Are you planning to hike or doing a trail and you don’t know which food you should bring with you? Don’t worry! we made a compilation of the best food tips for hiking and doing a trail for you, because doing a route requires more than a bottle of water and a few energy bars.
- Define with detail your trail
The first and most important step is describing with detail how your trail would be like. In this sense, you need to know:
- The intensity and difficulty of your route. It might be one of the most important food tips for hiking and doing a trail
- When you are going to start the trail and when you are going to finish it
- What foods and drinks you will carry
- If you need some accessories like spoons, forks or mugs
- If the place where you’re doing your route is too hot, probably you will need a portable cooler or an ice pack
Having all these things under control is the first food tip for hiking and trail because it will make you know what foods you should carry.
2. Which foods you should take with you
The second food tip for hiking and trail is paying special attention to the length of your route; the choice about which foods to take with you will depend on it. Remember that your body needs sugars and fats for doing exercise and here you have some foods that contain them.
Short route
If your route is going to be short (2 to 4 hours), it will be enough to take with you some food, as energy bars, nuts or fruit and, of course, some water.
Long route
On the other hand, if the trail is going to be longer, we strongly advice to you to do more than one stop for eating. What can you eat? Well, continuing with these food tips for hiking and trail, you have different options, but some of them that we propose you are:
- nuts (almonds, peanuts, macadamias…)
- fruits (apples, peaches, apricots, …)
- veggies, like ready-made salads
- granola
- tortillas
- sandwich
- etc
If you want to go further, you can prepare your favorite pasta, salmon or meat, you can enjoy a big variety of meals. The bad part of this is that you will have to eat it cold.
So here it goes another food tip for hiking and trail: If you want, you can choose, food that’s already prepared and with self-heating system, so you can enjoy hot and delicious food. Some of them, as Forestia food, offers you a big variety of meals.
3. Remember hydration is vital
Our body is on its majority composed by water. It’s not surprising that in situations in which we do some exercise we need to hydrate it constantly. It’s so important that it deserves a place in our list of food tips for hiking and trail.
If you need a measure, we would tell you that before doing a hike it’s advisable to drink 4 cups of water. Later, every hour of hiking and trail you should drink 2 cups of water. This is a good formula to make all this as easy as possible and for being well hydrated.
It’s also a good food tip for hiking and trail to have with you a portable water filter. It’s very possible that you find on your route a drinking water source. Don’t hesitate to enjoy this fresh water with amazing taste.
4. Keep your food properly
So important as our previous food tips for hiking and trail, is to consider some security measures for assuring that your food is kept in perfect conditions.
The first one: Your food can’t never be exposed to a higher temperature than 32ºC for more than one hour. And when it’s time to cook it, don’t forget to do it to the right temperature. You can also use a food thermometer in order to be completely sure.
5. Don’t forget the utensils that you will need
When it’s time to eat, you can need, depending on the food that you have chosen, some utensils.
Some of them can be bowls, plates, pots, or some accessories as spoons, mugs, etc… It’s a food tip for hiking and trail that you will really appreciate on your route because it can be really useful for these situations in which you’re eating on outdoors.
Of course, it won’t be as comfortable as eating at home, but we can assure that you will enjoy a beautiful landscape in nature, an experience that you will really love.
We hope that these food tips for hiking and trail have been useful for you. We had been keeping one last tip for you, but not less important: Don’t forget that the food that you eat can be tasty. Hiking and doing a trail can be hard, and you will notice that after some hours of walking you will be hungry and you will need to stop.
If you take delicious food with you on your routes, you will really appreciate it. So we recommend you to dedicate some time to prepare your favorite aliments, following our second food tip for hiking and trail.
Finally, you can also get some already prepared foods, so you can save time and even enjoy of hot food during your routes. You can find many options in the market, as Forestia, so it’s a good option to taste some of them, compare them and choose the ones you prefer .