Food on a hike

To work out how much food to bring, and of what, you need a few figures: on a hike of medium difficulty a person needs 3500–4000 kilocalories a day; on mountain routes, about 5000. The main components of food are proteins, fats and carbohydrates.

Proteins are the main building material of the cells; on a hike, animal protein is worth more. It governs the body's metabolism.
Fats are digested best at rest and under light loads.
Carbohydrates are the main source of energy, and the fuel for hard work. They digest fastest of all. That's why, once the body has adapted (the first 2–3 days), appetite arrives and you're constantly craving something sweet.

The most energy-dense are fats — a gram of fat gives about 9 kilocalories; proteins and carbohydrates give half that.

Usually appetite drops in the first two or three days while the body adapts. Don't force yourself to eat then; the body makes up the energy shortfall from its fat reserves. Toward the end of the hike, when the food is nearly gone and appetite has grown noticeably, fall back on slow-to-digest foods (peas), which dull the hunger. To avoid the problem altogether, lay in one or two food caches at points you'll pass again at the end of the hike. It lightens the rucksacks wonderfully and lifts the spirits in the final days.

As a rule the daily menu shapes up like this: a hot breakfast (porridge, tea, coffee), a cold snack with hot tea, and a hot supper of soups, fish soup, fried and baked dishes, with tea and compote. Between meals comes "pocket food", handed out at breakfast to everyone. It softens the hunger and briefly brings a feeling of fullness, helping a person keep up the pace of trail life.

How the day's food is split up:

Breakfast is about 30% of the daily calories. Since many people haven't yet found their working rhythm, it should be easily digested, calorie-dense, small in volume and appetizing.
Lunch (the snack) is another 30% of the daily norm. Usually it's a mix of the heavy (salo, sausage, cheese) and the easily digested (sugar, waffles, gingerbread and so on).
Supper gives about 25% of the daily norm. It must be full, hot food — soup, fish soup, meat porridge, fried dishes — with aromatic tea and coffee. There should be plenty of tea, since the body has to make up the water it's lost through the day. Here it's good to brew natural diuretics (blackcurrant and lingonberry leaves), which flush out the excess. Supper should take place in a calm, comfortable setting that inclines you to rest and recovery.

Where do the remaining 15% of the daily calories go? Right — to the pocket food. It helps you "hold out" to lunch or supper when your strength is flagging. These should be easily digested things that restore you fast: sugar, chocolate, raisins, dried apricots.

A mixture (in equal parts) of raisins, dried apricots, nuts, prunes, honey and lemon, put through a meat grinder, has proved itself well on hikes in mountain country. A single tablespoon at breakfast helps a person beat tiredness.

What else should you know about food on a hike? The daily norms per person. These are very individual and are worked out separately for each trip. To help beginners, take this ready-made selection for a 12-day hike on the "Mountain Trails of Khakassia" route for 10 people (the hike ran 17–28 July 2012) (Link).

And lastly — buying and packing the food for the whole hike. In my opinion it's better to buy in large supermarkets or wholesale, and in advance: it works out about 30% cheaper and 30% wider in choice than buying at the last moment at the entry point. Perishables (bread, onions, garlic and the like) should be bought there. A very debatable but important point in pre-hike preparation is how to pack the food and what to keep it in. You can pack it: by type of food, by breakfasts, lunches and suppers for the whole route, by individual days, and so on. There are many ways; you have to find your own. Containers should be chosen for minimum weight; they should be strong and airtight. Rusks and bread must not go in cellophane — better in canvas bags. Smoked sausage, cheese and salo are better wrapped in foil and cloth (not cellophane). Soups, lagman and instant porridge are better bought in route-sized packets rather than single portions. Rice and buckwheat are better in separate packets. Take plenty of strongly flavored seasonings — the choice these days is enormous. Toward the end of a hike the preference swings to sweets, because glucose is constantly needed to restore strength, so don't economize there (sugar, sweets, biscuits, halva, sherbet and so on).

The general principle of choosing food is this: it should be calorie-dense, small in volume, quick to restore strength, pleasant to look at, a lift to the mood, and varied. And don't forget the time-tested rule: if you set out for a day, take food for three 🙂

Bon appétit!