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- RightOnTrek provides delicious, nutritious adventure meals for every appetite, ready to cook fresh on the trail.
- RightOnTrek has a meal planner right on its website, just for planning your multi-day adventures.
There’s something about the backcountry that makes every meal a sacred act. The stale swallow of a chalky protein bar or the millionth crunch of trail mix takes on new meaning when you’ve got miles of elevation gain ahead. Just thinking about the amount of tortillas and peanut butter I’ve eaten as I’ve ventured outside makes me nauseous.
On top of that, meal planning can be tedious. Counting calories for yourself (and other’s in your party) is stressful, especially if its your job to create appetizing combinations. I had a friend who once miscalculated where their daily calories were located in each meal. So, stuck in the Alaskan bush, they consumed a lot – a lot – of powdered milk to make up for their poorly selected dishes.
To avoid the meal planning conundrum, RightOnTrek has a meal planner right on its website. Free to use with an account, the program lets you customize to your preferences. Calorie count, dietary restrictions, preferred snack types, spice levels, and more are all fair game.
The plan creates a several day meal itinerary combining both unique RightOnTrek meals with grocery items like cheese sticks or protein bars. You can buy everything right on the website for easy trip planning.
I had the opportunity to taste some of RightOnTrek’s meals: Hearty Beef Bolognese, Savory Mountain Grits, Banana Bread Oatmeal, and Chicken Coconut Curry.
The taste test was a bit unconventional. I invited a small group of close friends over for a campout-style cocktail party. Whisperlites and Coleman stoves galore, we chowed down.
Overwhelmingly, the group’s (and my) favorite was the Chicken Coconut Curry rice dish. The chicken was surprisingly moist and the flavor was strong. 20 oz of water and around five minutes of cooking made a meal that could easily be passed off as freshly prepared. I was impressed, to say the least.
The other meals were also hardy. The Savory Mountain grits were flavorful with strong hickory notes. The bolognese was satisfying but overall could use a stronger spice profile in its sauce. Just like the chicken, the beef tasted and had the texture of a typical bolognese. For desert, we ate the Banana Bread Oatmeal. Similarly to the bolognese, the flavor profile tasted dulled down, but the texture (including a smattering of crunchy walnuts) made the dish feel like it wasn’t a pre-made camping meal at all. The oatmeal (and everything for that matter) felt like it had come straight from a kitchen.
Overall, I am impressed with RightOnTrek. The meals are portioned well, although after a full day of hiking I might eat two portions of the meals (especially the chicken curry). The ingredients, while sometimes not strong in flavor do taste fresh. Plus, the time to prepare each dish (in less than 10 minutes we had three packets cooked) is extremely practical. If you’re looking to take the stress away from meal prep and planning, I’d givec RightOnTrek the green light.
About RightOnTrek
RightOnTrek was founded by a group of friends and backpacking buddies from Silicon Valley. In 2017, they completed the 211-mile John Muir Trail in the High Sierra. During that epic adventure, they developed a shared dream: to open up similar adventures to millions of people who don’t have the knowledge, experience, or equipment for a multi-day backpacking vacation.
Within the group, they had all the capital and skills to turn that dream into this company. Six months later, in October 2018, the first version of RightOnTrek.com went live. Since then, thousands of people have discovered their site and used the tools to plan their backpacking trips.