What are some of the best snacks and snacking ideas you have when it comes to being out on the trail?
I posted this question to 7 different biking and hiking clubs and received over 500 responses. This post outlines the most popular trail snacks, and the best snacking ideas for mountain bikers, or anyone who likes to snack in the great outdoors.
pancake sandwiches
Instead of making PB&J sandwiches with regular bread, make the PB&J 2.0 - leftover pancakes replace the boring bread.
Other pancake sandwich ideas:
Pancake with Nutella, honey, bananas, & various nut-butters (almond, walnut, cashew, etc.)
Also, you can use WAFFLES in-place of pancakes. The square waffles are easier to pack in ziplock baggies
Leftover pizza & fast food
Since mountain biking oftentimes takes place in the MOUNTAINS or places of higher-elevation, not having to worry about some foods spoiling allows for better-tasting options:
Leftover pizza in a ziplock is a delicious option. Pizza tastes great cold the next day, and that was before 5 miles of uphill climbing
Packing fast food, such as Quarter Pounders /Big Mac - More common than I expected….but this is one of my go-to backpacking snacks
A 2014 master thesis from the University of Montana compared fast foods to commercial power bars and energy chews post-cycling. The results? “cycling performance was not significantly different under both recovery diets.” The author concluded that fast food “may offer a convenient and economical approach to glycogen recovery under some circumstances.”
crepe roll-ups
Crepes slathered with Nutella/peanut butter/nut butters/honey/jam and rolled up with wax-paper and stuffed into a zip-lock
Also, can go with sandwich meats, hummus, and cheese, adding more protein and fat to the mix
Baked potato
Packing a backed potato in tin foil, or mashing the potato and packing it in a sealable bag was a very popular response.
Potato study: A 2019 study in the Journal of Applied Physiology reported that the consumption of potato puree supported enhanced cycling performance, similar to commercially available gel products.
beef jerky & dried meats
Beef jerky - Top 5 snack from our survey
Slim Jim’s
Salami,
Tuna (bags of tuna top 10 response)
Salmon
Cheese & crackers (+summer sausage)
Sharing types of foods like cheese, crackers, and sausages are a great tasting snack, especially when your buddies are packing it.
or…….just crackers without the heavy cheese and meat
Goldfish
Cheez-It
Ritz
Wheat Thins
Avocado and crackers was popular among hiking groups
Mini pretzels & beer
Some people save the beer for after the ride, while others prefer the sodium-laden pretzels washed down with a can of a local brew while enjoying views that you only get 20 miles away from any road.
Elements of ideal MTB snacks
Ready to eat/drink - CONVENIENCE is key to a good snack
Practical - Easy and preferable yummy transport of carbohydrates to fuel your body for a great riding experience
Non-perishable or less perishable (depending on outside temp this might be a non-factor)
Portable
Lightweight - depending on the ride the weight of the snack might be the deciding factor, for others, this might be an afterthought
Can get banged around or crashed on
Great tasting - Unless you’re racing or going for miles, nothing makes the trailside picnic break as satisfying as great tasting snacks
extraordinary eating & outdoors
Extraordinary eating - Researchers & academics refer to food that people eat out on the trail to be extraordinary eating since these foods differ from everyday normal food choices. Each MTBer has their version of extraordinary eating but there are three general themes for trail snacking, compared to normal eating habits:
Less healthy
Less fresh
More processed
* Energy shots, electrolytes gels, and power bars are all examples, since how many people consume these products after a day at the office or at home?? For me, I rarely eat fast food or sandwiches, except outdoors on the trail.
Pedaling intensity & fuel source
Higher intensity pedaling = increased oxidation of carbohydrates for fuel:
At ~ 75% of maximum intensity, carbohydrates become your body’s primary fuel source
None: Use food as a motivation factor to finish ride faster
Several riders mentioned carrying only water, and use food & alcoholic beverages as a motivating factor to finish the ride faster.
The amount and type of snacks for me depends on:
The difficulty of the ride/trail
Weather
Number of people riding and who is riding
Length/duration*
Riding style
Remoteness - Distance from stores, restaurants, pubs…..civilization
Elevation
I generally don’t carry much more than water, but it depends on the ride.
Less-biased studies (not-conducted by food companies) show that cycling performance improves when carbs are ingested during riding when the ride lasts greater than 90 minutes.
60 minutes during very intense mountain bike riding
cyclists & Salty Snacks
I had numerous responses from cyclists that also ride singletrack and the predominant response among this group was salty snacks:
Pickle juice
PayDay - candy bar
Fig Newtons
Fritos / potato chips / pretzels
Many people refer to electrolytes as ‘salts’:
Sodium is the electrolyte that is found outside the body’s cells
Potassium is the ‘counterweight' to sodium and is found inside your cells
Calcium, magnesium, & chloride are also electrolytes
Nuts & seeds
Lots of calories, fats, proteins, and electrolytes - Nut and seed combos taste great, plus they are sharable.
Countless varieties:
Peanuts, cashews, almonds, pecans, pistachios, walnuts, plus more
Sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, etc.
Homemade trail mix/trail mix
After making the nut and seed combo you might just ask yourself how can this get better…….trail mix is your answer.
Perfect trail mix formula:
Nuts
Seeds
Dried fruits - Ideally unsulfured
Spices - Cinnamon, salt (sea salt), nutmeg
Tasty treats - Chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, M&M, popcorn, pretzels, mini-cookies, gummy candies, dark chocolate, and more
Weather dependent on the ‘melt’ factor
baked goods
Brownies
Cookies
Mini muffins
Pies - the little cherry/apple pies
Homemade ‘power’ bars
Common combos include Chocolate/Peanut Butter/ with Chia seeds/oatmeal & various dried fruits (was a common response)
Fruit
Apple
Cucumber
Banana - Top 10 snack from our survey
Frozen grapes - Freeze a bag of grapes the night before your ride and throw into your pack before you leave - nice & sweet trailside treat
Oranges/tangerines
Side story (slightly off-topic): When I worked on a cruise ship years ago, many people got ‘written up’ for having bananas in their room, despite the BANANA being pictured on the acceptable food list. This food was not allowed, since you had to remove the peel, thus ‘preparing’ the food (prepared foods were banned in employee quarters).
Banana nutrition study: A 2012 study showed that trained cyclists consuming bananas resulted in a similar performance compared to sports drinks. The researchers also noted that bananas provided the athletes with “greater nutritional boost and antioxidants which is not found in sports drinks.”
Dried fruit
Banana chips
Raisins*
Apple chips
Dried mango
Dates
*Raisin study: A study from the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research compared sun dried raisins (SDR) and sport beans, and noted that SDR are just as effective for improved cycling performance, but noted the low cost and lack of stomach distress of the raisins.
Candy
So many candies with chocolate being hugely popular for COOLER/colder climates where chocolate won’t melt in your pack.
Chocolate bars -Snickers, M&Ms - peanut & almond/Reese's Peanut Butter Cups
Gummy type-candies - Gummy worms
Chocolate covered coffee beans
Twinkies
Little Debbie’s = Nutty Buddy, Swiss Roles, Honey Buns, Oatmeal Cream Pies
sandwiches/wraps
PB&J - Top 10 response
Cold grilled Cheese & ham
Nutella/Honey/Jam/Bananas/PB
Various cold cut combos
Sports drinks
Many riders reported that they don’t bring anything on the ride except a sports drink and a bar or gel. These MTBers saved their snacking for the local brewery. Many single-tracks are only a couple hours worth of riding and don’t warrant packing much in the form of snacks beside a bar, gel, gummies, and a sports drink.
Gatorade
Powerade
Vitamin Water
V8 Vegetable Juice: Mini cans (5.5 oz) of V8 was the most commonly mentioned drink besides sports drinks and beer
energy bars & gels
Clif bars
Larabars
Probar
Hammer gels
KIND bars
Bars were mentioned way more often then gels, but gels are super convenient and lightweight.
Granola
Granola offers a nice mixture of rolled oats, nuts, & sweetness all while not having to worry about what the temp is or falling on it.
Interesting info: National Granola Bar Day is celebrated each year on January 21st.
Final Thought
Everyone has their own preferences when it comes to trail snacks, while on the bike or on a hike.
Jesse is Director of Pedal Chile, which is an all-inclusive MTB tour company in Patagonia. Jesse lives in Valdivia, Chile, and can be found riding his MTB most days of the week. Favorite trail snacks: beer, chocolate-covered coffee beans, cold fast-food burger, &jerky - Edu. - M.S. Health & Human Performance & B.S. Kinesiology
More articles from Pedal Chile
References for Best Mountain Bike Snacks:
Cramer, Michael Joseph, “FAST FOOD RESULTS IN SIMILAR POST-EXERCISE GLYCOGEN RECOVERY AND EXERCISE PERFORMANCE COMPARED TO SPORT SUPPLEMENTS" (2014). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 4255.
Le Bouthillier, Marie (2019) Hikers, What’s to Eat in Your Backpack? Extraordinary Eating in Extraordinary Experiences. Masters thesis, Concordia University.
Nieman, David C et al. “Bananas as an energy source during exercise: a metabolomics approach.” PloS one vol. 7,5 (2012): link
Rietschier, H.L., Henagan, T.M., Earnest, C.P., Baker, B.L., Cortez, C.C. and Stewart, L.K. (2011). Sun-Dried Raisins are a Cost-Effective Alternative to Sports Jelly Beans in Prolonged Cycling. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 25(11), pp.3150–3156.
Salvador, A.F., McKenna, C.F., Alamilla, R.A., Cloud, R.M.T., Keeble, A.R., Miltko, A., Scaroni, S.E., Beals, J.W., Ulanov, A.V., Dilger, R.N., Bauer, L.L., Broad, E.M. and Burd, N.A. (2019). Potato ingestion is as effective as carbohydrate gels to support prolonged cycling performance. Journal of Applied Physiology, 127(6), pp.1651–1659.