This is our go-to lunch for shorter trips. It's easy, and packs plenty of calories. On the down side, it's heavier than dehydrated lunches and we get tired of having it more than a few days in a row.

We aim for:

• 2-3 ounces cheese per person
• 2-3 ounces sausage per person
• 1-2 ounces crackers per person

This works ok with 3+ people, but starts to become difficult to accomplish for only two people, because the available cheese and sausage packages are too large. When it's just the two of us, we typically do cheese and crackers one day and sausage and crackers another day. That's a better fit with available packages.

For cheese, we try to get rounds of wax-wrapped gouda, which are usually about 7 ounces. We have also sometimes used smaller (4-ounce) blocks of plastic-wrapped (factory-sealed) sharp cheddar cheese.

For sausage, we look for shelf-stable beef summer sausage that is labeled "refrigerate after opening". Depending on how much food we need, we have used both sticks and logs. Around here, Klement's is our favorite brand. A Klement's log is usually 12 ounces, and the packages of sticks are a bit smaller. The sticks generally work better because they are less messy (a concern in bear country) and don't need to be sliced or portioned before eating.

Packaged cheddar does not keep well. It works best to use this for lunch on the first day of your hike, or possibly the second day if temperatures are cool. Don't take more than you can eat, because it won't keep at all once opened. Gouda keeps a lot better than cheddar. In a cool climate (i.e. an autumn hike), it works OK to open it one day and finish it off the next day. Like with the cheese, the sausage will keep for a while once opened. It's OK for afternoon snacks or even lunch on a second day in cooler weather. However, we don't usually push it much past that point.

On some of our SHT hikes, we have used cheese and sausage for all of our lunches. However, we tend to get bored with this. At Glacier, we switched things up a little and used cheese and sausage for only 2 of the 4 lunches and we've continued that pattern for hikes since then.

Here's an example of what we used on the SHT (2 people, 3 days of lunches):

• 2 pint bags of Wheat Thins
• 1 pint bag of bagel chips
• 1/4 pound of sharp cheddar cheese
• 7 ounce gouda cheese in wax
• 2x beef sticks

Here's an example of what we used at Glacier (3 people, 2 days of lunches), which turned out to be too much sausage:

• 2x 12-ounce summer sausage log
• 2x 7-ounce gouda cheese in wax
• 2x 3-ounce portions of Wheat Thins

Here's an example of what we used in the Channel Islands (2 people, 2 days of lunches), which worked out well:

• 1x 8-ounce package of summer sausage sticks
• 1x 5-ounce cheddar cheese in plastic
• 2x 3-ounce portions of Wheat Thins