When it comes to backcountry camping and backpacking, there’s nothing I have experimented with more than what I’m going to eat.

I used to pack a lot of freeze dried meals I purchased at the local outdoor gear store. Then on one trip, I found I could no longer stomach them. They all seemed to taste the same and I couldn’t force them down. I ended up eating M&M’s peanuts for breakfast, lunch and supper. Yikes! Now I pack food from the grocery store instead.

My menu has certainly evolved over the years and I’m still tweaking it.

In my post last year about the menu for my three-day solo backpacking trip, I provided some background on what I’ve learned and how I approach packing food. Click here to see the post:

2024 Expedition Menu

While the general concepts described there still hold, I packed a bit differently for this trip. Because we brought scrambling gear, I wanted to cut weight on our food. I didn’t bring any fresh fruit and vegetables.

We decided against a hot breakfast and instead liked having a granola bar, cheese and pepperoni sticks. Dan has a hard time eating first thing in the morning and these are things he can munch on while we’re hiking to whatever mountain we are climbing that day.

I aimed for 3,000 calories per day and it ended up being too much food. We may have been burning that much but we simply couldn’t eat enough to replace it. We packed out a lot of food.

Below I have pared down the expedition menu to what I believe will be an ideal quantity of food for our next 4-day expedition.

I have chosen food that we enjoy and will be able to eat. It’s not always easy to eat the foods we usually eat at home while we’re out in the backcountry.

Finally, because we were doing scrambles each day, we didn’t stop for a long lunch. Instead, we stopped every two hours to eat a snack. Typically we had three snack breaks each day.

Here’s the expedition menu.  Note that breakfasts, snacks and drinks are the same everyday. We had two different dinners.

What to eat ultimately comes down to personal preferences. What food do you like when you’re camping out in the backcountry? Please let me know in the comment box below.