There are some truisms in life. Want to wreck your family? Go play miniature golf... that is... if you intend to keep score and play by the rules with children! Want to backpack with your kids? Bring along candy!

Actually, as the girls get older (15 and nearly 12), they have developed a taste beyond candy on the trail. In Yosemite, they'll be chompin' on homemade dehydrated kiwi, strawberries and apple. Yes... there will be Skittles, jelly beans, etc.

Whereas breakfast was simple (but heavy) to negotiate with them... and dinner was a snap to determine (mac/cheese)... lunch on the trail was another matter. The "g" philosophy for trail-lunches is this: Forget formal lunches; when long distance hiking eat healthy amounts of snacks high in complex carbohydrates for sustained energy - you won't pig-out over "lunch", rest too long and stiffen-up, get bloated, etc.

Anywho... here goes. The thinking behind "g's" menu planning for 3 days of backpacking in Yosemite Natl. Park with his daughters:

Trail Snacks:
Based on past performance, I calculated that each of us would eat 3, 2-oz pouches of snack per day. That's a total of 18-oz per day. Apples and strawberries we dehydrated at home. All snacks were labeled and weighed in vacuumed sealed pouches.

Breakfasts:
Pancake mix that only requires H2O is the key. Syrup was the non-refrigerated type vacuum sealed into small, 5-inch, 5-oz pouches.

Lunch:
Although "g" has his own philosophy about trail-side lunches, kids want "lunch." So... "g" and his daughter's tried some new ideas. Some lunches would include tuna in vacuumed sealed pouches ("lunch") in which they would add non-refrigerated packets of relish or Mayo (found in convenient stores). Others would be a combination of trail snacks.

Dinner:
Dinner was fun to plan. The girls planned to eat Mac/Cheese (with it's own real cheese packet included) one night, and pasta with Ragu sauce the next. Ragu has a microwavable pasta product that includes non-refrigerated Ragu sauce in a pouch (the only stuff my kids will eat). Perfect for backpacking. As for "g"? He's eating homemade, dehydrated concoctions for himself.

Hydration:
"g" has some new thinking about hydration during extensive backpacking trips. Instead of drinking power drinks for carbohydrates (like Gatorade), he's only going with H2O this year. Click here for the reason why.

"g" will tote two, 1-qt bottles of H2O stored in lightweight, plastic soda bottles. The girls will carry new MSR Dromlite Hydration Systems. One will carry H2O; the other Gatorade. They will alternate between the two.

Prior to leaving NY, "g" gives the ol' bear proof food canister a trial run. The canister weighs 2.7-lbs; food for 3 days for 3 hikers weighs 10-lbs; lunches won't fit so they'll be stored in backcountry steel food lockers. Trail snacks for day-1 sit on top; the Standard Measuring Device sits to the right. (Is there too much food?)