Your next adventure, well fed.
Estimate how much food your group needs, then build every meal and resupply box from a catalog of trail-ready foods.
Private beta, free while we're in it. Have an invite? Create your account →
How it works
Follow a three-day trip for two, from the first idea to the first night at camp.
- Step 1
Name and details
Add your dates and how hard the trip is.
- Step 2
Trail
Import your route from CalTopo, Gaia or your watch and mark each night's camp. Every day gets its own distance and climbing.
- Step 3
Participants
Add who's coming. We work out how many calories each person needs, every day.
- Step 4
Meal plan
Fill each day with breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks, from trail staples, your own recipes and community meals.
- Step 5
Review
Get one shopping list with costs, see who carries what so the packs come out even, then print the plan.
Never carry more
than you need.
A resupply box(or food cache) is mailed to a post office, hostel or outfitter along your route, waiting for you to pick up. It's how thru-hikers cover 2,000 miles without carrying 2,000 miles of food.
Eat the Trail lets you split your trip into legs, assign meals to each one, and see exactly what goes in every box.
What's inside
Calories for each person
Different targets for everyone in your group, based on their size and the trip.
Resupply box builder
Group meals into boxes and assign each one to a post office or drop point.
Recipe library
Backcountry recipes from the community, with full nutrition data.
Shopping lists
Everything to buy for the trip in one list, with costs.
Route-aware planningComing soon
Plan around your actual miles and elevation, not just days.
Order and shipComing soon
Have your boxes packed and shipped to each resupply point for you.
Planning meals and buying food has always been a point of friction for me getting into the backcountry. I'm building Eat the Trail to make planning and sourcing trail food as easy as possible, so there are fewer obstacles between you and the trail.
Jonathan, founder
Questions?
A resupply box (or food cache) is a package mailed to a post office, hostel or outfitter along your route. You pick it up mid-hike and restock. It's standard practice on long trails like the PCT, AT and CDT.
Anyone planning food for multi-day backcountry travel: thru-hikers, section hikers, weekend backpackers, paddlers, bikepackers and group trip organizers. If you need food for more than one night away from a store, it’s for you.
We estimate each person’s resting metabolism from their age, weight and sex using the Mifflin–St Jeor equation, then multiply it by how hard the trip is. You can override anyone’s daily target if you know their needs better.
We're in a private beta with a small group of hikers now, and plan to open to everyone in early 2027. Join the waitlist and we'll invite people in waves, starting with those whose trips are soonest.
That's the goal. We're starting with the planning tools, and building toward assembling your boxes and shipping them to each resupply point ahead of your trip.
It's free during the beta. Core planning will stay free after launch, with paid plans for longer trips and bigger groups. We'll share pricing well before charging anything.
Planning a trip
in the next year?
Join the waitlist and we'll invite you to the beta, starting with people whose trips are coming up soonest. It's free while we're in beta.