10-day Solo Paddling Menu Plan

A menu plan for a 10-day paddling trip must be light, compact and crush resistant. It should also be varied enough to fight off boredom and maintain nutrition. The following menu plan provides about 3500 calories a day, and it’s light, compact, crush resistant and varied. Except for the fresh lunch items, this can be sent through the mail for resupply stops on longer multi-staged trips.

Hygiene & Misc

• Small travel sized toothpaste
• Dr. Bronner – Castile Soap Peppermint repackaged to a 1 ounce container
• 10 One-a-Day vitamin pills
• 15 pack of Action Wipes
• 3 gallon sized plastic bags

Fuel

• 1 3.5 ounce Jetboilcanister

Breakfast

• 10 Carnation Instant Breakfast Essentials
• 3.5 cups of Instant Milk
• 10 Java Juice packages (if you’re a coffee drinker)
• 4 Servings Oatmeal: 3/4 quick oats, 1/3 cup Nestle Nido, 1 TBSP brown sugar, 1/4 cup dried fruit
• 6 Servings Cereal: 1 cup Kashi Cereal, 1/3 cup Instant Milk, 1 TBSP brown sugar, 1/4 cup dried fruit

Lunch

• 1 package Wasa Crackers o flat bread or pitas
• One or two red peppers
• 8 oz block of cheese (sharp cheddar)
• 9 oz Salami or Summer Sausage
• 1 package of Pepperoni
• 1 jar’s worth of Nutella or Peanut Butter
• 10 lunch sized packages of Corn Chips

Dinner

• 10 Enertia Trail Food Dinners (Coleman branded have more calories)
  • Korr/Lipton dinners could be substituted. Cooking takes much longer.
• 10 TBSP olive oil
• 5 packages of Instant pudding/cheesecake, etc…

Snacks

• 20 Clif Bars, Power Bars or homemade (woohoo!) bars
• 16 ounce package of Fig Newtons or other sweet snacks
• 10 Gornola Bars (hard)
• 1 can Wheat Nuts (pure fat!)
• 1 can Repackaged (double bags w/scoop) Energy Drink (look for glucose polymers (maltodextrins))

Sometimes, I make gorp.

• One big bag of peanut M&Ms
• Can of mixed nuts with no peanuts
• 3/4 box of Goldfish crackers
• 2 to 3 cups of dried peas

Good Resources

Most of the camping cookbooks on the market present recipes and menu plans which just don’t work on a high millage long distance trip. There just isn’t enough time in the day to paddle 30 plus miles, set up camp, blog, take pictures, and prepare complicated meals. Here are a few books that are the best for this style of trip.

• The Appalachian Trail Food Planner: Recipes and Menus for a 2,000-Mile Hike
• Freezer Bag Cooking: Trail Food Made Simple