rperkins146

New to this, and want some input. What foods do you prepare or take for the nights camping? I can see protein bars, shakes, muffins . . . what other things do you take for a decent filling meal after a day of riding?


I have lots of experience camping, but we always took coolers, that negates a lot of my experience.

FBinNY 

When I bike tour and camp, I don't like to put in time cooking dinner. I'll eat before making camp, or if I arrive early and there are places to eat nearby, I might set up the site, then ride for dinner.

Just about the only thing I'll cook on a bike camping trip is coffee in the AM.

Otherwise, I don't eat any bike specific food like energy bars, but do keep snacks, which could be just about anything, though there's a bias to salted stuff like pretzels.

Doug64

I take a cooler on tours. The insulation, made from a blue, K-Mart camping pad, slides into my left front pannier There is a top for it made out of the same material. It will keep drinks cool all day. I stop at convenience stores when I can and fill a water bottle with ice. It works well when I have to pick up groceries in the morning and a cold drink on a hot day is always welcome.


We don't carry a lot of food unless it is necessary. Most of the time groceries can be obtained daily, and depending how far you are from camp can be just about anything you want; well, maybe not ice cream.

We do carry staples: beverages(tea, coffee, hot chocolate), some Cliffbars, Snickers or other quick sources of energy, spices, small packets of mayo and mustard, and a can opener. Depending on the route, I will carry 1 or 2 freeze dried meals for "emergencies". I've always ended up using them.

rperkins146

this is genious. thank you, I may make a cooler. I actually have the same bags you do.

Happy Feet

Depends on a lot of factors.

One easy idea for breakfasts, if I pack food with me for a short weekend type trip, is to have pre made individual serving size sandwich bags filled with oatmeal, brown sugar and raisins.. and some instant coffee/cocoa powder. All I have to do is heat some water, fill the baggie with the right amount and seal it and make/drink a mocha while I wait for the oatmeal to cool. Eat it out of the baggie and there's no dishes or pots to wash.

For dinners I'm old fashioned in that I tend to eat out of cans that I buy during the day. You can heat them up or eat them cold if you don't want to cook. One filling easy meal is a can of vegetable soup to which I add a pack of ramen noodles. Another one is beans with corn chips mixed in. I also usually bring a small jar of peanut butter to snack on in a pinch and may buy buns or bread to spread it on. Unless one is off the grid you can usually buy stuff along the way.

Other people buy dehydrated foods to avoid the weight of cans but I tour solo and don't find one or two cans a pita. However, it really depends on what you like and want to do. When touring I just think of food as fuel while others find cooking to be a part of the overall experience.

Machka 

No protein bars, shakes or muffins.

But ...

Coffee
Tea
Sugar
Powdered Milk
Oriental Noodles
Tinned chicken or tuna

Things like these to which we add water or occasionally milk (gotta read the packet):
Rice & Risotto Side Dishes | Continental®
Pasta & Sauce Side Dishes | Continental®
Cous Cous | Ainsley Harriott

Along the way we'll pick up some raw veggies to mix in with it and fruit for snack or dessert.

We've usually got cheese and crackers for a "putting up the tent" snack.

Lunch is often a stop at a grocery store where we'll get buns, cold cuts, cheese slices, a tomato to make sandwiches, and then yogurt for dessert.

Sometimes we'll pick up a half-dozen eggs and have them on toast for dinner or breakfast.

There's any number of things you can do!

indyfabz

I try to camp in places with, or close to, a grocery source so I can pick up stuff for dinner and breakfast the next morning.

Doing a three day starting on Friday. The town near the forest where I will be camping has a somewhat limited grocery source so I will leave home with dried pasta, a zucchini, small red onion and some foil packed tuna along with the olive oil and fresh garlic I normally have with me. For breakfast I will likely bring a bagel and maybe some sardines. Saturday I will do a day ride from camp and stop for groceries in a different town on my way back to camp.

Rob_E

I'm a fan of a cooler when camping, although most of my trips involve camping in the same spot for multiple days, so I feel like a cooler is more justified. I have a "12 pack" Polar Bear cooler that takes the place of one of my rear panniers. But that seems like overkill and too much weight/space for day-after-day riding trips where you will likely be able to refresh your supplies on a regular basis. For those I just picked up a "6 pack" cooler. I'm hoping it will ride on top of my seat bag, but that's untried as of yet.

The easier way is to forgo food that requires refrigeration, and I think there will be lots of suggestions along those lines. I just happen to like milk with my coffee, eggs in the morning, cheese, and the occasional hot dog over the fire, all of which do better if kept cold until needed.

But food which doesn't need kept cold: fresh fruit, that I usually buy a piece at a time on the day that I want to eat it. Likewise canned fruit, which can be had in a pinch in just about any gas station. Combos are my other gas station snack of choice. I really like these heat-and-eat Indian meals: Products - Tasty Bite Boil up some water, place the whole bag in the hot water, and when it's warmed through, open the bag and eat. There are a number of canned foods, as well, that can be picked up the day of and heated over the camp stove, but they add a fair amount of weight, so I tend to just buy a can what plan on eating later that day, whereas I'll stash a couple of those Tasty Bite meals for the duration of the trip as a backup meal. I also like bread, but bread doesn't always travel well on the bike, so I'll get some naan or flatbread or tortillas that're less likely to get squished.

And I'm a fan of stopping and eating somewhere along the way, or getting some prepared food to go. Stopping in the 2nd half of the day for a decent meal means I likely won't have to cook at camp. I can grab a snack, or a grocery store, pre-made sandwich as my dinner. One time I ordered pizza, which seemed like fabulous idea at the time, but then I spent the whole night chasing a raccoon away from my leftovers. And in the morning I found that while the raccoon had been thwarted, the bugs had not. But, hey, everybody likes different toppings.

stardognine

The main 2 necessities are beef jerky (preferably teriyaki flavored) and peanut M&Ms. That'll hold you pretty good, if you get stranded by heavy rain or something. Most grocery stores have pretty good deli sections, if you can't find restaurants. And pizza is a good option, just fold 2 slices together, like a sandwich, and use large zip lock freezer bags. And definitely fresh fruit, wether free from nature or paid for.

gauvins

We try to encourage the hospitality industry by having dinner in a restaurant.

We always carry 2+ "emergency" meals -- some starch (instant mashed potatoes), a topping (canned tuna), some GORP (an opportunistic mixture of dried fruits and nuts), and tea.

For breakfast, oatmeal whenever available and/or eggs and/or bananas + instant coffee (Starbucks' VIA is a good option). In France and Germany, fresh pastries from a local bakery.
For lunch, we'll try to get something on the road to make sandwiches. We also carry a couple of packs of ramen and munch on GORP when we dont find supplies under way.

BigAura

Knorr's Rice or Noodle Sides are high calorie, light weight, and taste good too. I mix in a package of salmon, tuna, walnuts, or beans for protein.

J.Higgins 

Hey rperkins, I haven't toured yet, but I've done a bunch of AT segments. I like @stardognine 's attitude towards food. Pizza, M&Ms, and jerky. I used to just kill a fresh bag of jerky on the trails. One of my go-to snacks instead of powerbars or the like was Snickers king size. More calories and more filling than a Clif bar at a fraction of the price.

I'll be on the Great Divide trail next summer, and my plan is to bring jerky, biltong, oats, and a GORP mix to cover me between towns. My plan is to do it stoveless as well.

reppans

I'm just a water boiler type so for me:
B'fast - daily instant oatmeal w/Trader Joes pre-packaged nuts and Starbucks Via freeze-dried coffee.
Lunch/snack - usually on the road, and catching up on veg/fruit fiber needs.
Dinner - 50% restaurant, 50% at campsite - mountain house freeze-dried meals (I like them); instant mashed potatoes/rice/couscous for carbohydrates; foil package tuna/salmon, canned sardines/chili, salami, maybe eggs for protein.

No cooler - if anything, I like getting a cold beer or two and wrapping it up in clothing for insulation until I can drink it at my campsite.

indyfabz

You could always strap an entire case of Ramen on top of all the other stuff on your rear rack like a guy I saw riding the TranAm last year did. Wish I had snapped a photo.

alan s 

Cwoffee.

https://zedshaw.com/archive/theres-n...coffee-dammit/

andrewclaus

I'm a stoveless camper as well. And I seldom eat where I camp, since I'm also mainly a stealth camper. I carry a bag of muesli (good for a quick meal any time), a stack of tortillas, a block of cheese, some hummus when I can find it, a bag of nuts, a bag of raisins, a bag of crackers and/or cookies. I never buy protein, energy or candy bars.

If I'm successful at finding a good stealth site, I'll spend the money I saved on some really good restaurant food the next time I'm in town. And I've eaten a bunch of pints of Ben & Jerry's in front of a convenience store.

MikeRides

Our staples on our week long bike tour consisted of: Jerky , a jar of peanut butter (actually 2, had to buy a 2nd on the road), Pay Day candy bars (for dessert), crackers (goes great with the PB), and trail mix. We stopped for perishables each night, with the exception of numerous ice cream stops, a pizza restaurant one night, and a visit with my cousin mid-way who insisted on feeding us. My ride partner is an extremely picky eater and all this suited her fine. My main concern was keeping milk cold, but we opted to just buy a quart at a convenience store near camp each night.

Western Flyer 

My first rule of touring is to carry as little food as possible. But this rule is tempered by the fact I like to cook on tour, most especially fresh local food to taste the region I’m in. Your smart phone can be a godsend for finding quality fresh food. Download a farmers market finder app for the regions your riding in. If you come across a Mennonite store you will have died and gone to heaven with the fresh, organic produce available, look online. College towns, even small ones are a good place to stock up on essentials like EVO, quality teas and coffee and most importantly for me fair-trade, 70%+ DARK chocolate.

But real road touring has me often missing farmers markets by a day or even an hour and in general the freshest and finest can be hard to come by, sometimes for days at a time. Almost guaranteed is a deli/convenience store attached to most truck stops. I find them where ever two major highways cross. Where there’s a major highway and a side road to a recreation site like a national park, it almost always results in a mom and pop restaurant and general store often with very reasonable food selections. KOA type RV campgrounds have basics foods, mostly canned but maybe some fresh fruit. At least in western US, every small farm town is going to have a Mexican tienda with good food at good prices. Tortillas keep well and can be worked into breakfast, lunch and dinner.

In short unless you are really heading away from civilization for days at a time, there’s going to be food to be found most every day. I can say with many thousand of kilometer on the road, I’ve never had to eat at a McDonalds.

I carry all open food and items needing a bit of insulation in a six pack cooler over my front wheel. Food is never stored with my clothes or anything that come inside the tent, including the tent.

J.Higgins 

I likes me some cwoffee too, but hopefully I'll be weaned of it by next year. We're heading off for a holiday next week, and when I get back, I'll be doing the caffeine withdrawals for a week.

Hey man, no way I'd put my wife through that while on vacation, lol.

rperkins146

Thank you all. I made a list of items from all of your input. I feel way more prepared.


I think I'll stop once daily (hopefully lunchtime) and eat at a local restaurant, but pack snacks and one meal to have at camp for dinner.

Machka 

What we usually do is this ...

At lunchtime, we stop at a grocery store and get lunch, which will often include foods which need to be kept cold like yogurt or ice cream. We will also pick up something for dinner, and for tomorrow's breakfast, and sometimes an extra snack.

On board we usually have things like oriental noodles, a few granola bars, crackers, coffee, spices, etc. ... just in case ... so if we're running low on those, we'll stock up.

So at most, most days, we'll be carrying dinner, breakfast, and a few snacks.

If we figure we'll be heading into an area where we might not be able to visit a grocery store for a day or two, we'll try to stock up a little bit. But if worse comes to worse, we should have some noodles, granola bars and probably a piece of fruit on board.

Obviously if you were heading up the Dempster Hwy or across the Nullarbor you might want to bring a bit more.

Carbonfiberboy 

We carry almost nothing in the way of food. Snickers bars, toffee peanuts maybe. Not much more. We buy what we'll need for dinner at the last town and eat breakfast in the first restaurant we come to. Which might be a while, hence the bars and peanuts. Or maybe we'll pick up a pastry at that last grocery store and have that for breakfast. If we're going to stay somewhere for a while, we'll buy provisions to last the length of our stay and toss or give away anything left over. Carrying food on the bike is a total PITA in our opinion. OTOH we've never crossed hundreds of miles of desert, so there's that. We try to route so that there's at least some minor civilized outpost to be encountered every day. Sometimes we don't even carry a stove so that we're forced to eat with the local inhabitants. That's rather nice. Travel is really all about the people not the place.

BikeLite

I would carry all of my own food mostly, just like with backpacking. All of my days food fits into a quart ziploc.

veganbikes

My last big tour I had some quinoa with vegetables and my homemade seasoning blend and had also made some cheezy pasta with a quite delicious vegetable medley. One trip we made Pasta alla Vodka with those packaged hokkien noodles and homemade sauce made of dried ingredients. With the ease of finding great backpacking supplies and portable and dried stuff you can make all sorts of stuff and with my dehydrator I plan on making some super gourmet stuff for a future tour this summer and fall.

I will occasionally eat out but usually I just bring my own food and I like lots of flavor and I love cooking so I try to get a little of that in especially with farmers markets and roadside stands.

linus

I carry a couple of dehydrated meals in case I'm stranded and away from a town which is rare. In the morning, I usually stop for a breakfast and just have some snack on the bike for lunch(Not a fan of eating in between rides). Dinner is when I go for a big meal at a local restaurant. I don't like wasting time cooking and shopping around to find food. I rather explorer and see the important attraction.

FYI, I do carry full backpacking gear, but I rarely needed to use them.