Joe Dirt gave a solid couple of rules back in 2001. 

“Rule 1, I’m number one. Rule 2, I’m the croc’s number two.”

The man was before his time. He didn’t, however, offer up any rules on how to recover during a backcountry hunt. That’s my job. I have five coming at you, and they cover everything from sleep to nutrition to supplements. We’ll also talk about not doing silly things to wear yourself out.

Before we get into all that, we need to have a quick chat about why recovery is so important on a backcountry hunt.

Why Backcountry Recovery Matters

You trained. You’re fit. Won’t that just take care of everything? 

Nope.

Backcountry hunting is more than one big fitness test. And even if it were, the fittest body in the world isn’t worth a damn if it’s stressed out, depleted, and dehydrated. If you don’t manage your recovery, you won’t have access to your fitness throughout the course of your hunt.

Sure, you might feel great on day one. Day two might even start off well. But when day three rolls around, you’ll dread each climb and feel like someone tried to put you to sleep with a bag full of door knobs. 

Yes, fitness, especially aerobic fitness, improves your ability to recover. That’s important. However, you have to manage stress, fatigue, fueling, and sleep well. Otherwise, your fitness won’t matter.

Anything that causes psychological or physiological stress affects your recovery. So, you need guidelines to manage it all. Here they are.

Rule 1: Don’t Create Unnecessary Fatigue

We all get excited. 

Sometimes, we feel like we have something to prove, to ourselves or to the folks we’re hunting with. And other times, we’re just not thinking. All these scenarios lead to silly mistakes that cause us to waste energy. When we waste energy, we create unnecessary fatigue, digging a hole that makes recovery much more difficult. Even if something might seem small, little stressors add up into big drains across multiple days in the backcountry.

Here’s a mantra I want you to repeat to yourself:

Recovery starts during the hunt.

Unless you find some kind of Chick-Fil-A mule delivery, you will be underfed during your hunt. (If you do find one, send me their number.) That’s a deal we make. You can end up burning 6,000 calories per day while only taking in half that in food. Make silly choices that waste even more calories, and you’ll find yourself with a nice case of depletion. Out. Of. Gas. And unable to reserve resources for recovery.

Yes, you will have no choice but to do some hard shit. That’s the nature of backcountry hunting and part of the reason we all go out there. That’s all the more reason to avoid making it harder than it needs to be. No cheering crowd awaits you. You get no trophy for unnecessary suffering. If you can save energy, save it. 

Here are a few things to consider that will help you avoid unnecessary fatigue:

1. Take the most efficient route whenever possible.

2. Don’t burn uphill. Move at a sustainable pace. Your heart rate should feel controlled. Your legs might get a “dead” or “tired” feeling, but they shouldn’t have a deep burn. If either of those things happen, slow down or take a break.

3. Adjust your pack. If your pack gets wonky, don’t tough it out. Stop and fix it. A messed up pack causes inefficient movement that wastes energy. It also builds fatigue in the muscle and joint systems that disproportionately carry more weight.

4. In fact, stop to fix any issue that might wear on you. Get the rock out of your boot. Take care of the blister. Re-tie your boots, etc. 

5. Focus on the moment and on the process. Don’t fixate on the outcome or how big the next ridge is. One step at a time. Keep your mind where your boots are.

6. Make your camp as comfortable as possible without adding exorbitant weight to your pack.

7. Manage your temperature and use your layer system effectively.

Rule 2: Eat to Fuel, Repair, and Keep Your Head on Straight

The two most important nutrients in the backcountry are carbs and protein—in that order. Fat plays third fiddle to fill in your overall caloric balance.

You need carbs for fuel while moving, to help with hydration, and to restore your energy reserves you drew on during the day to promote recovery while you rest. Ingesting carbs while moving also keeps you from overtaxing your reserves, so you’ll have them when you need them and for recovery. Have some carbs every hour or so while moving. If you want a strategy for doing that, check out this article I wrote on nutrition for a backpack sheep hunt. Your breakfast and your dinner should also be carb heavy. A carb heavy dinner can also help you sleep by promoting tryptophan availability in the brain. Shoot for between 400g and 500g of carbs per day. Aim at the upper end of the spectrum if you’re on a particularly gnarly hunt.

Protein is necessary for more than repairing your muscles. You need it to manage your brain. 

Stressful environments are hell on your catecholamines (epinephrine, norepinephrine, dopamine). When they get depleted, your attention, motivation, decision making, motor control, and emotional response to stress all go to shit. Without eating enough protein, you won’t have the amino acids that serve as the building blocks for these neurotransmitters. Then there’s a solid chance you won’t have your head in the game when it matters. You also just won’t enjoy the hunt as much as you want. 

Aim to get about 100g of protein, broken up between breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

You also just need to eat enough. You will be in an unavoidable calorie deficit. Making it worse by not eating as much as possible will make a stressful environment even worse, giving your hormones a Mike Tyson hook to the ribs. If you’re backpack hunting, shoot for 3,000 to 3,500 calories per day. You can accomplish this without a bulky food load.

Quick note before we move on. Eating enough carbs allows protein to do its jobs. Otherwise protein gets redirected to help with energy production. This is no dang good. Muscle repair suffers and your fuel stores go kaput. There’s also the neurotransmitter situation we talked about. 

Eat enough. Eat enough carbs. Eat enough protein. Have a bit of fat when you’re sitting still and resting. That’s how you eat to fuel, repair, and keep your head on straight.

Rule 3: Hydrate Wisely

Water is necessary for just about every crucial function in your body, including maintaining your blood volume so your heart doesn’t beat like a humping buck rabbit during breeding season.

You know the deal; drink before you’re thirsty. I have another one for you: Sip, don’t gulp. Drink steadily throughout the day. Once you’re dehydrated, it’s difficult to catch back up. And if you try to catch up by slamming water at night in camp, you’ll dump all that water and disrupt your sleep by getting up to piss several times. Or, at least by lying there in your sleeping bag thinking about how badly you don’t want to go out to take a leak. (There’s probably bears out there.)

If you’re into numbers, Dr. Andy Galpin’s hydration equation works well. Divide your body weight by 30. Drink that many ounces of water every 15 to 20 minutes during hard efforts. That’s right, kids. Pause. Drink. Take care of yourself. Coach Boone in Remember the Titans was wrong, water does not make you weak. The lack of it will.

Here’s a simple way to track your hydration—keep your eyes on your pee stream. If it’s straw yellow, you’re appropriately hydrated. If it’s darker than that, you’re trending toward dehydration. If it’s clear and you’re pissing all the time, you’re overhydrating. Slow down your drinking and add in some electrolytes. 

Rule 4: Protect Your Sleep

Sleep is your best recovery “tool.” As it goes with being underfed, you will also be underslept. There are a ton of things that chip away at your sleep in the backcountry. Unfamiliar environments, ambient temperature, dehydration, being uncomfortable, and altitude all make the list. So, do what you can to get as much good quality sleep as possible. 

Years back, I bought the Thermarest Neoair Xtherm. I got the big long and wide sucker with an R-value of seven. It might be the best gear purchase I’ve ever made. It’s comfortable, as far as inflatable sleeping pads go, and it keeps me warm. Get the best sleeping bad you can afford. It 100% makes a difference. 

Make sure you’re not severely undergunning or overgunning your sleeping bag. Staying warm, but not sweltering is necessary for good sleep. However, I tend to undergun my sleeping bag and wear layers to bed if necessary. That ensures that I’m not carrying more weight than needed, especially for a piece of gear that only serves one function. I either carry a 15-degree bag or a quilt (when it’s warm). On super cold nights below 15 degrees, I wear my puffy pants inside my bag and slap a couple of layers on my upper body. 

Have a meal in your belly when you lay down. Going to bed hungry will wake you up. It will also drop your body temperature, making it more likely that you’ll wake up. 

And, like talked about earlier, hydrate throughout the day so you’re not playing catch up in camp. Do that and you’ll either go to bed dehydrated, which raises your heart rate and makes it tough to sleep. Or you’ll be running piss relays all night.

It also helps to have your camp routine systematized and dialed in so you don’t waste time getting settled each evening. Knock it out and get some rest.

(And no one ever got arrested for taking a woods nap.)

Rule 5: Take a Few Key Supplements

I’m not suggesting you strap a pharmacy to your back. But taking a few supplements won’t add much weight to your pack or take up too much space.

Numero uno is electrolytes replacement. They aren’t all that useful in everyday life, unless you’re doing long endurance sessions, especially in the heat. But they help a lot in the backcountry. LMNT and LiquidIV each have a decent amount of sodium. Having a packet in the morning or midday could help you out a whole lot.

Dos is supplemental carbs. I recommend Skratch Labs super-high carb to Packmule members. It has 200g of carbs per stick and mixes in with your water. This could save your ass, especially if you’re having a hard time eating. It’s also great as a depletion provolactic during your hike in. Sipping on carbs as you start the party keeps you from immediately tapping into your glycogen stores, ensuring they’ll be there to help you recover or for a hard push. Speaking of a hard push, drinkable carbs help a lot before and during hard climbs. 

Numero tres is protein powder. Dropping some into a ziploc bag won’t add much weight, and it’s a good insurance policy against undereating protein. Drop it in an oatmeal packet or two, and you have yourself a nice little breakfast. I’d avoid mixing it in your water bottle. That’ll get nasty in a hurry. 

Our honorable mention is ashwagandha or some other kind of adaptogen, such as rhodiola rosea. They’ll help your body deal with the stress of backcountry living. However, don’t blindly trust serving sizes on the bottle or combined supplements that include them. It’s often not a big enough dose to make a difference. You need about 600mg of ashwagandha split in two doses throughout the day, and about 400mg of rhodiola split into two doses throughout the day. It also helps if you start these supplements at least a few weeks before your hunt. They take time to kick in.

Manage Your Backcountry Recovery

Good backcountry recovery gives you access to your backcountry fitness throughout the course of a hunt. So, be smart about fatigue and eat to fuel, repair, and keep your head on straight. Drink before you think you need to, and don’t mess around about your sleep. For insurance, take along some useful supplements. Do all of this, and you’ll manage your backcountry recovery well. 

Take fitness off the table so your recovery gives you even more on your hunts. Click the link to check out our customized hunting fitness program Backcountry Ready.