Instant oatmeal: The standard breakfast backpacking is instant oatmeal and hot chocolate. So is the standard breakfast car camping. We would go car camping for a month at a time as children and I developed a strong aversion to both instant oatmeal (always fruit and cream flavors) and hot chocolate. For a while, I thought I could eat none of it, but then I found that I could eat apples and cinnamon instant oatmeal (briefly) and the extra chocolate hot chocolate version sold as "dark chocolate". I have also had good luck adding in a packet of "instant oatmeal" that was full of hardy things like flax seeds. It is the texture that gets to me, and this is sufficient to change it for the most part. I still have a cup of cider nearby to help wash it down if my body decides to revolt and my stomach try to convulse. Yes, my revulsion is that extreme. It is no way to start a day. I need something else.
Soup packets: As a teen heading out for 10 days, I dropped in a couple packets of split pea soup for each morning. It was delicious confined to that time, powered a kid who tended to have a suppressed appetite when hiking, and probably even good for me. It is also hard to find these days, especially if you'd rather not have one with bacon.
Couscous: I have often had couscous for breakfast with lots of fruit and cinnamon and/or allspice and nutmeg and maybe ginger. There should be lots of spice to fill in lots of flavor. Except for cloves. They should be used sparingly. I have been told that this is entirely the wrong way to do couscous and can only respond with, "Oh? Is it?" I put enough for breakfast into a little sandwich baggie and squeeze out the air and tie it off. Cooking, I'll heat water and pour some out into a cup for my hot drink and then just poke a hole and spill the mixture into the hot water. It does not need to boil for two minutes, it just needs hot water for a few minutes. This is often my staple for breakfast these days, but I get hungry again quickly. Adding protein is suggested to help slowing down getting hungry. I have tried it with ground flax and ground almond, both of which made it gritty and suppressed the flavors of the spices. Milk powder is not an improvement either.
Bag of couscous and a couple of bread mixings.
Chia seeds: Following a somewhat random set of PCT through hikers, I bumped into a chia seed pudding recipe. This particular recipe is nice for not suggesting that you must put in this kind of nut or that kind of fruit and thus clearly establishing some level of variety. I had some on my hike in the Flat Tops and a few other places. First observation was that I cannot stand to eat out of a bag. The bags I had handy were kind of tall and my fingers got dirty on the sides, so I got some shorter ones that still fit everything. My fingers got less dirty and it was still a miserable thing to eat out of a floppy bag. The first time I made it in a Talenti container instead was the first time I actually came up with a pudding product instead of a runny mess with chia seeds at the bottom, too. In fact, it was a little too set up, but it was well mixed.
Some mixed up pudding, some "blanks", and the fixings.
Real oatmeal: Oatmeal is still a viable option, but not instant. The various 5 minute oats, steel cut or whole, can be cooked up almost as easily as couscous. I want it with fruit and loads of spices, just the same as the couscous. The bigger bottles of cinnamon are higher quality stuff anyway, so you might as well indulge.
Oats and couscous, but do not carry them like this.
Same theme as oatmeal: There is such a thing as instant grits, too. Maybe someday I should try this. Cream of Wheat is fast and can be adulterated to edible, which is, if I am honest, how I treat oatmeal and couscous.
Bread: Bread is good for breakfast and can be cooked on the right backpacking stove, but it does take a bit more time. One could make it in the evening, but then it will be cold when eaten. It is an excellent option for a lazy day. To do the baking, the heat from the stove must be sufficiently low. There seem to be two methods used. By far the most common is to divert the heat, usually using a double pot setup. I have experimented with just a layered aluminum piece to tuck under my pot and had pretty good luck with it. This does mean extra tools (weight) and extra fuel (weight and waste). Some are able to cook by simply having a low enough flame in the first place. Another option for a slow burn is cooking with a tea light. The recipes in the link use cake mixes and such, which I find distasteful. The bags pictured above by the couscous are 1/2 cup flour, spices, and 1/2 teaspoon baking powder. Simple. Seriously, biscuit mix is a waste of money. I have tried it also with a bit of whole wheat, corn, garbanzo, soy, rye, teff, and probably something more I have forgotten. Add in flax and ground nuts and fruits and dried milk for all kinds of flavor too. When it comes to bread, the grainier, the better. For cleanup, the slower the heating, the less likely it is to burn on. I also pour in plenty of oil, far more than needed against sticking, because oil is just good stuff for backpackers. There are lots of details with this and it will likely have a whole post after much experimenting. So far, very yummy, especially with raisins. Soy and garbanzo flours absolutely must get cooked well to taste good.
Kings Canyon National Park Sequoia National Forest Giant Sequoia National Monument Click for map. DAY 1 | DAY 2 | DAY 3 | DAY 4 It was another mild night, but the mosquitoes very nearly vanished early on into it. The sun comes quickly here and the morning golden hour is really quite something. I enjoy it with breakfast and happily the mosquitoes seem to be slow to wake up. Our northerly view from near camp: the morning sun as it hits Ball Dome. Morning over Ranger Lake. We head out to the trail again and wander gently downward, still high above the valley bottom. The air seems a lot clearer today and the snow on the far mountains is much more defined. The snowy distances.
King Range National Conservation Area, Arcata BLM (purple line, map link ) DAY 1 | DAY 2 | DAY 3 | DAY 4 | DAY 5 | DAY 6 | DAY 7 I looked around at how soaked everything was from the dew and decided I had enough water to cook breakfast right there (well, on a rock under the Douglas fir) while waiting for everything to dry out a little. My windbreak trees became morning shade trees, but they were still blocking some strong gusts most excellently, so I wouldn't want to trade them. Good soggy morning! So I headed out on the faint old road to join a much better road until getting pointed off to the left at a gate. Trail gets really faint there, but it's all much easier to follow on the second pass than it was on the first. A bit sunnier, but most spots aren't much drier than they were. After the short road section, follow near the fence on the faint track. If truly desperate for water and it has rained well recently, there might be a tiny
Six Rivers National Forest ( map link ) Mount Lassic actually has a trail up it, I just didn't know where. It was built (possibly by California Department of Fish and Wildlife, but still official and maintained) but not drawn on a map nor described except that its purpose is to move feet away from the rare lupine that grows over less than 4 acres in the whole world. All but a garden sized plot is on this mountain. I wanted to visit it, but not to stomp across its whole territory. (Also, I made really certain that my shoes were completely purged of any seed before arriving in the area. After Clover Gulch, that was a challenge, but worthy.) I decided to start off on a small trail I found by my parking. It was minimally flagged and marked and probably not the one meant for the public. There's a faint trail just to the left of the smaller tree here where the road drains its water. Weather seemed to be forming over the Lassics, as it had the last few days, but then roam
OpenTopoMap (an OpenStreetMap service) showing my GPS track from backpacking in the Flat Tops Wilderness in 2016 . It is zoomed into the busiest entry point where one very excellent and well used trail is missing. The map in question is, of course, OpenStreetMap . While not explicitly setting out to do this, they've created the Wikipedia of maps and you probably use it even if you don't know it. It's on AllTrails and Strava and behind Gaia Topo and MapBuilder on Caltopo. If any of those have an error, you can fix it. There in the lower right hand corner on AllTrails is the attribution and an invitation to change and add to the map. It's not just on the internet. This is also the one electronic map I carry with me, offline , that I know it will cover the place I am. When I need a library, post office, grocery store, gas station, I can search and find it even if I haven't got any usable cell signal. The roads are (generally) there. The buildin
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