I start a 7-day trip on Tuesday in the Wind River Range. My partners — Buzz Burrell and Peter Bakwin — are both studs and we’ll be getting after it on a traverse of the entire range that is bookended by the southernmost and northermost 13ers and that goes through the heart of the range’s most rugged terrain in the northeast corner. The 100-mile route features 30,000+ vertical feet of gain (and ditto for loss) and about 60 miles of off-trail travel.

Needless to say, on a trip like this, excess weight (gear, food, body) is undesirable and food has the utilitarian role as fuel. I’ll post details about my gear elsewhere, but here are the details of my food:

2 x half-days (Day 1, Day 7)

5 x full days

= 6 full days of food

Breakfast

In the essence of time, my morning coffee must be consumed on-the-go. So I made chocolate-coffee bean patties by melting chocolate morsels and mixing in whole coffee beans. Each patty has 2.8 oz of chocolate and .7 oz of coffee (my standard morning fix). To help avoid a crash-and-burn effect from the combination of all that sugar and caffeine, I added 1.5 oz of nuts (walnuts or almonds) to each breakfast; I might also space out the eating of those patties.

Daytime snacks

Every 2-2.5 hours I will consume a 3-oz snack. Its typical trail food, with a mix of sweet, sweet-and-salty, salty, and protein:

Protein bars

Beef jerky

Pringles

Chocolate-covered raisins

Chocolate-covered pecans

Oreo cookies

Yogurt-covered pretzels

Cashew/almond squares

Greenbelly Meal Bars

Dinners

I prepared six dinners using four recipes:

Beans & rice with cheese and taco seasoning

Polenta with olive oil, peppers, Parmesan, tomato powder, and garlic

Potatoes with olive oil, Parmesan, basil, garlic, and sun-dried tomatoes (2x)

Noodles with peanut sauce (2x)

Each meal weighs about 6.75 oz total and packs 750-800 calories. The recipes are based on those I use for my guided trips. When I prepare those meals in bulk next month for my September trips, I will post details and photos.

Food storage

For quick access, I keep all the food I’m going to eat today in a bag near the top of my pack; if kept outside the pack, my chocolate would melt in the sun. Typically I use a quart-sized Ziploc Easy Zipper Freezer Bag, which has a baffled bottom (for extra volume) and which is wider than it is long for easy picking.

To store the food I will eat tonight and on future days, I use a 12.5×20 Aloksak OPSak. When new, these bags are odorproof, which would help to reduce bear and rodent problems. My bag is definitely not new and it definitely smells like food, but I use it anyway because it’s see-through. Also, we’re not expecting bear or rodent problems where we’ll be camping.

Food weight & calories

Breakfasts: 6 days x 5-oz per meal = 30 oz

Dinners: 6 days x 6.75 oz per meal = 40.5 oz

Daytime snacks: 6 days x 5 3-oz meals = 90 oz

A few Via packets and decaf tea bags = .5 oz

Trip total weight = 161 oz

Trip total calories = 20,125 calories assuming 125 cal/oz

Per day weight = 1 lb 10.8 oz

Per day calories = 3,354 calories assuming 125 cal/oz

Since my caloric intake will be less than my caloric burn, I’ll be losing weight on this trip. But it’s only 7 days and I can manage without sacrificing performance. Anyone have a good recommendation for burgers in Lander?