas

We did use a cast-iron skillet to do this

Cooking Gear:  In the world there are millions of different types of gear that can be used for cooking, the key to backpacking (since you should really try to avoid cooking if you're just hiking) is light-weight and multi-purpose.  When comes to actually cooking, I use two different types of sources:  a light-weight gas stove, or an open fire.  They are both highly effective and have their pros and cons (stove is easy to get going and control the heat though it only works as long as you have fuel, open fire provides warmth, multi-purpose use, can do more on it, but may be difficult to work in weather and has to constantly monitored)

Left and Top is my current cook gear, Right is my skillet and mess kit (old gear) and center bottom is my light-weight stove

For cooking supplies, I have used two different sets of gear.  On the right above you see a cast-iron skillet and a mess kit, both of these items worked great, the mess-kit was light, and the skillet was heavy-duty.  To the top of the photo is my current cook set.  It is lightweight, provides gear for two people (including plates, and cups) and folds completely upon itself.  To the left you see a large spoon, spatula, and sporks. They are plastic, so they clean easily and are reusable (yeah environmentally friendly!), I eventually want to get collapsible large wear to take up even more space (but these were cheap at Walmart, and cheap with efficiency is good enough for me)

Tomorrow I will go through the rest of my gear, including my fire bag, emergency/survival gear, and other key items.

Venture On!