How many mountain house meals?

[MazeNBlu3]

I just finished up a 10 day elk hunting and tried 1 a day, worked for 2 days. I'm 6'1 215 and had to eat 2 a day just to keep my energy level, was also hiking 10 plus miles a day.

 

[dunner543]

I am 5'6" 159 lbs so I i will plan on 1 per day like I have it packed now. I have lived on MRE's for a couple of weeks in a past life and if I can eat something that smells like Alpo dog food (cold) then MH should be like gourmet food lol. I have tried a couple and they were pretty good in comparison. Thanks for the help.

I'm the exact same size as you and can easily eat 1 MH for dinner after a long day of hunting. I'd go for 1 a day but pack a couple extras for the extra long days like others have said. And I agree, mountain house is pretty good compared to MREs...

 

[cnelk]

I spent 9 days in the Wyoming backcountry last month. It was my first time doing a trip like this.
For food, I packed 9 [single serving] MH meals. And 9 APack MREs.

I had the MH for my supper, and the APacks for breakfast/lunch/snacks

http://www.readymeal.com/

http://www.readymeal.com/store/home.php


I like the APacks for a few reasons:

1- They have a self heater along with salt water activator in them - No hot water required.
They come with an entree, a big cookie, pastry, crackers, peanut butter, spoon, and some other goodies.
Approx 1200-1300 cal each.

[The entree packet can be placed in boiling water to heat if you want to do it that way too.]

I find them online for about $60/case of 12 [delivered]

Its not home-made cooking by any means, but they are tolerable.

 

[Rick!]

I was out for 9 days in September. I packed food for 11 days, about 13.5 lbs worth. Counting calories, about 2000 per day. A butthole sandwich for breakfast, Pro Bar for lunch, 6-700 calories of trail mix daily and an MH 2-2.5 serving meal for dinner. Unlike some of the others, I rather enjoy them. I hiked around 8-12 miles per day between 8500-9000 feet and still lost 5lbs in 9 days.

 

[larryschwartz]

So if y'all are eating MH only for dinner, what are yall eating for breakfast, lunch and snacks?

I will be going on my first backpack hunt next year so I'm just trying to get ideas.

SNB,

The best advice I could give you is to go on a number of hiking weekends and see what works for you. Actually, that is good advice for anyone who doesn't have experience backpacking and backpack hunting.

See what MH (or other dehydrated/freezedried) meals you like and how many you need to keep your energy up. That is why I suggested taking a long hike on a weekend, ten miles or so with your full pack each day, to burn calories each day and to help make sure your kit fits properly and to fine tune everything.

As for what to do for meals other than dinner, most people eat carbs in the morning and then snack throughout the day on trail mix, oatmeal cookies, power bars, meal replacement bars, Snickers, cheese/sausage/crackers, dried fruit, that sort of thing. Some stop midday and heat up some ramen or soup or have a bagel sandwich with peanut butter or cheese or sausage or some combination.

The key is to use the time between now and your hunt to see what works for YOU!!! What works for me or anyone else on this thread might be horrible for you, so get in some practice and learn to run your own race.

Also, you may find that you prefer the pasta/rice/noodle meal kits that you find at the supermarket coupled with a pack of meat better than something from MH or the other backpack food vendors. It's cheaper and has less salt. And of course there is the whole dehydrate your own meals approach, but that is a whole other thread.

 

[Shake N' Bake]

SNB,

The best advice I could give you is to go on a number of hiking weekends and see what works for you. Actually, that is good advice for anyone who doesn't have experience backpacking and backpack hunting.

See what MH (or other dehydrated/freezedried) meals you like and how many you need to keep your energy up. That is why I suggested taking a long hike on a weekend, ten miles or so with your full pack each day, to burn calories each day and to help make sure your kit fits properly and to fine tune everything.

As for what to do for meals other than dinner, most people eat carbs in the morning and then snack throughout the day on trail mix, oatmeal cookies, power bars, meal replacement bars, Snickers, cheese/sausage/crackers, dried fruit, that sort of thing. Some stop midday and heat up some ramen or soup or have a bagel sandwich with peanut butter or cheese or sausage or some combination.

The key is to use the time between now and your hunt to see what works for YOU!!! What works for me or anyone else on this thread might be horrible for you, so get in some practice and learn to run your own race.

Also, you may find that you prefer the pasta/rice/noodle meal kits that you find at the supermarket coupled with a pack of meat better than something from MH or the other backpack food vendors. It's cheaper and has less salt. And of course there is the whole dehydrate your own meals approach, but that is a whole other thread.

Larry thanks for the advice! I'm definitely going to test out as many options as I can! I'm actually going on a 4 day public land whitetail hunt in December that I was drawn for. Although it's not a back pack hunt, I will be walking several miles per day. I'm going to treat my food, camping and sleeping as though I'm on a back pack hunt to help prepare and work out any kinks.