Camping and Cooking for the Backpacker

What do I eat? This is an inevitable question when backpacking out on the trail. The increased caloric burn while backpacking demands that you fuel yourself properly and often. The key to these skills is understanding basic nutrition and basic camp stove use.

Nutrition

Nutrients include carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins, and minerals. They are found in a variety of foods and serve different functions in our bodies.

Carbohydrates provide the most efficient source of energy to the body. When you are hydrated, carbos are easy to break down and they go to work quickly. Our most common sources of carbohydrates are the sugars and starches found in grains, pastas, crackers, dried potatoes, cereals, and cocoas. Simple carbos (sugar) break down quickly, like kindling in a fire; complex carbos (starches) break down slowly, like a big log in a fire. Sugars give us quick bursts of energy; starches provide energy for hours.
Proteins are used to build muscle tissue, hormones, enzymes, and antibodies. They can serve as an energy source once carbohydrate sources are exhausted. Our protein comes from dairy products, grains, legumes, fish, nuts, seeds, and occasional meats.
Fat provides the body with additional calories for energy and gives us the feeling of being full. It is the most calorically dense food type. We get our fat from nuts, cheese, oils, peanut butter, fried trail foods, margarine, and butter.
Vitamins and minerals serve a variety of functions in our bodies. Some help release energy from food while others maintain bodily functions. For example, vitamin A helps with night vision, while sodium provides electrolyte balance. We get vitamins and minerals from occasional fresh fruits and vegetables by eating a wide range of food types each day.
Water is an integral part of healthy nutrition. Drink enough so that your urine is clear and copious all day long.
Changing caloric needs are a result of different climates and activities, as well as body weight and metabolism. Cold weather demands calories for the body to burn for heat production, as does strenuous exercise. In general, the average summer wilderness experience (backpacking, kayaking, etc.) requires that the average teen consume between 2500 and 3500 calories per day. A more strenuous activity, such as snow camping or mountaineering, requires between 3000 and 3700 calories. The most strenuous activities, such as extreme mountaineering, call for 3700-4500 calories per day.

The Outward Bound diet is largely plant-based for several reasons:

Plant food requires less energy, water, and natural resources to produce than meat. It is a more ecologically friendly diet.
The average American diet is too high in fat and calories, and especially high in saturated fat, which is routinely found in animal products.
Fresh meat has a short shelf life and is impractical in the field.
Canned meat is heavy and the can must be carried out. Meat also attracts animals more than other food.

Stove Use

Cooking on the trail is an experience in and of itself. While providing delicious meals when out in the wilderness, the stove is also a tool to be used very carefully.

The following checklist needs to be utilized every time the stove is utilized.

Assemble the stove and pump according to the diagram above.
Make sure that you have at least 1/3 of a bottle of white gas.
Pump the plunger 15-20 times (until you feel resistance).
Open the control valve slightly to leak liquid fuel into the priming cup until it is about 2/3 full, then turn the control valve off (a little more fuel will leak into the cup).
If any fuel spilled on the ground or on your stove board, wait for it to evaporate.
Move to the side of the stove, so your face, hands, and clothing are not above the burner.
Light the fuel in the cup. This is called "priming" the stove; you are heating the generator tube so that the fuel within it changes from a liquid state to a gas state.
Allow the fuel in the cup to burn until the flames seem to be dying out, then...
Turn the control valve slowly on, allowing more fuel (now in a gas form) to mix with the flames in the priming cup. If youa re too late, have another match ready to light the burner.
Your flame should now be a steady blue. If it's yellow, you may need to prime the stove longer.
For trouble-shooting stove problems, refer to the stove manual in your repair kit.

Resources:

Miller, Dorcas C., Good Food for Camp and Trail

NOLS, NOLS Cookery (1991)

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