best food for three day wild camp trip

SNAKEDOC

i'm heading for loch dan maybe in two weeks time location may change but i need to sort my food. i have a few ideas but wanted to see if i could get some feedback from other posters. thanks

irishlostboy

bring a rifle. and feast on the endless deer that plagues wicklow just kidding.
if it is only 3 days you have a lot of options. for a 3 day trip i bring a tupperware box of fresh veg (onion, tomatoes, courgette etc.) a stick of chorizo from lidle, and a bag of pasta. for breakfast i bring porridge. a few instant noodle packs for snacking, and plenty of tea, cupa soups, snickers bars (or the well good lidle knock-offs) but ya, 3 days, no worries. over 5 it gets to be a weight issue i find.
also, if you are eating a lot of dried foods make sure to bring something with fibre in it. phisilum husks are great.

Mitch Buchannon

SNAKEDOC wrote: »

i'm heading for loch dan maybe in two weeks time location may change but i need to sort my food. i have a few ideas but wanted to see if i could get some feedback from other posters. thanks

It depends on your cooking system tbh. If You were using a trangia, the world is your oyster. I have cooked some fairly fancy food on mine. On the likes of a small MSR pocket rocket type gas stove, your options can be limited by fuel and the types of pots you bring. I have a few stoves but the one I use most is the Pocket Rocket and the MSR Titan kettle.

So based on the smaller of the stoves(MSR) with a small kettle/pot:

Breakfast: I'd maybe have some porridge. You can use water and or powdered milk. Flavhavan's do porridge in sachets. The advantage of porridge is that its very filling and releases its energy slowly. Even in the summer I have porridge before I go into work in the morning.

Lunch: Granolla bars / Sachets of soups etc.

Dinner: Pasta / Rice / Couscous / Noodles. You can add what ever you like to these for a good filling meal. I like to take some Chorizo or Salami type meats to bulk up the meal. These have the advantage of not going bad for a few days. ie: you dont need a fridge. Some spices - curry powder etc. can also be added to the above for extra flavour. For veg you can get dried stuff that will rehydrate in the water you cook your pasta etc in.

The likes of nuts and seeds can be added to give an extra bite/texture to your meals. I like to add raisins to my porridge, they are also nice for a sugar rush.
The powdered mild can also be added to tea or coffee so that eliminates the need for carrying milk that will more than likely go off in the warm weather.

I have some links on my home computer for good easy to make camp meals. I'll post them later when I get home from work.

Chazziemann

Steaks cook great on an open camp fire!! mmm i can smell them now. haha

3 days = 3 breakfasts 3 lunches 3 dinners 3 suppers = a lot of food!!

If your not walking you need only bring a little supply.

First day... Breakfast - fry up
Lunch - Meat/chicken baguettes
Dinner - Steaks/ lambs onions mushrooms etc
Supper - Chocolate biscuits
Drinks - tea coffee etc

Second and third day ... use your porridge pasta rice veg fruit etc

First day always enjoy good hot foods

I always bring either meat/ chicken/ fish/ squirrel/ deer etc to cook on the first day anyway...

I would say this tho "food always taste better cooked in the wild"

muckyprawn

Personally I wouldn't bother with the fry ups, we used to have them when camping/ kayaking but found that you'd be "as dry as Ghandi's flip flops" fairly soon after it...a bit of fruit and a cereal bar for breakfast. We recently paddled the Shannon from Dowra to Kilaloo and that took 7 days. We all had trangias and shared the cooking...as I said fruit in the mornings, you can get nice sized tubs of prepared fruit that is in juice that is convenient and keeps for a few days. For lunch we had bread rolls with bananna on it...yum! and some crisps....for dinner-pasta ad rice with a couple of stir in sauces and bacon as a meat dish. I made a very nice pilau rice that I had a recipe for too!!

SNAKEDOC

thats some good ideas for me to mull over. i think the frys are out for me though as i am trying to keep the weight down. afterall i'm walking and have only one bag. the tent is already in and i am thinking of vacume packing it so there is more room for a bag of food then on the return triop the food is gone and more room for the tent. i am thinking along the lines of the rice and pasta dishes. nice and light and they keep for a few days. also maybe some tuna nice with pasta for a snack. thanks everybody for some great ideas. also if you have weight saving and room saviing tips in mind keep them coming. and before i forget i'm going to loch dan for the 3rd of august if anybody wants to tag along. a bit of wild camping on the westerly side of the lake high up on the hill. perfect to practice a bit of bushcraft.

muckyprawn

For space saving use small dry bags to put your clothes in...you can squeeze the air out of them. Also bring a pair of trousers that can be unzipped into shorts. For uderwear get a pair of "ice breakers" non stink and can be worn for numerous days!!

irishlostboy

weight saving? ditch the tent. use a tarp. ditch the fresh and canned food and go freeze dried all the way. if you do this, you will save weight, but definately need the fibre from physilum husks or similar.
wanna ditch more weight? ditch the tarp and go breathable bivy bag. ditch the cooker and bring a crusader cup type deally for cooking eating/ drinking, and cook on wood fires.you could do 3 days in the hills with a tiny day sack no problem if you wanted to. especially in august when your calory intake needs are at their lowest, and you are in an area with plenty of streams such as wicklow.
vacume packing a tent? not a great plan. you will only have to re-pack the tent and carry it out when you are done with it anyway, and you will then also have a load of extra plastic to carry out also.
remember, you could go up the hills for 3 days with nothing but your clothes no problems. you wont starve. and you wont be the most comfortable. the more of the bush skills you have the more comfortable you will be.

SNAKEDOC

the tent thing is actually working. i packed it normally into my ruck sack and there is a bit of room left. then i vacuumed it and there is much more room left. i am bringing only food foil rapped or in bags no lunch boxes so on the trip home i'll have that bit of room for rubbish. my cloths are sorted and the rest of my stuff sleeping bag mat etc will be on the outside of my pack. pretty much sorted thanks lads.

coach23

SNAKEDOC wrote: »

the tent thing is actually working. i packed it normally into my ruck sack and there is a bit of room left. then i vacuumed it and there is much more room left. i am bringing only food foil rapped or in bags no lunch boxes so on the trip home i'll have that bit of room for rubbish. my cloths are sorted and the rest of my stuff sleeping bag mat etc will be on the outside of my pack. pretty much sorted thanks lads.

how you gonna vacuum the tent when your re packing?

Gillo

The OP won't need to vacum it for the return trip as the food won't be there to take up more space. Never actually vacummed a tent, but used to use a compression sack which I found worked out great (obviously don't put the poles in the compression sack!!).

Another suggestion you could try is to use, Meal Replacement Shakes such as Reflex One Stop, it can also be bought in single sachets, meant to be mixed with milk but water will do, I've used it a few times in work instead of lunch (work on my feet all day) and found it grand. You'll need a shaker bottle to mix it.

SNAKEDOC

yea gillo is right i vac the tent without the poles in the bag they are wrapped in my mat that is strapped to the outside of my pack. my food consists of pasta and bags of rice and soup and such which wil bag up nicely when i'm done. the tent will be fine then on the way home.

feck sake lads

ok so you have the food sorted but what will you do all day in the hill's on your own how do you keep yourself entertained all day and then night time do you lot find it lonely on your own ,i camp myself cycle touring but usually i have company im a restless sleeper at the best of times so how do you guy cope this is a great thread.;)

SNAKEDOC

i'm an amateur photographer so most of the day will be taken up walking the wicklow way for some photo opportunities. I have a book i want to read too and plus i like to just relax a bit. also i might try and get a shot of some deer close up so that may take some time. you should try a bit of camping it's great. i am planning three days but i might go for longer!

feck sake lads

SNAKEDOC wrote: »

i'm an amateur photographer so most of the day will be taken up walking the wicklow way for some photo opportunities. I have a book i want to read too and plus i like to just relax a bit. also i might try and get a shot of some deer close up so that may take some time. you should try a bit of camping it's great. i am planning three days but i might go for longer!

i do camp when i cycle tour but will you be doing wild camping i havent done any myself yet i like a shower at the end of a hard days cycling :rolleyes:
i have a couple of stoves both optimus one gas (crux) the other an old petrol brilliant stove seve123 as long as i have plenty tea/coffee im a happy camper.
listen have a brilliant time hope you get the weather and do post some pic's of the trip camp and set up as well as the wild life.

SNAKEDOC

thanks will do. hopefully it will be a good trip

Doop

Love the idea of wild camping, just something ive never got around to doing. I'd be a bit of a loss as to where to start, and locations and stuff. Might give it a go soon.

Sounds like a cool trip..enjoy it, would love to see a copule of pics of your set up aswell!

SNAKEDOC

i haven't gone yet had to put it off til next week so i'll put some pics up when i get back. wild camping per say isn't much different than normal. you can still bring a tent and what you want. i just want to try some other stuff like shelter building and the like. as you can guess ray mears features big on my tv list.:D

irishlostboy

Doop wrote: »

Love the idea of wild camping, just something ive never got around to doing. I'd be a bit of a loss as to where to start, and locations and stuff. Might give it a go soon.

Sounds like a cool trip..enjoy it, would love to see a copule of pics of your set up aswell!

http://www.irishbushcraftclub.org/index.php
this would be the best place to start.