source: flickr © between a rock - a real hiking picknick feast!
Ah! The great hiking food debate – it’s one of life’s great dividers. Some people like to travel light and pack hardly any food for a hike in the hills. For others, half the pleasure of a day outdoors is a hearty mountaintop picnic. But what are the ideal foodstuffs for hiking?
The best foods are high-calorie, low weight items which give you energy without expending too much energy carrying it. Ideally, foods you take with you should be reasonably healthy to give you the energy and nutrition needed to sustain you on a long walk.
I’m quite old-fashioned in my trekking tastes and nearly always take a sandwich, banana and apple on my journey, plus the ubiquitous chocolate bar for that final burst of energy at the end of a long day.
A bag of trail mix and energy bars are lightweight and easy to stow into the daypack for longer hikes. These are energy giving foodstuffs which can help to sustain you during long walks.
For overnight backpacking trips, I tend to choose quick cooking meals such as wholemeal pasta flavoured with tomato paste in the evening and warming porridge in the morning. Both of these will slip in well around a one man tent and give off enormous amounts of slow release energy, so are perfect for weekend rambles. These are the foods that work for me but these still can’t beat a slap up meal in a mountain restaurant or cosy pub if there happens to be one en-route.
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You can get tucked up warmly in the product of the week:
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For my last few trips, I used to make some meatballs a day before I started my journey. I really enjoyed them, the following tow days.I’d just put them into a little cooling bag. It’s a good alternative for a nice hiking food, I reckon.
Joe