Everything You Need to Know About Cold Soak Backpacking Meals

Aug 23, 2023

I was thru-hiking the Colorado Trail when I attempted to cold soak my food for the first time. I pulverized the ramen noodles in their package, dumped them into an empty peanut butter container, covered them with water and waited beneath the drooping sun. About a half hour later, I opened the lid to find lifeless noodles bobbing to the surface. It looked like something you’d find in a science lab, limbs splayed in every direction. But I was in the middle of the woods where calories couldn’t be wasted, so I dug into my cup with a grimace. My first bite was surprisingly soft. But it wasn’t bad. I was a little bit more eager for the second bite, which I decided tasted like your typical ramen—only cold. Maybe…

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Camp Breakfast in Scotland: Kedgeree and Cranachan Recipes

Jul 24, 2023

The green walls of our tunnel tent glow, light shimmering and flowing in waves, the dawn chorus ebbing, reminding us that time is a-wasting. Waking slowly in cocoons of silk, down and nylon there’s a delicious sense of lethargy. We’re slow to get moving.  Here, beneath stark basalt mountains on the Isle of Skye, the scent of sun-warmed earth and heather flows into the tent. Still in our bags, there’s good-natured banter about who must leave the comfort of a warm bag to light our stove and get breakfast going.   Grumbling slightly, one of the team wriggles out of the tent, the fly taut with the heat from a cloudless sky; a rare and unexpected joy here in the far northwest of Scotland, where one day of sunshine is a thing to…

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Best Backpacking Snacks for Thru Hikers 

Apr 26, 2023

Every step felt harder than the last, like I was hiking through a pool of thickening molasses. The Georgia mountains drained me, pulverizing my small frame until a friend told me I was probably “bonking” – or losing steam from inadequate nutrition. As soon as I stopped to cram a granola bar into my mouth, I felt alive again, like a newly-watered plant. My energy returned. And the looming climb no longer towered over me, laughing at my inadequacy. Instead, I felt confident in my ability to keep going – at least until I bonked again.   One of the biggest challenges of my thru hike was learning how to properly fuel myself. Since long-distance backpackers have been known to burn as many as 6,000 calories per day, it seemed…

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