Food, Water, and Cooking

Water - Drinking untreated water is a good way to get sick.  There are a few ways to take the water we find in the mountains and make sure it is clean enough to drink.  You can boil it, use tablets/drops to treat it, use UV light (i.e., Steripen), or you can use filters.  Filters used to be pretty pricey, but Sawyer came up with a system that is very economical and light.  It works great for backpacking and for emergency preparedness.  I like the larger size (link goes to the larger size) better than the mini.  The mini is smaller and lighter, but is slow enough that the extra ounce or two for the bigger version is worth it in my opinion.  One filter per 4 people is about as sparse as we are going to want to go.   

Bad news = water is heavy.  It weighs 2.2 lbs per liter (for you mixed metric types) or 1 lb per 2 cups.  You can quickly make a light pack a heavy pack by carrying too much water.  The best place to carry water is in your stomach, not on your back. 

Good news = if your will be hiking near streams you can reduce how much you carry.  I typically suggest carrying no more than about a liter or quart of water (assuming sources are prevalent).  You don't need to buy a fancy water bottle either.  In fact, an old Gatorade bottle, soda bottle, or Smartwater bottle work great.  Besides costing more than they should, "fancy" water bottles are heavier than their "free" counterparts. 

Food and Cooking - Let's admit it, nobody likes doing dishes and doing dishes in the mountains is 100 times worse that doing them at home (no sink, can't put food scraps in streams or lakes, have to pack scraps far from camp and water and bury them, can't use soap in streams/lakes - have to bury soapy water 200 feet from water).  The good news is that with just a little planning, the meals you will eat that do require cooking (not all will) will only require you to boil water.  Please note a mess kit isn't on my list of what you need.  They have way more parts and pieces than you will need.  If you already have one, you can probably pull out a couple of items, leave the rest home, and you will be all set.

Stove - 2 to 4 people can share a stove.  Canister stoves that run on little tanks like are what you want, not stoves that run on the 1-lb Coleman fuel tanks.  I'm not a fan of building campfires in general (they are prohibited in many areas and just make a mess for the next person to see) and definitely am not a fan of cooking over any campfires unless I'm using something like the Trail Design's Sidewinder (see photo below). 

Pot -2 to 4 people can also share a pot.  The purpose of that pot's life is just to boil water.  We won't ever put food in it or eat out of it, that way we won't ever have to do dishes or eat last night's spaghetti in tomorrow morning's oatmeal.  These pots should be as light as possible (i.e., made for backpacking, not stolen from your dad's/mom's favorite cooking collection) and should hold at least 2 cups of water, but no more than about 6 cups.  Most backpacking stoves can boil 2 cups of water in 2 to 4 minutes, so depending on pot capacity and how many people are sharing, one pot of boiling water may be enough for everyone or you may need to wait 5 minutes for your turn.  The advantage is you can split up the weight so we don't collectively have 30 lbs of metal pots slowing us down and taking up precious pack space on our adventure. 

A cup or small bowl - I try to plan meals that allow me to eat dinner out of the foil pouches the freeze-dried food comes in (or cup of noodles), so I just need a cup or bowl for hot chocolate or hot apple cider or possibly  breakfast.  When it comes to cups, smaller is better - something that holds 1 to 2 cups is all you really need.  Your dad's/mom's beat up old measuring cup could even work. 

Spoon or spork - Your average plastic spoon works great, though you may want to bring a couple since they can break.  Or you can bring a metal one.  While you will need to wash these each time you use them (or lick it off really clean and sanitize it on the stove (metal only…) as I do when feeling lazy), at least it is just one utensil to clean.   

Calories - Backpacking is not the time to go on a diet.  You will burn some calories hiking several miles a day with packs.  If you don't eat enough calories, you will run out of energy and struggle to keep up.  In general, I make sure I always take breakfast, mid morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, and dinner.  I personally aim for about 2500 to 3000 calories per day while backpacking.  You will also have a hard time staying warm at night if you haven't had enough calories.  I base the food and snacks I bring on their caloric content, not claimed servings.  

No Cook Option and Example - Some trips are great with a no-cook/no-stove option.  Choosing food that does not require any cooking can be really liberating.  You can eat a bar/bagel/whatever while on the trail and get an hour or more of additional hiking time in each day.  It can also be nice from a no-hassle standpoint.  On this hike, we just ate breakfast while hiking (no cook) instead of sitting around in the cold cooking and then eating and then cleaning up before hiking.