toejam

Ed, I’m about your size and I gotta have a gallon of water a day. That makes a real heavy pack in places like Big Bend & Guadalupe – one of the big reasons I’ll usually stay on the road a few extra hours to go to the Rockies for serious backpacking trips. I don't mind the iodine taste, but I hate waiting to drink it and iodine is not effective against one of the prevalent bugs in the Rockies.

The gallon of water includes what I use for cooking, and my cooking is just boiling water. I have instant oatmeal for breakfast and for dinner I have the Lipton pouches of pasta or rice with tuna or canned chicken dumped in. I tried a pouch of ground beef earlier this year and it wasn’t very good – I’ll have to try it again with macaroni & chili powder. I’ve used the freeze dried just-add-water meals from the sports stores but they are just so expensive that I never get them anymore now that tuna and chicken come in foil pouches.

For lunch & snacks I bring bagels, beef jerky or summer sausage, cheese sticks, dried fruit, trail mix, granola bar, cliff bars if I can find ‘em (the best!). I also like to bring little tubs of apple sauce that can break open in your pack and little snickers bars, but these are my self-indulgences and not recommended.

Your diet probably needs to change on a backpacking trip because you are probably a lot more physically active than normal. Fat in your food is a good thing on the trail for energy, and plenty of dried fruit will keep the plumbing clear.