NW Montana
- Thread starter TheBeagle
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Evernothing
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Vinen
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TheBeagle
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Missoula is fun and full of single girls, a little on the granola side though, but they are badass, tough chicks, always up for adventure, total opposite of what I'm used to in Dallas. Chatted with a few different ones on OkCupid and spent last weekend in Missoula with one last week. It was good times for sure, but she's already attached and wants me to come back this weekend, but I have plans to hike around Glacier and the Bob for the rest of my free time this summer. She got a little pissy, so that made it even easier not to go. That and she's sporting a total 70's bush.
TheBeagle
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So I'm physically and mentally preparing myself for a 4 or 5 day back country excursion along the crest of the Swan Range and could use some tips. Never done anything of this magnitude, but I think I'm ready to tackle something pretty big before I head back to TX. Really looking for how to pack max calories with minimum weight.
BrutulTM
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Can't go wrong with peanut butter. Nuts in general are good as well. If you aren't familiar with freezer bag cooking google it. By far my favorite way to eat while backpacking.
Freezer Bag Cooking 101 - Trail Cooking
Freezer Bag Cooking 101 - Trail Cooking
Loser Araysar
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Eomer
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Weight wise by far your best bet is various types of dehydrated and/or freeze dried stuff (basically, why carry water or water containing food if you don't have to). Problem is, a lot of that stuff has MASSIVE amounts of sodium in it. That's definitely the case with most of the meals that you'll find in various hiking/outdoors type stores. However, when I did a 7 day trip on the West Coast Trail last year the girlfriend and I ordered a bunch of meals from Packit Gourmet (Packit Gourmet). Their stuff is freeze dried, so it's not crazy with the sodium. I liked pretty much everything that we got from them. I would say approximately half to 2/3's of our meals/calories for the week were Packit meals. The rest was trail mix, granola bars, oatmeal, Nutella, and some fresh food that we had for the first few days. We probably brought way the fuck too much food with us, it felt like I ate like a king the whole week. I barely lost any weight on the trip, I ate so well, when normally you should expect to lose half a pound to a full pound a day.
As a result, our bags were pretty heavy, despite investing in some pretty good, lightweight gear. My girlfriend is pretty tiny, so I limited her pack to 25-30 lbs. Mine at the start, without water, was pushing 65lbs. In hindsight, food aside, I could probably have shaved another 3-5 lbs by ditching some of the gear and clothes we brought. I wasn't in particularly good shape at the time, 5'9" and 190 lbs, but I didn't find the pack too heavy. Even when climbing up and down the ridiculous sets of ladders that are all over the WCT.
But definitely better to pack lighter, if you can.
BrutulTM
Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun.
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Fuck packing lighter. I will choose to eat better vs. packing lighter every time. Also, you can make a lot of shit yourself that is better and cheaper than the super expensive pre-packaged backpacker meals. Check out that freezer bag site I linked. I usually take a lot of instant oatmeal, cous cous, pasta, ramen, dry soup mix, etc. and a jet boil and zero pots and pans. You can make everything by just dumping boiling water into freezer bags. I have also been known to throw in a frozen steak or a package of hot dogs for the first night just because I have a strong back and having one delicious meal on your trip is worth carrying an extra pound for a day. I always bring a big bag of homemade trail mix and some beef jerky also. Throw in some aluminum foil if you think you might be catching fish along the way.
EDIT: Oh and I forgot mashed potato flakes. A big ass ziploc of mashed potatoes with salt and pepper and ghee butter hits the spot and it couldn't be lighter or easier.
EDIT: Oh and I forgot mashed potato flakes. A big ass ziploc of mashed potatoes with salt and pepper and ghee butter hits the spot and it couldn't be lighter or easier.
TheBeagle
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Oh ya I always bring dehydrated potatoes and aluminum foil. Not gonna bring my jet boil, will rely on a fire and my cantene for hot water. I've also been drinking straight, unfiltered water for the past two summers from anything that's from a seep or looks like it's straight from some melt water. With the huge amount of snow this past winter, I think it's a safe bet I can find water fairly easily so I'm not gonna start with more than 2 liters.
I'll probably prepare two meals from the freezer bag site for dinners, pack four servings of the turbo oatmeal for breakfasts, and fill in the rest with peanut butter, trail mix, huckleberries that i forage along the trail, and whatever squirrels/fish that I can harvest myself. It's been a great summer for hucks, I filled up a one gallon freezer bag full of em in about 2 hours last weekend.
Also only going to take one change of clothes, rain gear, tent, and a sleeping bag, but no sleeping pad. I can just use fir/spruce boughs for padding.
Gonna do a test run this weekend around Glacier, one night, 15 miles or so and see how it goes and if I need to tweak anything. Thinking Gunsight Pass, it's on and off the Going to the Sun so I can just catch the shuttle back to my truck.
I'll probably prepare two meals from the freezer bag site for dinners, pack four servings of the turbo oatmeal for breakfasts, and fill in the rest with peanut butter, trail mix, huckleberries that i forage along the trail, and whatever squirrels/fish that I can harvest myself. It's been a great summer for hucks, I filled up a one gallon freezer bag full of em in about 2 hours last weekend.
Also only going to take one change of clothes, rain gear, tent, and a sleeping bag, but no sleeping pad. I can just use fir/spruce boughs for padding.
Gonna do a test run this weekend around Glacier, one night, 15 miles or so and see how it goes and if I need to tweak anything. Thinking Gunsight Pass, it's on and off the Going to the Sun so I can just catch the shuttle back to my truck.
Eomer
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Personally I wouldn't drink any water that hasn't been treated or filtered, but that's just me. This is the filter system I use:Platypus GravityWorks Review - OutdoorGearLab
It's pretty awesome. Everyone I've hiked/camped with that's seen it has pretty much gone out and gotten their own the first chance they got, and tossed out their filter pumps.
It's pretty awesome. Everyone I've hiked/camped with that's seen it has pretty much gone out and gotten their own the first chance they got, and tossed out their filter pumps.
TheBeagle
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Looking at the specs it says it can do 1.75L/min at .2 microns. That's crazy. For part of my work I take grab samples from various lakes around Montana and filter through a .47 micron filter and it starts clogging at around 1L using a peristaltic pump. I'm intrigued.
Eomer
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It's pretty badass. You just fill up the dirty bag, hook up the hose, hang the dirty bag off a tree or even a rock (just need a couple feet of elevation difference), and 5-10 minutes you've got 4 liters of filtered water. It also eliminates the need for separate camelbacks/bladders or water bottles to carry water around, as you can carry 8 liters with it (4 filtered, 4 unfiltered).