Food for elk huntin??

[East Coast archer]

Longbowben, I must be different then you.  After hiking hard all day and eating dinner as late as 9:00 pm a mountain house heated meal tastes great in my opinion and has a lot more good stuff in it to keep you going the next day compared to ramin noodles.  If I backpack in I usually bring  power bars or Big 100 bars, goop (or whatever it is called now),  nuts mixed with raisans, tea bags, instant oatmeal and a double serve mountain house meal per day.  For water I take a hiking filter with my 70 oz. bladder and then 2 lightweight plastic platypus water bladders.  When I use up the bladder it weighs the same as a plastic ziplock so it goes with me during the day and I refill it.  I try to get the most calories out of the lightest weight and easiest gear/meals I can.  The last couple of years I have gone to ultralightweight gear as much as I can, so I was stoked when Kuiu came out with their gear this year.  My pack weight has gone down from approx. 45 lbs. for a bivy setup to about 30 and I am looking to add a Kuiu pack in the future to bring it down even more.  The mountains are hard as it is and I'm not getting any younger!  Now when I am base camping it's all the good food we can bring!

[TIM B]

This post is giving me some good ideas guys- thanks!

[Ringneck]

Mountain House is high in sodium but tastes fine to me. I have eaten worse that's for sure!

[huntnmuleys]

another mountain house fan here.  also, love trail mix but i have to make it myself, because im hopelessly addicted to craisins, gotta have em!!!!!   the peanut butter and bacon sandwich that i read cameron hanes uses is actually pretty good as well, and does put a lot of calories into something small.

[Michael Pfander]

I normally go through 3 liters of water in the morning and 3 liters in the evening.  So my camp routine is to filter 6 liters when I get back to camp before I take a nap.  If I am on a herd I filter where ever.  I always carry enough trail mix to stay out if the hunt requires it.  I drink tea with instant oatmeal [3 packs] stirred in to start the day.
MAP

[owlbait]

Trail mix, jerky, Snickers, oatmeal, and Mountain House. And grilled lasagna when you get back to base camp!

[wapiti792]

I am an MRE guy on backpack hunts. I buy Redipack meals from Ameriqua. It is the standard military MRE. I break down the cardboard boxes and throw them in the fire at base and have seperate ziplocks for entree's, snacks, drink powders. I then try and ration my food for 3 days at a time, meaning I set up a base camp and return every 3 days. Of coarse if I were further away from base, say more than 3 miles, I pack more in. Here's the website for the MREs. Made in Evansville, IN.  http://www.ameriqual.com/

[Lost Arra]

I make my own dehydrated meals and I like the results. But it's only fair to say that ANY dehydrated meal is better in the field after a hard day of hunting than taste-testing in the kitchen.  

[John Scifres]

Daily Food

1 lipton rice or pasta meal
2 Granola bars
1/2 cup GORP
4 tbsp peanut butter
2 oatmeal packs
1 tuna in oil packs
1 tortilla
1/4 pound jerky

That's about 2500 calories and around $5 a day.  Weight is 1.6 pounds average.

[longbowben]

East coast archer, At night we had steaks,ribs,spaghetti,bbq chicken,briskits.The ramen noodles where for lunch.We returned to base camp every night.

[Todd Greenwald]

I also pack in and utilize the microvavable hamburger helper packets & mac'n cheese.  They both cook in about 2 - 3 minutes using my little jet stove.  Also we use a basecamp water filter at camp and pack in another small H2O filter for spike camps.  The key to staying light is being a minimal list and knowing were to find water to filter.  Don't forget to get into shape or you will be sucking wind if you are hunting at any altitude.