All-season Food

I decided pretty early that it didn't make a lot of sense to carry heavy, moisture-laden food when it's so easy to add moisture during the cooking process. So, these days I pack commercial freeze-dried food for evening meals on hikes of up to a week. My favorite brands are Mountain House and Natural High. For longer trips I dehydrate food for the evening meal. For home dehydrating I use a Excalibur convection unit that I got from www.fernsnutrition.com . A great guide and menu planner is "Mel's Backcountry Dehydrator Cuisine," available from the author, Melanie Garside, at HCR 79 Box 188, Mammoth Lakes, Ca 93546.

Right before a trip, I package or repackage the dehydrated food in Glad Stand-and-Zip bags, which can be found in any grocery store. This allows me to simply add boiling water to the bag, let the food reconstitute for ten minutes or so, and then eat right of the bag. After I'm done I rinse out the bag and store it until I get home. If the bag is in good shape I wash it and use it again. Otherwise I throw it away.

This system has allowed me to eliminate food storage containers, cookware and cooking utensils from my pack. All I carry now is the bagged food, a Lexan spoon to eat it with, and an MSR Titan Kettle to heat the water. Added benefits are not having to cook and risk saturating my clothes with maneater-attracting odors, and not having to clean up dirty pots, pans and cooking utensils. As I eat either oatmeal, grits or dry cereal with milk powder and dehydrated fruit for breakfast, the Stand-and-Zip system works for breakfast, too. However, I have held the light-at-any-cost line at morning coffee, so I grind my own beans and carry fresh grounds in Mellita do-it-yourself coffee bags. (I also use the Titan Kettle for coffee. I've replaced the lid of the Kettle with a piece of baking foil. The Kettle and foil lid weigh 3.5 ounces. You can get one at www.rei.com .)

I don't prepare lunch. During the day I snack on a combination of GU energy gel and Next Edge Jog Mate Protein Muscle Recovery bars. I started doing this while running trails, as I found that when I snacked I felt much better at the end of the day, even if I was doing twenty miles. It works for hiking long distances, too. Both of these products are available at www.12nutrition.com .

I make one adjustment for really cold weather. I carry a plastic bottle filled with extra virgin olive oil, and I add an ounce of the oil to my evening meal or swig an ounce right before I go to bed. Olive oil is pure, high density, mostly mono-unsaturated fat, and I've found that adding it to my evening diet helps me sleep warmer and wake up with more energy.