Hoh Rainforest Campsite, Washington

Hey Everybody! Welcome to the first guest post on the Blonde Coyote! I’m all for dividing up trip planning duties so I handed over meal planning to my adventure-partner-in-crime Drew, who’s a much better cook than I:

I can’t hike on an empty stomach. I need food for my adventures, but I don’t like to think of it as just simple fuel to power me down the trail. There’s something about taking a break from a hard hike that makes food taste so much more delicious and it turns simple trail meals into events that I look forward to all day. There’s no question that a tasty menu can make a trip dramatically more enjoyable, but there aren’t any grocery stores at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, so good planning is a necessity.

I like to get ideas for meals from Backpacker Magazine’s Dirtbag Gourmet columns and JetBoil’s website. I almost always end up modifying them to fit my personal tastes or to account for any dietary restrictions, but they’re a great place to start.

One of the general tricks that I’ll use all the time is using herbs and spices to provide lots of flavor without adding much appreciable weight. Just measure them into zip-top bags ahead of time and they can be stashed in the most over-stuffed pack.

Savage Gulf Campsite, Tennessee

In addition to the meals, we’ll have plenty of snacks for munching on while we hike. Everyone has their favorite backpacking snack, but I’m partial to dried mango and you can’t go wrong with a classic trail mix. I think ours is craisins, M&Ms, and cereal. Our breakfasts and lunches are going to be things like oatmeal and PB&J sandwiches — things that are simple and quick to prepare. Dinner is the time for making bigger meals that require more prep work because you don’t have to worry about the impending nightfall. Here are a couple of the new dinner recipes we’ll be trying out on this trip:

Chicken Avocado Tacos

Ingredients
4 small tortillas
1 foil packet of chicken
1 small onion
Cheddar cheese
1 tablespoon of chili powder
A pinch of cayenne pepper
1 Avocado

At Home
Dice the onion and store it in a zip-top bag along with the spices.

On the Trail
Dice the avocado and add it the bag with the onion and spices. Seal the bag and roll it between your hands to break down the avocado until it’s your desired consistency. I like to aim for something reminiscent of guacamole — a thick paste with some visible chunks remaining. Put some chicken into a tortilla, add the avocado-onion mixture, and top with a few pieces of cheese. Enjoy!

Notes
The avocado won’t holdup to being bounced around a backpack for several days, so this is a perfect candidate for the first dinner of the trip.

Pacific Crest Trail Resupply Store, California

Rice and Chicken

Ingredients
1 cup of instant rice
2 tablespoons dried onion flakes
1 packet of chicken
½ teaspoon sage
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper

At Home
Mix the rice and spices together in a zip-top bag.

On the Trail
Bring a cup of water to boil in the JetBoil and then add the bag of rice and spices. Turn the heat down and simmer the rice until it’s tender and the water is absorbed. Mix in the chicken. The heat from the cooked rice will warm the chicken very quickly.

Notes
Rice is a fantastic starting point for trail meals. It’s light, it cooks quickly, it’s filling, and it can be combined with an almost infinite number of other ingredients. This lets you create the illusion of variety without carrying a wide variety of carbohydrates.

Amy & Me, Bitterroot Mountains Campsite, Montana, moments after being bluff charged by an angry mother moose on the trail

Mac and Cheese

Ingredients
1 box of mac and cheese
4 tablespoons of powdered milk

At Home
Take the dry noodles out of the box and store them in a zip-top bag.

On the Trail
Cook the pasta according to the directions. Once they’re ready, transfer them back to the zip-top bag, and add the cheese packet. Seal the bag and squeeze it between your hands to mix everything together. This saves you the trouble of cleaning cheese sauce out of your JetBoil.

Notes
There’s no shame in using pre-made meals on the trail. Mac and cheese is cheap, light, and tasty. Truth be told, instant ramen is still one of my all-time favorite backpacking meals, but mac and cheese is at least one step above that on the Respectability Scale.

Nothing will ever top our amazing Inca Trail porters baking us a cake on the trail at 10,000 feet above sea level!

Those are a couple of the meals we’ll be having while we explore the Canyon. I honestly have no idea how my menu will pan out, but I’m really not worried about it. Some chefs will tell you that hunger is the best sauce. If that’s true, hiking all day should certainly work up enough of an appetite to make anything that we throw together taste good.

Personally, I think the great addition will be the landscape. It’s hard to imagine not enjoying what we’re eating when we can look up from the plate and see one of the greatest natural wonders in the world all around us.

Grand Canyon Sunset. Not a bad backdrop, no matter what's for dinner!

Check out my previous Grand Canyon posts: On Turning 30, Planning & Permits, Winter Backpacking, Packing For Backpacking and stay tuned for another on my Grand Canyon Road Trip!