A long time ago, I had set a goal for myself to hike the La Cloche Trail in Killarney. One of my outdoor friends, Marian from The Camping Family, was going to hike this trail again for what would be her 8th time and had asked me to join her, which was just the motivation that I needed so I jumped at the chance and said yes. There was lots of planning and talking about gear, food and other logistics from to take care of, but I am not going to get into details about the actual trip as I had shared photos on my Instagram page, so this post is about what I actually planned for my food for the 7 day 6 night trip.
Planning the food
This was a challenge. I had not yet completed a trip where I had to carry my food for the entire time. Unlike my canoe trips, this food would be on my back and take up substantial space in my backpack. I needed to choose items carefully so that they would be compact and lightweight. I also did not want to complicate things so I planned a lot of my meals to be the exact same thing for each day.
Below are pictures of my meals.
Breakfast
Keeping things simple was very important, but I also knew I needed calories to keep my body going through a full day of hiking. My breakfast meals were all the same for all 6 mornings, with day 1 being at camp before the hike.
Breakfast included:
- Qia Creamy Coconut Oatmeal (1 package)
- 1 tbsp walnuts
- 1 scoop Arbonne Cinnamon Bun flavored protein powder
- Tazo English Breakfast tea and 2 sweetener packs
As I am not a huge oatmeal fan, this combination was what worked best for me.
Snacks
Throughout the day there were 2 snack breaks built into the hike. At each break I would have some sort of protein bar, beef jerky and either a piece of a vegan (only because I need a diary free option) style protein ball. The best snack was on arrival to camp when I had either a Snickers or Mars bar. This was my treat before any camp chores. Yes, I had 7 chocolate bars on this trip and no regrets.
Lunch
Lunch was another meal that I had planned the exact meal for each day. The only alternative was the flavor. Most lunch meals were consumed at camp each day, even if we had a late arrival. Only one lunch was consumed on trail as that day was a long hike day.
Lunch included:
- One package of tuna, either Global Foods brand or Clover Leaf (this was just because it was all I could find locally)
- One flour tortilla
- Two Babybels (which are dairy free by the way)
Supper
The biggest meal of the day and the one where I had lots of variety. I chose to pack freeze dried meals from three different companies. I wanted the variety as it is difficult to find meals that are diary free. Over the past few years I have done lots of research looking for meals that I enjoy that I can actually eat. There are many that have some form of hidden dairy and it can be frustrating to find something enjoyable.
My choices of companies were OTG Meals, Happy Yak and Backcountry Wok (who have now rebranded to Off the Path).
My 6 meals included the following (I did not eat these in any specific order and actually changed my supper choices multiple times on the trip)
- Backcountry Wok Bibimbap
- OTG Meals Coconut Curry Chicken
- OTG Meals Chicken Pot Pie
- OTG Meals Chicken and Dumplings
- Happy Yak Teriyaki Rice
- Happy Yak Chicken Orzo Soup
Other Items
A few extra items that was brought on this trip included
- Drink electrolytes. I had a few different types which included Nuun tabs, Arbonne Fizz Sticks and Beachbody Hydrate crystals
- 4 packages of Lipton cup of soup (which was great for the colder rainy days at the end of the trip)
- a package of trail mix (to be saved unless absolutely needed)
- 500mL of vodka (enough for 1 drink a night)
Total Weight, Left Overs and Final Thoughts
Weighing the food is important as there are always options to cut weight by changing out meals or products or possibly leave the alcohol behind (hahahaha this was not an option).
Final weight was 12 pounds! After consulting with a few avid long distance hikers, they agreed this was a fair weight for this length of trip.
Below is a picture of the items that I had left over.
- 2 Nuun tabs
- 5 packages of electrolytes
- 2 cup of soups
- 1 very smooshed bag of trail mix, about 2 tbsp
My final thought on the food was that I should have brought a couple of extra oatmeal packets or an extra meal as a back up. Even though I did bring home a small amount of food the extras would have been a good idea. One day Marian gave me an extra tea to drink as I had just enough for each morning. I would bring a few extra bags on future trips as well.
I hope you have enjoyed reading about my experience with packing for this trip and that it gives some good information for any future trips you may take.
I know it’s been a while for posts, but during covid I took a bit of a break from writing and the summer was full of adventures that I just did not have time. My goal is to get back into writing a blog every couple of months and focusing on taking the remainder time for myself and my family trips.
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Thanks for this detailed log Sue. Was it hard to find the time and energy to boil water for your tea and oatmeal and soup and supper ? Wondering about the fuel source for this… what kind of fuel and how many canisters (what size) ?