Snacks for Hungry Hikers

Keep energy levels up with these snacks for hiking 

Making sure you keep your energy levels topped up while out walking is greatly important to prevent yourself from becoming lightheaded. The more you walk, the more calories you burn and the more your energy will deplete. There are plenty of high energy snacks out there to give you a little boost out on the fells. Here are some we think you should try:

The key to hiking snacks is a hit of energy. You’ll find a lot of hiking snacks to be quite sugary, or made with oats and cereals for a good source of slow release energy. We asked our twitter followers of the four most popular hiking snacks – which was the king?

With so many flavours of flapjack around, it’s probably no surprise to see the slow release energy, oaty classic out in front. Flapjacks and Kendal Mint Cake have been the go-to snack for hikers for many years, how are we even supposed to know you’re a real hiker if there isn’t an old bar of mint cake hidden away in one of the pockets?

This wasn’t all though, we asked for other suggestions as well and we got some great ideas from walkers, including:

• Trail Mix (aptly named too)
• General Nuts & Seeds
• Dried Fruit
• Jerkey
• Cereal Bars
• Protein Bars

At GO Outdoors we stock plenty of your favourite snacks, but if you’re thinking of trying something yourself, we checked around the internet for some try it yourself hiking snacks you can prepare at home before your walk.

 

1) Homemade Granola (Customise how you wish)

Easy to make, and for much cheaper than you can buy it in the supermarkets. Customise the basic granola method with any nuts and dried fruits that take your fancy. Maybe even some chocolate chips. Recipe here.

 

2. Prairie Paté

What’s not to love? Oats? Good. Honey? Good. Nuts? Good. Pork crackling? Good ….wait what? Yes this one has us intrigued, the salt and sweet medley certainly sounds like a strange one, but it’s definitely something that we want to try out this autumn. Recipe here.

 

3. Fruit/Veg Dippers

Easy and cheap. Grab a nearly empty jar of peanut butter and chop up some celery sticks, and you’ve got yourself an instant snack. This also works well with sliced apple, but we’d probably recommend storing the apple slices in a separate container. Directions here.

 

4. No Bake Peanut Butter Pretzel Bars

Personally I really like no bake recipes, and it’s not just because i’m on first name terms with my neighbours due to the constant ringing of my fire alarm. They’re simple, easy and once you get the hang of a recipe and you like it? You’ll be making batches ready for when you need them. Recipe here.

 

5. 4 Ingredient Banana Oat Bars

When I see recipes with a name like ‘4 ingredients’, the Yorkshire man in me celebrates, because less ingredients means less cost (usually anyway). The fact that these bars were banana and oat were a bonus. Another recipe that are ideal for making in big batch so you’ve got some for before, some for the walk, some for after. Recipe here.

 

6. No Bake Fruit & Nut Bars

Another great no bake option, but you will need a food processor. Easy enough to give a go, and a simple enough recipe to adapt as your own with ingredients that take your fancy. Directions here.

 

7. PB&J Bites

This recipe is a very similar process to the recipe above, but this one brings one of my favourite sandwich fillings into little energy packed bites. The recipe is gluten free, but can be easily replicated with non-gluten free alternatives. Well worth a try. Directions here.

 

 

You can start to see what ingredients make up great hiking snacks. Anything that holds a lot of energy, proteins and good fats will keep you moving through the day.

Shop hiking snacks on the GO Outdoors website, or find them near the till in all GO Outdoors stores where you will find a range of Clif Bars, SIS, Flapjacks, energy bars & more