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 

Designed by tribologists to go faster - Learn More

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

• Beer as a sports drink?

• Best beers to drink warm while out on the trail

• How much water to drink while mountain biking?

References for Best Mountain Bike Snacks:

1. 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.

2. Le Bouthillier, Marie (2019) Hikers, What’s to Eat in Your Backpack? Extraordinary Eating in Extraordinary Experiences. Masters thesis, Concordia University.

3. Nieman, David C et al. “Bananas as an energy source during exercise: a metabolomics approach.” PloS one vol. 7,5 (2012): link

4. 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.

5. 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.‌