Trail mix, Gorp or Scroggin - hiking snack food by any other name!

What is the best snack food when hiking?
Yummy nibbles to keep up your energy?
Easy food to eat while hiking, bushwalking, mountain climbing or treking?

No matter where you live or what you call trail mix you probably have a favourite "snack" food you take hiking.

Wikipedia describes trail mix as the ideal snack food for hikes, because it is lightweight, easy to store, and nutritious, providing a quick boost from the carbohydrates in the dried fruit and/or granola, and sustained energy from the mono- and polyunsaturated fats in nuts

We have been modifying our scroggin over several years and in this post describe how we put it all together and prepare our scroggin for each hiking trip.

The "rules":
- cut up your treats into small pieces for different taste sensations
- avoid anything that melts or goes too soggy
- avoid anything too sticky (makes big chunks) or soft (breaks up into small pieces that are hard to grab)
- there are no real rules - just add what you like to eat

The recipe:
This is just a sample of the type of snacks we use in our scroggin, mix and match it to your taste.
- Liquorice all sorts cut into quarters
- Liquorice twists or straps cut into 2-3 cm (1") lengths
- jelly beans
- snakes - cut up
- jelly babies
- dried fruit such as apricot, pear, sultanas, raisins, currents etc
- chocos
- Liquorice chocolate coated bullets
- yogurt balls
- M&M's
- smarties
- Nuts - peanuts (we use unsalted or EVERYTHING gets salty), cashews, almonds etc BUT nothing with shells

Our scroggin, mixed and ready to bag

The amount:
- We take 100grams (about 3.5 ounces) or a small ziploc bag per person per day (this has gradually been reduced from about 200g as we now tend to eat less).
- We count the first and last day in the trail as one bag
- On a 5 night hike we take 5 bags (half for first and last day)

How we buy it all:
- We work out how many nights we are hiking - for example, 4 nights, 400gms each, two of us, total required 800gms! Our last trip we needed 1.6kg or 3.5 pounds!
- off to the supermarket and head to the confectionary / health food/ nut / dried fruit sections
- graze around for 30 min or so deciding what looks good (best to eat BEFORE you go there)
- start adding bags of goodies to our basket, writing down the net weight of each bag
- once we reach the required amount / weight we usually throw in an extra bag or two to get some more variety
- head off to the checkout and nearly faint at the cost..... junk food is expensive.

The packaging process:
- get a large bowl or container
- open packets, cut up large pieces and add to bowl
- beat off the children and hungry animals
- mix together by hand taking care not to eat too much
- depending on the amount you have decided for each day, weigh or fill bag with required amount
- share the leftovers with the kids

Seven days of scroggin for three people - bagged and ready to go

Advantages:
- we love the convenience of a pre-measured amount each day
- you don't eat all your scroggin in the first few days
- your get a real energy boost nibbling on high sugar food each hour or so

Disadvantages:
- You can add some serious weight to your pack if you are hiking for a few days, for example, seven nights, 700grams (1.5 pounds) of trail mix.
- you can get sick of the same tastes each day - think about putting a mix of different items in for different days if you are out for more than a couple of days e.g. nuts and jellybeans or bullets, snakes and yogurt balls in one bag. Experiment.

We would love to hear what you take as trail mix or scroggin or gorp. Leave us a comment so others can read them and use your ideas on their next trip.

Other ideas:
The Food Network - Trail Mix
Skipper's Scroggin recipe

Related Posts
Food planning for a 9 day hike
Food preparation for the Overland Track and other multi day hikes
Meal ideas for the Overland Track or other long hikes