Your tried & true innovations when backpacking/What are you most excited about?

Packets of olive oil and lemon dressing in couscous or a packet of ghee in the stuffing.  You can buy the packets at Costco or Amazon.  Eating some Packit Gourmet meals gave me the idea.  Maybe others posted it already here, but for our last Sierra trek it resulted in big thumbs up from scouts and adults alike.

Hot Tang – my kids love this stuff both hot and cold.  Great on a cold day to warm up and mixes well with everclear and dried fruit of the backpackers Sangria.

My hiking pole connector that mates the bottom of my two poles together for my golite 4 person pyramid saving bringing the 13 Oz pole.

Mixing the olive oil into the tabouli mix beforehand, eliminating the need for a separate container and any possibility of it leaking.

Wraps of tortillas, turkey, cream cheese, hard cheddar, bacon and lettuce for the first day (or two in cool climates).  Reasonably high calories/ounce, no-cook, easy to eat as you hike, and I prefer to transition to more processed backpacking food over a few days than suddenly.

Breakfast of oatmeal cookies with raisins / craisins.  It’s got everything in it, is no-cook and you can eat them as you hike (I warm up while hiking as opposed to cooling down waiting for a stove to boil water).  It also allows me to space my calories throughout the morning instead of a having a single, larger breakfast and that seems to maintain my energy better.

For me, it was my invention of Mac’d potatoes (or, as one hiker pointed out “just a ramen bomb, but with Easy Mac”):

• 3 packets Easy Mac- use a lot of water, but do not drain any of it.
• Add the cheese powder to the water/pasta after pasta is ready
• Add in Idahoans to achieve desired taste/texture
• If desired, augment with chunks of cheddar cheese into the mix.
• If lucky, add in freshly-picked wild onions.

This meal may be a bit much for the average weekend, but boy, oh boy is it a treat on a thru or really long hike when the hunger hits. Easily my favorite trail meal.

I cook pinto beans with some onion, garlic, salt, pepper, oregano, dry them, then add olive oil, add dehydrated onions, bell peppers, tomatoes.

1.9 oz beans, 0.33 oz each onion, peppers, tomatoes – put in 1 cup boiling water, wait 10 minutes.

I have eaten soooo much dehydrated food out of bags in the last dozen years it was getting old. And I love tortillas so I got a ti frying pan, it weighs 2.3 ounces and now I can have fried burritos, fried tortillas and peanut butter, carry an egg or two and have eggs and lets not forget BACON! I call my fry pan my “moral booster” cause there’s nothing like a warm/crispy tortilla or toasted bagel with cream cheese on the trail. ;-)

I see that this turned into a food thread. So perhaps in addition to millenials, other generations are as interested in “experience” over gear?

I lament that Black Diamond discontinued the pole connector gizmo since I kept losing mine when winter camping with my Duomid.

My main focus now is in using the gear I have, and getting rid of stuff I don’t use.  And I am always in search of better food since I mostly hike by myself and like re-hydrating something tasty at the end of the day.

• Steam baking is a game-changer.
• An extra pound of gear for luxury/comfort items is pretty much standard now.
• Dig cat holes the night before.

Erik—You must be what they call “regular”. My “innovation” (luck) is that on the last couple of trips I’ve taken I’ve only needed to use a cat hole every other day (unlike at home). Neat trick if you can be so lucky!

Well, the first few days are…hit or miss (bad choice of words?)…After that I can set my watch by it.  ;)

Practically speaking, If I end up not getting “the call” on a given morning I just fill the hole back up with dirt upon breaking camp. Well worth the investment IMO!

After that I can set my watch by it.  ;)

Excited to discover that I am not the only one :)

An Oldie but Goodie trick I learned on BPL years ago for getting water out of very shallow streams or springs is to cut off the top of a Capri Sun pouch (find some child to drink the stuff – they love it) just below the hole for the straw.  It folds in half and weighs “nothing” and wows my fellow backpackers who become instant converts when they see it in use.

Backcountry bidet. Clean is happy.

Bringing a pee bottle for nighttime relief without having to exit the tent. Admittedly not a new or novel idea, but wow, angels sang that first night I used one.

Using some way to differentiate the pee bottle from the normal drinking water bottle, such as a different shaped bottle, is a tried and true innovation…

If you have a tarp, careful aim, good site selection, and low standards, you don’t need the bottle.

I saw a post somewhere about cutting a peeport in a UL splash bivy. You do one on each side and pee in the downhill direction.

Well, this isn’t something I’ve actually had occasion to use, but it fits the bill.  I just saw it and think it’s brilliant.

If you have a typical, modern, free-standing, 2 person tent w/ a short cross beam across the roof supporting the doors, this is a simple hack to better handle high winds.

Found here: http://www.slingfin.com/Tents/treeline-tents/crossbow_2_mesh

Tarptent Rainbow has provisions for that kind of set up.

I read this one on BPL somewhere… I like the Steripen for water treatment but since I often have to get water from ponds with floating wigglies, I disliked the critters in my final product. So now I scoop with a cut water bottle, pour through part of a lightweight bandana and then Steripen. Works great!

You throw out all that nourishing protein?

Cheers

yes not meant to be a food thread

meant to be what you have discovered that makes your backpacking life even more wonderful than it already was, so good, in fact, that given the chance, you might wish to share it.

DM – What is the 2.3 ounce frypan you’re using?

This is an addition from just the last couple years, but it’s a game changer if you build fires. Especially in the often-damp NW woods, it’s got me some roaring flames from poor fuel without having to lay on the ground, stick my face in the coals, and blow until I’m dizzy. So simple, but so effective.