I've never done a backpacking trip like this, but does anyone ever bring oils? Oil would be the most calorie dense food although packing it might be a pain. Add a tablespoon or two of olive oil to lunch and dinner and thats an extra 240-480 calories.

Why not just butter or Ghee? Make some bulletproof coffee too

Edit: meant to add, yes. We've brought Olive oil and butter before, but I've also never been on a hunt that is so exhausting like y'all have..

Slight derail from meals... any recommendations on **** you wished you would have brought?

So far I've got:

Tylenol
Advil
Allergy Medicine
Pepto
Gold Bond
Hand Sanitizing soft wipes
Chapstick

What else am I missing?

Kind of in the same vein... but Tylenol PM to help you sleep. Sometimes it can be hard to get comfortable and tune out to sleep at night. Also ear plugs if you'll be in a tent (or near) someone who snores.

I'll add... some kind of lightweight slip on shoes (e.g., Crocs) for wearing around camp.

Melatonin Advil pm

Didn't even think about the shoes. Good point!

I'll bring Tylenol PM but figured I am going to be so damn exhausted sleep is going to come easy. Although I haven't spent this many nights in bear country before though.

If you do take tylenol PM be careful about tracking your acetaminophen intake.

shaynew1 said:

---

Melatonin Advil pm

---

Have you ever had these side effects?

What are the side effects of Advil PM?
Common side effects may include:

• drowsiness;
• day-time drowsiness, dizziness, "hangover" feeling;
• upset stomach, mild heartburn, diarrhea, constipation;
• dry mouth, nose, or throat;
• blurred vision;
• mild itching or rash; or.
• ringing in your ears.

I'd throw in a small first aid kit, Mylar thermal blanket, Heatsheets Emergency Bivvy, 3/4 inch Ferro Fire Starter Rod, Aquatabs for water purification, Compass, Boost natural oxygen individual cans, Coghlan's Emergency Tinder, Cheap Lighter, GU Energy Gel/Hammer Gel, Parachute cord, Baby Wipes unscented, and Klean Kanteen.

Pretty much have all of that already. Are the cans of O2 worth the added weight?

Oxygen Plus O brand has mini's that are smaller. I always take a normal can Boost Oxygen in my pack each day and because it weightless it's pretty light. I found it helps with altitude and helps refresh you each day.

I'm in pretty good shape workout regularly and former US Marine and a hump master but I found it helped combat altitude and fatigue

Nope. Not related to taking Advil pm at least.

BurnetAggie99 said:

---

I'd throw in a small first aid kit, Mylar thermal blanket, Heatsheets Emergency Bivvy, 3/4 inch Ferro Fire Starter Rod, Aquatabs for water purification, Compass, Boost natural oxygen individual cans, Coghlan's Emergency Tinder, Cheap Lighter, GU Energy Gel/Hammer Gel, Parachute cord, Baby Wipes unscented, and Klean Kanteen.

---

Yep. I take more than a small first aid kit that I leave in camp. We each carry an emergency first aid with tourniquet in a medium sized molly pouch on the outside of our packs. If **** gets real, you're on your own for a while.

We also each have a separate survival molly pouch that stays with whatever is our core gear we won't put down. We might drop our packs (I generally don't because it just adds miles in the end) but we'll always have our bino case or something. Keep your survival gear with you at all times.

Y'all make hunting sound miserable.

No doubt

Which part of being able to get away from just about every other person so you have to be able to survive on your own in beautiful country sounds bad?

I was just joking around because of all the talk about being sick mostly. I certainly understand the appeal.

Altitude sickness is very common especially if your going off grid and will be doing a lot hiking every day but their are products and supplements to combat that.

I've had it. It's miserable.

My favorite is still peanut butter/jelly/bacon. When we go skiing. Hiking. Hunting. Love it.

ttha_aggie_09 said:

---

The bears "taking" or "raking" my genitals off...

/from Ursusguy on the bear thread

Aside from that, nothing.

---

Good news, black bears are ******* / Ursus

Stay out of Grizzly country and you have less to worry about.

If calories are your concern you need more fat, it's the most calorie dense food. You should consider making fat bombs. They are basically low carb, high fat snacks for people on a ketogenic diet. You can find the ingredients at most grocery stores today.

https://ketodietapp.com/Blog/post/2015/03/24/60-amazing-fat-bomb-recipes

CactusThomas said:

---

Y'all make hunting sound miserable.

---

My thoughts as well.

My obsession must always pull me through. I dont know.
The only issue i have ever had is having to drop a log 2 hours into the day. Hate that.

I went on our first elk hunt last year. The mistake I made was thinking mountain house meals and cliff bars were the way to go.

There are a few MHM that are good, but after a handful of those, they become very hard to eat and enjoy. You may take 3 or 4 to eat over the trip, but do not rely on those for more than a couple meals.

I had a couple cliff bars and then couldn't eat them anymore. They became awful tasting.

I would recommend a variety of foods. If in cold weather, don't forget simple things like buttered tortillas with ham and cheese. Grill that on a skillet and it was like heaven.

Also, I went and got prescribed to Diamox (I think that's the name). I went skiing in Breckinridge and had altitude sickness. We were hunting around 12,000' and I didn't get altitude sickness in the least bit after taking diamox. Worth looking into.

NRD09 said:

---

small/light book, just in case you get completely socked in for a half a day

as for the first aid kit, besides the big/camp first aid kit, I keep benadryl and steri strips in my day pack (actually in my toiletry bag too). These items, a little knowledge, and duct tape will take care of almost any medical emergency long enough to get you to camp, if not the trailhead/hospital.

Make a poo kit. ziploc bag with half a roll of tp, a little bottle of hand sanitizer and a handful of individually packaged wet-wipes for final mop up. Pro tip: pull the cardboard tube out of the tp and dispense from the middle of the roll so you never have to take the roll out of the bag. Poopin in snow with no dry place to set your tp? NBD, toss it on the snow, tp stays dry.

Do you have a rangefinder? Distances in the mountains are deceiving and elk are huge, further adding to misjudged distances. Also it's fun to guess and check yourself as you're out hiking.

---

This. Don't forget the small metal gardening shovel as well. My hunting partner learned the hard way that plastic ones don't work so well with frozen soil.

I disagree with the mountain house meals. We had a mountain camp out party and tried a bunch of different ones before we went. That way we knew which ones we liked and didn't. They're a lot more tolerable if you don't have to worry about opening one up and hating it.

The variety of snacks was key. I had a ziplok pre-packed for each day with a package of crackers, candy bar, lara bar, cashes, etc. Having the variety and ease of just grabbing one ziploc from the bear bag each morning was great.

Always had various snacks like roasted peanuts and chickpeas, quest protein bars - the variety pack is great, plenty of jerkey, dried sausage and cheese, Hippeas organic Chickpea puffs, GU Energy Sports Energy Gel, Atkins chocolate peanut butter bars, packaged tuna, dill pickles, and so on not counting MRE's that can be taken out individually each day on hunts.

I bought a bucket of the Mountain House meals (so whatever was in there), and bucket of whatever the meals at Cabelas were (these ended up being used as random side dishes) and about 2/3 of a helmet bag of MREs (ie Marine cousin was responsible for those and I don't remember exactly how many he brought). And we had about 6 boxes of assorted food bars.

Saving grace is none of the 3 of us are remotely picky, and I don't get bored with food very easily. That being said, I had a baggie with some Tony's, some kind of sweetish dry bbq rub, and some Montreal seasoning.

Time to eat we'd just boil some water. We had a little propane stove, but I could boil just about as fast on the wood burning stove (in fact, after about 1 day, we rarely used the propane stove). If need be, they could doctor Mountain House to a different flavor. Given my druthers, I liked the MREs.

I will say, we got pulled a day or 2 early (potential weather issue and the trail was BAD), and we had eaten about 85% of our food. We did like to eat, but we all lost quite a bit of weight.

And there is something magical about popping a squat on a 10 degree log as the sun is coming up. Overlooking a classic Colorado high altitude meadow. Checking out how MREs decide to block or freeflow. Yep, pretty much a garuntee that the elk will choose that time to make an appearance.

I was too lazy to cook last night so I had a MH Lasagna. Pretty good, but the damn cheese stuck to my spoon like molten lava. First world problems.

The Chicken and Dumplings are damn good.

Everything tastes better after a few days.

I started packing last night. DeerHorny/ElkHorny.

Also when everyone got up someone always made eggs and bacon for breakfast on the griddle either on the coals or propane stove. Also always brought cast iron Dutch Ovens that can be used with hot coals and would make stew and stuff. Also had steaks and such to grill in camp in the evenings.

Quote:

---

And there is something magical about popping a squat on a 10 degree log as the sun is coming up. Overlooking a classic Colorado high altitude meadow. Checking out how MREs decide to block or freeflow. Yep, pretty much a garuntee that the elk will choose that time to make an appearance.

---