Meal Options for Bivy/Spike Camps
Elk
I'm new to the big country hunting in Colorado and am starting to plan my meals and snacks for the nights away from base camp. What are your go to meals while deep in the woods?
Peanut butter, honey, banana sandwiches are the answer to your prayers.
Besides that, Mountain house and oatmeal packets.
Dried fruit, jerky and nuts for snacks.
I usually have cliff bars, jerky, trail mix, and other various snacks. I usually have two packets of oatmeal in the morning when I get up plus a hot beverage. My big meal is usually mountain house. I've tried others but prefer them.
Mountain House, the other usual stuff listed above, dried mangoes for some fruit, and peanut butter-honey-bacon tortillas. I carry the honey separately in a little squeeze bottle to keep the rest from turning to goo.
My breakfast is a Power bar, granola bar, and high fiber brownie. I like coffee in the am so I carry a little plastic French press coffee mug and some coarse grounds and it steeps while I'm getting dressed.
I make my own trail mix in bulk from MMs, peanuts, cashews, craisins, raisins, and dried pineapple chunks.
No elk hunting for me, yet. But camping & hiking...
Mountain House + water packed chicken or dehydrated hamburger.
Instant potatoes.
Tortilla pizza with boboli sauce, string cheese & pepperoni. (Cover with tinfoil when baking/grilling.)
Www.bwca.Com => forums => camping recipes
"Peanut butter, honey, banana sandwiches are the answer to your prayers."
Ever since this showed up in eastmans like umpteen years ago, it's the first thing that shows up and the last thing that should pack unless you want to spend a few hours hugging a tree every other day....
Dried fruit, good protein, good fats, honey, instant coffee, f&ckin snickers!!, babybel cheeses, backpacker pantry, dried gatorade, salted cashews, grouse!, trail-berries (rasp, service, hucks), honeystinger waffles, starbursts, summer sausage (or equivalent), baby food pure, etc.
Peanut butter and bacon tortillas, summer sausage and cheese, homemade trail mix with a little of whatever I want, various power/trail bars, precooked salmon and noodles, precooked chicken with cheese and tortillas, instant mashed potatoes....a billion and one different freezer bag meals, bagels, cereals, and dried fruits.
I forgot Pop Tarts. One of the highest calorie-per-ounce foods available, and a tasty dessert after a dinner of "mush in a bag".
Mountain House.....ugh, but it works.
Watch the Gritty Bowmen podcasts, they cover this in a few episodes. Plus a bunch of other good backcountry gear episodes, just have to search through the episodes to find the applicable ones. YouTube them! We personally do mountain house in the evening if at all, rest of the time it's high calorie mre style power bars, beef jerky, hard salami with triscuits, mre style bags of dried fruit and sugar cookies.
Baguette in ziplock, resealable pepperoni (sliced), and Manchego cheese (tastes great and can handle a few days of moderate temps). Cook over coals in heavy duty foil.
I guarantee these taste far better than freeze dried meals and weigh just a little more.
I hang or bury my ingredients in a 3 gal ziplock and have done this in the woods dozens of time without any problems.
I like jerky for sure. Eating elk jerky gives me confidence. lol Also nuts. I prefer almonds and cashews. I like the occasional Jolly Rancher. Who doesn't like the green apple right.
You can add other stuff obviously but I think it's safe to say that most guys are living on some brand of ready to go dehydrated meals with Mountain House being the most popular. The best thing to do with those is try some different ones during the summer to see which ones you prefer. There's a thread somewhere from way back where someone asked what flavors everyone here liked.
Best of luck to you this fall.
In addition to the other great advice you might want to check out these options I just heard about this year
Heatherschoice.com
Paleomealstogo.com
Visit "makeyourgear.com". It has a lot of food you can buy in bulk and make your own meals out of. Very affordable company. You will save about $3 per meal versus the pre packaged stuff. God Bless
"Ever since this showed up in eastmans like umpteen years ago, it's the first thing that shows up and the last thing that should pack unless you want to spend a few hours hugging a tree every other day...."
Sound like you might have some digestive issues, might want to get that checked out.
Ike, those baguette and pepperoni sandwiches are the bomb! I use salami, pepperoni, provelone cheese, and squirt a little packet of dijon on after cooking. I keep a few in the cooler and throw one in my pack when I leave in the morning for a special lunch treat.
Breakfast-2 Pop Tarts and a 5-Hour-Energy. Chug a liter of water and go!
Snacks- Jerky, PayDay, Trail Mix
Lunch- Peanut Butter/Bacon/Honey Tortilla, Pepperoni Pizza Tortilla. Jet Boiled Grouse breast if so blessed.
Dinner- Mountain House
Best of Luck, Jeff
"High Fiber Brownie"... Is that what the kids in Colo are calling it now, Jaq?
A great, quick breakfast is Instant Breakfast, powdered milk, and protein powder in a ziploc. Just add water.
I think it was Cheesehead Mike who had the great idea to add a straw in the bag (the one's that bend), just stir up the mixture in the bag, and slurp it up with the straw. Super quick and easy.
+++ on the protein shake in a Ziploc. I have one of those every day.
"High Fiber brownie" sounds more benign than "Rocket Fuel Indica" brownie!
Pretty much covered above. Mountain house is a staple for sure. Trail mix, granola/candy bars of some sort.
I know it's heavy but a fresh apple/orange or two can be a real treat. Dried fruit just isn't the same. I miss my fresh fruit pretty quickly, but depends on how heavy and how long you're packing. Sometimes not feasible.
+1 to the powdered milk protein shake breakfast as well as the peanut butter/bacon/honey on whatever (bagels work ok too and are pretty durable as long as ya don't mind seeing stuff oozing out the bagel's, um... hole...seems to bother my partner...no, he's not druish...)
I like to carry a zip lock bag with some seasonings and maybe a bit of oil. Some tin foil. And a judo point in the quiver. A grouse or a rabbit or trout... heaven on earth after a few days of MH freeze dried. One year I made rabbit omelets with freeze dried eggs.... was great, the boys still bring it up to this day....
If you want a bit of a break, start stockpiling packets of mayo from restaurants. (Bought a case of em once from costco but they expired before I could use half of them) Packets don't require refrigeration. With some packets of tuna or chicken it makes a good quick sandwich without a hint of peanut butter =D
Fats and oils are good things in the mountains.
Ramen noodles with the meat packets above can change things up just a bit as well.
Kill something and the game changes fast.... we used to say hunt hungry and you'll kill more =D
COuldn't agree more with an apple or an orange or a fresh piece of fruit -- it's a game changer a few days in.
Haven't tried Heather's choice but Journal of Mountain Hunting sure plays them up.
Whatever you decide on, do not get the Three Bean Chili from Natural High. That is one I will always remember. The other freeze dried meals were always good. Some dry salami sticks and good cheese can keep for a number of days, apples are nice because you can eat the whole fruit and not have to carry the trash around.
Mountain House is the staple main meal.
I prefer crunchy Jiff on a single slice folded over in a ziplock with the air compressed out over the tortilla. Probably two to a bag. Works for me for a few days.
Candy bars, yum! The dilemma in bear country is if you want to risk sleeping with your Cliff bars over night so it doesn't feel like you are biting into an ice cube in the morning.
Jaq, how many pieces do those Pop tarts end up in? That sounds like a good idea, albeit I don't want to end up with too many sweets.
How in the world do you carry pop tarts without ending up with something you need a straw to eat?? Those things are pretty delicate!
Pop Tarts, Cliff bars and Mountain house all work well and I also do 2 packets of oatmeal each morning. Only hunted Elk once but use all the others mentioned when I am away from home for the month of Nov. Shawn
My pop tarts always end up as "something you need a straw to eat". What you really need is a horse or mule.. Then you freeze marinated chicken, burgers, steak and potatoes make then pack it up there in a soft cooler with a little dry ice eat like kings have room to pack out elk.
Breakfast:
MH Biscuits and Gravy or Breakfast skillet, Honey Nut Cheerios with Dark Chocolate Granola and Dark Chocolate chips. MH when time permits, cereal mixture when we need to be on the move quick.
Lunch:
PB/Bacon/Honey tortilla
Supper:
MH Chicken Ala King/Sweet Sour Chicken/Sweet and Sour Pork/Rice and Chicken/Lasagna are my favorites. Idahoan instant potatoes every night with the MH.
Snacks:
Jerky, Cashews, Chicken in Biscuit, Dove Darks, Cliff Bar, Butterscotch Candy, Protein mix/bar.
Pepperoni Rolls (bread dough with pepperoni baked inside), Mountain House meals, Power Bars, Gum. Very packable, no refrigeration needed.
The pepperoni rolls are a staple for all of my outdoor excursions. Just throw 1 or 2 in a day pack with some water and I have a packable lunch for the day.
Those pepperoni sandwiches idyllwildarcher makes is so good on the mountain, I tried them last year and they always will be in my pack. I have gotten burn out on mountain house and the last couple of years I have used heather's choice dehydrated meals for my dinners. Way less sodium and they taste really great, they are a little pricey but worth it to me.
Gabe
Is Mountain House really that good when not on the mountain or is it like that 2:00 AM pizza joint in college that was the best in town but then you ate it sober and wanted to puke?
"Is Mountain House really that good when not on the mountain or is it like that 2:00 AM pizza joint in college that was the best in town but then you ate it sober and wanted to puke?"
IMO, you nailed it with your pizza analogy. I LOVE Mountain House on the mountain. While explaining to my wife how awesome MH is on the mountain, I bought one of my favorites (Lasagna) to try at home with her. It was gross. There are ALOT of things I eat on the mountain, that I don't really care for in real life. Cliff Bars is another one...
I'll eat Chicken ala king anytime :)
"I'll eat Chicken ala king anytime" :)
Me Too...MH Chicken ala King is Da Bomb!
To keep pop tarts whole I pack them towards the top of the pack, and try to eat them early in the hunt. I don't seem to have the love/hate issue with Mountain House that some do. I eat them hunting and hiking year around.....maybe my taste buds have gone bad.....
Just notice this at the local Backcountry store.
http://goodto-go.com/
Breakfast- Honey Stinger Waffles (Very high in the calorie per ounce category) I can eat these things on the go.
Lunch/Snacks- Jerky, Clif Bars, Snickers, Trail mix, (I make my own). Peanut butter, bacon and honey sandwiches. (3 days worth as they are too heavy to carry for every day on a 7 day pack in). Also a homemade energy bar (ala Fuzzy)
Supper- MH Meal. Not too fussy. I won't eat the Chili Mac anymore though. It is not the taste, but dealing with the "after affects" that are unbearable. Mr Taggert would have keeled over dead in Blazing Saddles if the wranglers were eating those things. Favorites- Chicken Ala King, Sweet and Sour Pork, Beef Stroganoff.
At the truck, pop tarts, cookies and hard salami. Oh, and more Snickers!
I've been vacuum sealing a lot of stuff the last few trips. PB, honey, bacon wraps, mix a couple different cereals and powdered milk, just add water, dehydrated fruit and veggies(add to mountain house dinner), homemade trail mix and bars. I'm gonna try idyllwildarcher's baguettes and see how they are after a few days.
Old thread from on here! http://forums.bowsite.com/tf/bgforums/thread-print.cfm?threadid=353466&forum=5
