Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board What do you eat, breakfast/lunch?

My brothers, son and I are going August 14,15,16. Whie backpacing I always take oatmeal for breakfast, have tried some dried eggs by Mounain House but they just didn't do it for me. Any great breakfast and/or lunch ideas would be appreciated? I get tired of the same ole thing, but its quick and easy. Of course any meals during our stay at the Portal will be cooked by Doug and staff, Great Burgers. I have been following this message board for a couple of years now and appreciate all the good information and all of Doug's efforts. Thanks!

a breakfast alternative: http://www.idahoan.com/product/product_details.php3?id=da2140734bf056dfbf877ae18551a589

Another option is pancakes. You can buy complete panckae mix packaged in small bags from the store. All you need to add is water. The downsides are you need a pan, some oil, and of course syrup. Still - a nic change when you get tired of oatmeal....

There are days instant oatmeal gags me and I prefer savory. So I've found Ramen noodles a perfect breakfast. And contrary to the package directions, they can be dropped in boiling water and left to sit and will rehydrate without additional cooking. I first break them up in their package to make them easier to eat with the spoon. Also, proviso: I found the "healthier" ones that are not "prefried" do need cooking at altitude while the cheapie 5 packages for a $1.00 kind will work instantly. I also vary by using more or less water making the result either more soupy or more dry.

Have a great trip.

I like the instant oatmeal and cream of wheat. Coffee (the tea bag kind) is good also along with some hot chocolate.
Usually don't do a typical lunch on the trail. I'm a big fan of summer sausage or salami and the gouda or edam cheese wheels. You get a alot of energy from it. They stay good for a few days if the temps are cool and they are packaged well. If it is a 1-2 day hike, pack some biscuits as well. Now that is good with the cheese and sausage.

I agree that oatmeal can get tedious, but it is convenient. I too, use ramen noodles as a breakfast alternative. Infact, if you repackage and compress the ramen noodles into a zip-lock stand-up freezer bag, you can actually pour your hot water into the zip-lock, and eat right out of it. (NO DISHES OR POTS TO WASH!!)

Recently discovered snack: Tortillas and a tube of squeezeable Skippy peanut butter. I know it sounds wierd, but it tastes pretty good and provides serious calories. Of course, drink a lot of water with this one.

Have a great trip!,
...tg...

A great item to keep you going - Jolly Rancher hard candies. Thy'ere a great energizer for kids on the trail too!

Breakfast: I used to do the oatmeal thing. Got tired of it and wanted to save some time, so I switched to eating a couple of energy bars. Kind of on the spartan side, but it takes care of the need. If I have more time I might to the hashbrown or pancake thing. Brown sugar melted into warm water makes a cheap form of syrup.

Lunch: granola bars, home made ****y, cheese in a tortilla, maybe some trail mix.

Thanks for the ideas. This will be my first backpacking trip in 30 years that I haven't had oatmeal in my pack. If there are any other ideas out there please add to the list. I just had a thought, one Whitney Portal Pancake would cover three breakfasts.

I love oatmeal, the raison kind is my favorite. The best thing about oatmeal is that you can add water directly to the package and eat it out of it too. No leakage and no mess to clean! I have tried this with three different kinds, Quaker, Safeway brand and Albertsons they all worked with no leaks. I usually have a fruit leather with this and a cup of coffee. A quick, easy, tasty breakfast. Sometimes I add some precooked bacon eaten cold, it makes a nice salty treat.

If you don't mind a little spice, a great breakfast/lunch alternative is pre-cooked Asian fare that you can get at Trader Joe or indian grocery stores. The most popular brand is Tasty Bite. All you do is boil water and put the pouch in for 5 mins. No mess quick meal. They have Indian and Thai style entrees. I sometime take Pita bread to go with the stuff.

Since I usually eat energy bars for lunch, I have pop tarts for breakfast just for some variety. Oatmeal is also great if you want to wake up 20-30 minutes earlier to boil the water, cook and clean up.

My favourite breakfast is dry combination of Quaker Harvest Crunch + some plain granola (because the Harevest Crunch is way too sweet) + instant dry skim milk. Extra dried fruit as you might want. This is carried in individual sized servings in ziplocks. Make a large bowl full at home and scoop out a breakfast bowl full into each ziplock.

I just boil water and poor the hot water into the bowl of dry cereal, stir and eat right away. Easy, light, fast, taste great, very filling & lots of calories.

It has worked for me for the past 20 years and is now used my a few of my close friends for their morning meal during the Canadian Ski Marathon in Gatineau.

Got to have coffee for/with breakfast myself but a variation on the oatmeal routine was tested by myself and a hiking partner after we got stinkin' tired of hot oatmeal while hiking the PCT. I'm sure others have tried this, too. The solution, which cuts the cleaning and cooking and tasted better to us on warm days was to put some instant powdered milk in a cup with a pack of the flavored dry Quaker Oats. Add cold water and stir to mix. Try it at home and it will taste like #@&*^. You know how stuff tastes better after you get hungry enough. We lived on this stuff (for breakfast only) for 4 months. You could mix up the milk in a bottle and pour it over as well. It is a similar solution as proposed by Demonguy but it is cold. Just for laughs one day we even tried mixing grape flavored Wylers drink with the oatmeal. Hey, you get weird on these long trips! BTW, it tasted really BAD! The single serving Albacore packs are great for lunch (also suggested by Bob R).

We just got back from the backcountry. Here's some beta:

German Blackbread - good because it's yeast and sugar free, high in fiber and doesn't weigh that much. We put some Almond Butter and Honey on it and it kept us going for a good six hours...

Mac & Cheese - good staple of the backcountry diet. High carbs and low weight. The Kraft people have perfected the product.

Chile (dried) - bad. Do not make the same mistake we did. We had gas for 12 hours. I don't even think Kobu Seaweed would get rid of the enzymes in this product.

Pancakes - bad. It's just too much darn weight for back packing.

Couscous - good. Easy to cook and goes pretty much with anything. Very light weight

The rest of the stuff has been pretty much been covered in the prior thread.

I hear Trader Joe's has a lot of products to check out...

~Swifty

P.S.

July 19-22 we went up Shepherd's Pass to Mt. Tyndall. I tried a few new meals on this trip.

Bean & cheese burritos for breakfast fueled us for a long day of hiking. This makes 6 burritos and just requires adding boiling water. Mix the beans and water in a freezer ziplock, when they're ready, cut the corner of the bag off and use it like a cake decorator to "decorate" the tortillas:

• 1 pkg <a href="http://www.fantasticfoods.com/sidedishes.php">instant refried beans</a> (FantasticFoods.com)
• 6 tortillas
• chunk of chedder cheese wrapped in plastic wrap

Another day we had Red Beans and Rice for lunch. It has to simmer for 20 minutes but you get a nice rest while waiting for it. After that lunch (at Pothole) we were full of energy up to the top of Shepherd's pass. It took near constant attention to keep the simmer going right but it was worth it.


For summer breakfasts I prefer cold cereal. A quart ziplock bag, 3/4 - 1 cup of your favorite cereal, some raisins or dried cranberries, and 1/4 package of non-fat milk powder. To eat, just add 6-8 oz of cold water and eat out of the ziplock bag.

I forgot to mention one of our favorites: Tuna salad on crackers.

The grocery store now has tuna in foil packets, 3 or 7 oz each, no draining required, no can to carry. Take along those little packets of mayo to mix with it (2 packets for the 7 oz tuna). Take a package of wheat crackers of some kind. Scoop the tuna salad with the crackers.