u/Specialist_Dirt9926

Planning a three day trip and the food side is making me secondguess everything. Not the weight this time, more the quality. Freeze dried works fine and I understand the convenience argument, but a lot of it is pretty poor nutritionally once you get past the calorie count. High sodium, weak on actual protein density, not much fat that does anything useful when you're grinding out miles.

I've been building my own food for longer days. Nut butter packets, real jerky from a butcher, dried fruit I prep myself, some things I bake and dehydrate at home. The baked stuff has worked well because I control exactly what goes in.

What I can't figure out is the main meal situation. I don't mind cooking at camp, but I don't want a project after 12 miles. The homemade dehydrated meals I've tried have been okay, but getting rehydration right in the field without a reliable simmer is harder than it looks on YouTube

Curious what other people have settled on, especially if you've moved away from commercial options. Doesn't need to be fancy, just something that actually holds up over multiple days

My dog is a 55 lb border collie mix and he's been my hiking buddy for about two years now. Day hikes have been totally fine, he demolishes his food at camp and sleeps like a log. But I'm planning our first two night backpacking trip and I keep second guessing the food situation for him.

At home his diet is pretty dialed in. On trail I'm not sure whether to stick exactly to his regular food or account for the extra output. He's going to be covering real miles with a loaded pack on me, not a casual neighborhood walk. I bumped his portions slightly on a longer day hike last fall and he seemed better for it in the afternoon, less draggy, but that was only one day.

I'm also wondering about timing. I've read conflicting things about not feeding dogs right before big climbs because of bloat risk, and I don't know how seriously to take that for a medium sized dog on moderate terrain versus a giant breed doing something brutal.

The other thing I keep coming back to is water. He drinks a lot more on trail than I expect and I want to build that into my planning rather than run short at a dry camp.

Curious if anyone has figured out a rhythm that actually works over multiple days with a dog.

Last fall I finally took a long weekend to hunt a WMA I'd been wanting to check out for a couple of years. Hiked about four miles in, found plenty of sign, sat for two mornings, and the only things I saw were squirrels. I don't really blame the spot. Looking back, I should've spent more time scouting with onX before making the drive. But the trip did make me wonder if public land has changed more than I realized.

It seems like I run into people a lot more often now than I remember. Not just hunters, but hikers, trail runners, bird watchers, photographers, pretty much everyone is spending more time outdoors. Nothing wrong with that, but it definitely changes how some areas hunt.

Maybe I've just had bad luck with where and when I've been going. For those of you who spend time on Alabama's public land, does it feel more crowded than it used to, or has it always been about the same where you are?

Took a 9 mile out and back last weekend with a 38 lb pack. No real excuse for it. I just kept throwing stuff in, told myself I'd be fine, and was very much not fine. By mile 6 my knees were shot and I was rationing ibuprofen like trail currency.

The frustrating part is I'm not oblivious about this stuff. I prep meals obsessively, read gear reviews constantly, know what a reasonable base weight looks like. Still ended up with duplicate tools, two extra layers I never touched, and a full size cutting board. A full size cutting board.

I do mostly day hikes and occasional overnights, nothing technical. I want to get the pack down to something manageable before I plan anything longer. I've been looking at ultralight shelter options and going back and forth on whether my sleep system actually needs replacing or if I'm just bad at packing

What was the one thing you cut that actually moved the needle? Piece of gear, food strategy, whatever. I'm wondering if there's a pattern people hit before it finally clicks for them