We have been dehydrating food for backpacking and other adventures for over 10 years. Here are some of the things we’ve learned along the way about dehydrators, followed by our favorite models. Dehydrators we recommend (largest to smallest): When we’re prepping 100+ meals at a time for our long trips, we usually use our trusty 9-tray Excalibur dehydrator. It has a large capacity (15 square feet), the square slide-in trays are easy to fill, and the fan is in the back of the unit. The only drawback is the dehydrator’s large size — we use a smaller model when we ..read more

Here is our Creamy Spaghetti recipe! We ate this on our walk from Mexico to Canada on the Continental Divide Trail in 2021. We liked it so much that we will bring it again on our upcoming Pacific Northwest Circuit -- 4 months and 2,700 miles by foot and canoe ..read more

Food is constantly on our minds while we are on outdoor adventures! Considering that we burn anywhere from 3,500 to 4,500 calories a day while thruhiking, that shouldn’t be surprising. Instead, it gives us lots of motivation during the offseason to plan ahead for our next trip by coming up with creative recipes. Over the last few weeks we have held a friendly competition to find out which one of us is capable of creating a better dehydrated recipe! The Rules of the Competition: Each of us has to create an original backpacking dinner recipe. The recipe has to be ..read more

Ingredients (Serves 2 People): 3/4 cup instant stuffing 1/2 cup instant potatoes 1/2 cup roasted sunflower seeds (or dehydrated turkey) 1/4 cup dehydrated green beans 1/4 cup dehydrated corn 1/4 cup dried cranberries 1 package instant gravy 2 tsp veggie bouillon 1/4 cup fried onions (topping) 3 cups water to rehydrate Before the Trail: Dehydrating: Dehydrate green beans and corn separately at 135°F until they are crispy (~8+ hours). If using fresh or frozen green beans and corn, precook before dehydrating. (Precooking will make them less chewy after rehydrating.) Assembly: Put fried onions in ..read more

Here is a list of VEGAN snacks that we discovered during our PCT thruhike… Bought on trail: After the desert hiker hunger started to set in for us, and we realized we needed more snack food than just the nuts, dried fruit, and granola bars we had sent ourselves in our resupply boxes. We quickly learned which junk foods available in town were vegan. Skittles We started calling them “Shittles” by the end of the trail. Oreos Kind of crazy, but Oreos are vegan! Be careful with the knockoff brands, as they are not always vegan. Fritos Great alone or ..read more

This simple recipe is a version of pasta with tomato sauce that is as easy to make and cold soak as simple rice-and-beans. It is 100% vegan, rehydrates fast, and tastes great! It makes a perfect lunch with simple preparation steps before and during your trip ..read more

For lunch while thru-hiking the PCT in 2018 we mostly cold-soaked store bought prepared foods (Near East couscous or Knorr rice sides) that we had supplemented with additional dried beans and/or greens. By the end of the hike we were absolutely sick of our lunches. The store-bought pre-made foods were full of sodium and preservatives that tasted fine at first, but over time they became extremely noticeable and disgusting. In summer 2019, while hiking the German countryside, we started experimenting with our own backpacking lunch recipes. Cold soaked rice and beans is cheap, simple, and easy to ..read more

We love this rice and bean recipe for a large and fulfilling dinner on the trail. Few things beat sitting at camp after a long day of hiking and enjoying this meal plain, smothered in hot sauce, or wrapped in a tortilla ..read more

Cabbage, lentils, and rice. Yum! This recipe was inspired by an Ethiopian restaurant we went to in Sacramento, California during our PCT thruhike. It was also influenced by our move to Germany, as our consumption of cabbage has gone through the roof ..read more

Pasta, veggies, and beans in a tomato sauce flavored with taco powder and topped with nutritional yeast. Vegan taco pasta is a tasty and filling meal on the trail ..read more