Cabin Cuisine: Easy Dehydrated Meals for a 3-Day Hiking Trip

When you’re hiking for three days under what meteorologists call a “heat dome,” having dehydrated meals that are quick and easy to rehydrate back at the cabin is the way to go. No fancy kitchen work is required to enjoy some gourmet cabin cuisine. Just add water, and you’re in business.

Photos: Our cabin at Cloudland Canyon State Park, a one-gallon Ziploc bag containing our dehydrated meals, Smoky Mtn. Beef Skillet, and Hoppin’ John with Spinach.

Dominique and I had originally reserved a tent site at Cloudland Canyon State Park, but we booked a cabin instead when we saw the weather forecast. We don’t mind hiking in 90°F-plus temperatures, but an air-conditioned cabin would make for better sleeping.

For this trip’s dehydrated meals, I packed a couple of old favorites along with the last portions of several meals I had introduced over the past year.

Photo: Our plan included hiking the West Rim, the Gulch, and the East Rim.

Trip Snapshot

Location: Cloudland Canyon State Park, NW Georgia
Trip Length: 3 Days, 3 Nights
People: 2
Cooking Setup: Stove in cabin, pot, insulated food jar

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Photo: Six dehydrated meals plus one extra if we wanted to stay another day. These all fit inside a one-gallon Ziploc bag.

Arrival

Dinner: Cottage Pie

Cottage pie features mashed potatoes with ground beef and mixed vegetables. While we got settled in the cabin, I rehydrated the beef and vegetables with boiled water in a thermos food jar. When we were ready for dinner, I added boiled water to the instant mashed potato flakes in our bowls, and then spooned the meat and vegetables over the potatoes. Easy as pie!

Ingredients for two servings:

½ cup dried ground beef (50 g)
½ cup dried mixed vegetables (40 g)
1 4-oz. package Idahoan Instant Mashed Potatoes

Rehydrate beef and vegetables with 1 cup boiled water. Follow package instructions for rehydrating mashed potatoes.

Using instant mashed potatoes is very convenient. When I have more time, I make my own.

See: How to Dehydrate Mashed Potatoes.

Day 1

Trail: West Rim Trail

We started hiking at 7:00 am to beat the heat. Our cabin was a short walk through the woods to the west rim of the canyon. The first view of the morning was of clouds lingering in the canyon right before sunrise.

From there we hiked the west rim to the park’s interpretive center where we stopped for lunch before hiking back to the cabin. We met two park naturalists who gave us good intel on the hike we had planned for the next day.

Lunch: Zesty Apple Bulgur Salad

This lunch is one of our favorite cold-soak salads. I added cold water to the ingredients in the insulated food jar in the morning.

Recipe: Zesty Apple Bulgur Salad

Dinner: Lentil Bolognese

Ingredients for two servings:

1 cup dried lentil bolognese (100 g)
1½ cups dried fettuccini (100 g)
¼ cup tomato sauce leather (15 g)
2½ cups water to rehydrate

I had some extra tomato sauce leather on hand, so I added it to the meal for an extra boost of flavor. Preparation was simple: bring the ingredients and water to a boil, then remove the pot from the heat, cover, and let it stand for about 25 minutes. We finished the meal with a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese.

Recipe: How to Make Lentil Bolognese

Day 2

Trail: Bear Creek Backcountry Trail

The Bear Creek Trail is a loop trail that begins near the Interpretive Center. It drops steeply to Bear Creek, winding through huge boulders and along rocky cliffs. From there, the trail climbs back up to the east rim of the canyon before swinging out through the pine-oak backcountry. On the return, you drop back down to the creek and hike the same stretch again in the opposite direction.

We like looking for species of trees that we don’t normally see in the woods close to home. Along the east rim, we spotted lots of Eastern Red Cedar saplings. The largest cedar in the park is estimated to be more than 400 years old. It isn’t marked on the map because it is clinging to one of the canyon’s cliff walls.

Lunch: Unstuffed Peppers

In the morning, I added boiled water to the ingredients in the thermos. We enjoyed this old favorite while sitting on a log at one of the backcountry campsites.

Ingredients for two servings in one thermos:

¾ cup dried rice (75 g)
⅓ cup dried ground beef (35 g)
⅓ cup dried bell peppers (15 g)
⅓ cup tomato sauce leather (20 g)
2¼ cups boiled water to rehydrate

Dinner: Smoky Mountain Beef Skillet

Smoky Mountain Beef rehydrated on stovetop.

Ingredients for two servings:

1⅓ cups dried smoky mountain beef skillet (120 g)
¾ cup dried diced potatoes (60 g)
2½ cups boiled water to rehydrate

This meal was easy to rehydrate on the cabin’s stovetop. The spicy beef and vegetables paired perfectly with the diced potatoes, making a hearty and satisfying dinner after a strenuous day of hiking.

Recipe: Smoky Mountain Beef Skillet

Day 3

Trail: Sitton’s Gulch Trail

We love all the trails at Cloudland Canyon, but Sitton’s Gulch is our favorite. Shaded by canyon walls, cooled by cascading waterfalls along Daniel Creek, and surrounded by old-growth pines, hardwoods, and eastern hemlocks, we saved this “cool” hike for last.

The trail is wide in many places, inviting a leisurely stroll hand-in-hand with your special person.

Lunch: Hoppin’ John with Spinach

It wasn’t hard to find a great lunch spot in Sitton’s Gulch with so many boulders to sit on along the creek.

Hoppin’ John is a traditional southern meal served on New Year’s Day. The ingredients—black-eyed peas, rice, ham, and collard greens—symbolize prosperity and resilience. I used dried spinach instead of collard greens for this hike, and it was just as delicious. As usual, I prepared the thermos lunch in the morning with boiled water.

Ingredients for two servings in one thermos:

1¼ cups dried hoppin’ John (125 g)
½ cup dried spinach (20 g)
2 cups boiled water to rehydrate

Recipe: Hoppin’ John

Cabin Cuisine Made Easy

After hiking the trails at Cloudland Canyon, it was nice to return to an air-conditioned cabin and enjoy hearty dehydrated meals without much cooking. All we needed was water, a pot or insulated food jar, and a little time to rehydrate. Whether you’re camping in a cabin or a tent, dehydrated food makes it easy to enjoy delicious cuisine.

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