10 Hiking Experts Reveal Their Favorite Backpacking Food

Pecorino Romano cheese is one of my absolute favorite hiking foods. Long lasting in the field, keeps well even in hot weather, has a good amount of sodium for some needed salty goodness, chock full of protein, fats, and calories per ounce, too. Best of all? Very scrumptious. 

The Roman Legions carried a hunk of this cheese on the march. Good enough for them. Good enough for me.

I really like anything that's nutritionally dense, healthy, and easy to eat without prep. Probars fit the bill nicely.

They cross off all of the checkboxes for health, vegan, blended not cooked, low-GI, high-fiber, and the list goes on.

What I really like about them is that the mix of nutrients gives me a slow-burn energy that goes on for a long time.

There's no sugar rush (and crash) like you get with some other bars. And lots of flavors means I don't get burnt out on them.

Most of my hikes are day hikes, so I'm packing snacks and a lunch that give me the power I need to hike the last five miles back to the trailhead. I go for low-glycemic, calorie and protein-rich foods. For good calories and sugars, I pack strawberries and fresh blueberries in a container. I'm not a fan of most energy bars, but I do like Kind Bars because they tend to be low on the sugar and high on the protein. I also pack a high cocoa % dark chocolate. For protein, you just can't beat beef jerky. However, I usually boil a couple of eggs the night before and pack them in a lightweight plastic container. 

One of my favorite lunchtime foods is a fish taco. My local grocer sells delicious homemade flour tortillas that I like to bring backpacking.

I also take a tuna packet, mayo packets, and hot sauce (preferably Sriracha) squeezed into a smaller container.

This taco concoction gives me a real energy boost on a long hike.

The only problem is it smells so good I have to ward off hungry campmates and bears.

For me, I try to still eat enough vegetables and fruit while I’m in the outdoors.

I love to make a Southwest rice dish in the evenings on hiking trips. It’s basically Southwest-flavored rice, dehydrated veggies, freeze-dried beef, and cheese all mixed together.

As far as foods go, chocolate and coffee are two must haves for me.

For snacks, I’m a sucker for tasty dried fruits like mango, pineapple, and apricot.

Most nights tenting in the backcountry I cook up the same basic dinner:
Instant mashed potatoes with instant soup (often Knorr brand).
Instant mashed potatoes are available in small grocery shops the world over as is instant soup.
To keep gear as light as possible I cook, eat and drink out of one pot.
I carry only one metal spoon. No knife, fork or spork.
To enhance the fairly bland base meal I add chili powder or lemon pepper. Then something like peanuts, raisins or tuna.
I never seem to tire of this grub. Cook up is fast using very little fuel. Clean-up quick and easy.

In my pre-keto days, some of my favorite trail snacks were the crunchy Nature Valley granola bars and fig newtons because they were too easy to just grab and go, even in tiny towns with limited variety for resupply.

My favorite go-to backpacking meal, before I went keto, was a package of Knorr rice sides with a packet of tuna/salmon/chicken added in - again because this is too easy to make and you can usually find those things in just about any town.

Now that I’m keto though, my go-to snacks are string cheese and homemade (sugar-free) beef jerky.

The best keto meal I’ve made on the trail, so far, is a package of broccoli/cauliflower rice cooked in olive oil, then add in precooked chicken and shredded, melty cheese.

My favorite meal out on the trail is Mountain House Biscuits & Gravy. I can eat them anytime of the day! They taste homemade and are my guilty pleasure when hiking.

My favorite quick meal, however, is what I call a Tuna Salad wrap which is just a packet of premixed tuna packet on a tortilla with a side of diced peaches to go with it.

My favorite snack by far is the Kind Dark Chocolate and Peanut Butter bar.

These days, due to work and family commitments, I don’t get out for more than 3 days at a time. The up side is that it is easy to carry supplies, so if there is the chance of making a fire I can pack my Wolf and Grizzly portable grill and a couple of steaks. Grilled, with a little olive oil, salt and a squeeze of lemon - you can’t go wrong.

When it comes to snacks, I make my own trail mix with cashews, almonds and cranberries. I also pack in a few Nakd bars which are simply delicious!

Quick cook porridge is my breakfast choice because it sets me up for a day of walking and I like to add a little honey or dried apricots.

Hiking foods we liked:

Chica – I took advantage of eating whatever I wanted: Jolly Ranchers and Sweetart mini’s for snacks and tortillas with chicken nuggets and mayo or Triscuits with cheese for meals.

Sunsets – I am a simple man, give me jerky, or any meat snack, and I am good. I never got tired of jerky no matter how often I ate it. I also, enjoyed dried fruit, particularly mango dusted in chili powder – mmmm. 

We did get very tired of a few meals on our Appalachian Trail thru-hike: Knorr Sides, Idahoian Mashed Potatoes, and peanut butter.