Backpacking Food and Hiking Food

Friendly Carbohydrates

Backpacking food has always been ahead of the curve. Sports nutritionists have discovered something in recent years that backpackers have always known: carbohydrates are our friends. You know, carbohydrates. Sugars and starches.

Now there’s a contradiction here. That overweight guy sitting in front of the boob tube isn’t called a couch potato by accident. As one doctor told me, “Carbohydrates, taken in excess without exercise, lead inexorably to obesity.” In plain English, them double chocolate chips are what make you fat and prone to laziness.

On the other hand, carbohydrates do provide that “sudden burst of energy” often needed to get you going. That’s how we thought, in the good old days of the ‘60s and ‘70s when thinking about backpacking food. Nutrition, like life, was a lot simpler. We didn’t know the difference between refined carbohydrates, simple carbohydrates, or complex carbohydrates. Carbs were carbs, and they provided quick, short-lived energy. Fats and proteins provided long-lasting energy. These were perfect backpacking food. And nobody knew from cholesterol!

Now we have things like carbohydrate loading. At its most simple, this means you avoid carbohydrates completely until just before a strenuous activity---like a marathon race---then load up on nothing but complex carbs the day before. This provides a longer-term boost to see you through the unusually high energy demands you’ll be making on your body.

Afterwards, proteins, fats and trace minerals like potassium are needed to replenish depleted body resources. In theory, proteins should see you through any sustained exercise. Trouble is, they are difficult to digest and your body can’t cope with proteins and your elevated energy demands both.

That’s why your Momma told you not to go swimming after eating. The resulting cramps come from too many demands on the body’s systems. But it’s the ham and cheese that does it, not the corn chips. In point of fact, if your beach lunch consisted only of carbohydrates, you could swim with no danger.

So what’s this got to do with hiking food? It explains why long-distance backpackers could cover so much ground. Backpackers, typically, do not eat meals. Instead they munch their way down the trail, snacking almost continually on a series of high-carbohydrate backpacking food. Gorp (Good Old Raisins and Peanuts)---a freeform mixture of nuts, seeds, chocolate bits and dried fruits---is ubiquitous backpacking food across the trails of America. It’s even available, nowadays, premixed in health food stores and supermarkets. And it’s nothing but carbohydrates, with just enough oil to meet the body’s needs. Oil that backpackers wouldn’t otherwise eat, because you lose your taste for fats while hiking, especially as you gain altitude.

Traditionally, every backpacker carried a chocolate bar. And, almost in a tradition of its own, this was backpacking food that nobody actually ate. The oils were too much to face! So you got them from nuts and seeds instead.

The backpacker’s eating habits can serve the less strenuous needs of the day hiker, as well. After a light breakfast (or heavy, if you prefer; though I’ve never understood how anybody could eat a big breakfast on an empty stomach), set out on your day hike with a bunch of energy---which means high-carbohydrate--- hiking food in your fanny pack or day bag.

Gorp will do, certainly, and there are specialized energy bars formulated for walkers. But at almost four bucks a bar, they’re a little more than I want to spend. Besides which, most of them taste like reconstituted sawdust.

Fortunately, you can easily make your own high-energy power bars, at only pennies each.

I learned the first one from Colin Fletcher, who learned it from one of his readers back in the early 1970s; which shows you how far back this sort of thing has been going on.

In no particular quantities, mix together dried peaches, pears, apricots, dates or figs, raisins and other fruits. Mango and papaya make nice additions. Toss in some sunflower seeds or peanuts; maybe a handful of shredded coconut. Run this whole thing through a food grinder to form a thick paste.

Get a short section of PVC tubing---about four inches long and ¾ inch thick---and a wooden dowel the same diameters as the inside of the tube.

Force the fruit paste into the tubing, packing it solidly. Then use the stick to extrude it out. The result---fruit bar cylinders. You can leave them plain, or roll them in crushed nuts, sesame sunflower seeds, or powdered sugar.

Double wrap the fruit bars in plastic and foil. To use, peel the wrapping and eat the bar like a banana.

More recently my buddy Dave Reed taught me his trail snack recipe, and it’s a winner. For Dave’s Fruit Delights you’ll need a bag of dried apples, two bags mixed dried fruit, one cup peanut butter, ¾ cup honey and a handful of chocolate chips.

Cut all the dried fruit into smallish pieces. Mix all ingredients and shape into walnut-sized balls (it helps if you wet your hands). Roll in confectioners sugar, then wrap in plastic and foil.

Both the fruit bars and Dave’s Delights can be frozen indefinitely.

Finally, here’s a little backpacking food secret. You know those snacks you make from Rice Krispies and marshmallows? The ones so beloved of couch potatoes? Well, they make a great hiking food too!