When planning meals for a three-day, 16-mile hike into the high country, most people think in terms of ounces, not 2-pound porterhouse steaks. Seasoned backpackers are trained to scrutinize every bit of gear that they’ll be lugging through the wilderness — trimming away superfluous packaging; squirting 2.2 days worth of sunscreen and body lotion into itsy-bitsy bottles; rationing the crackers and instant cocoa pouches (“Whaddaya mean, you want TWO hot chocolates after dinner? This isn’t Club Med, you know.”); forsaking the down pillow for a rolled-up fleece.

So when my hiking partner suggested that we pack steaks to grill on our first night out, I just laughed.

But he wasn’t kidding. At the time — a very long time ago — we were both working for a luxury hotel. This fellow was chummy with the chef.

“I’ll have Chuck order a good steak and freeze it for us,” he said. “It’ll be fun. By the time we reach camp it will be thawed enough to grill.”

Which, of course, meant bringing along a grill. And charcoal. And starter fluid. And wine. And fresh vegetables. And potatoes for baking.

I don’t even want to tell you how much our packs weighed. It was too embarrassing. Particularly when we had to fess up to other hikers along the trail that we were only on a two-day trek.

But my friend was right about one thing: After eight miles and several hours, the steak was almost completely thawed. It had also kept the bottle of champagne that the chef had tucked in for good measure — three MORE pounds of unnecessary baggage — nicely chilled.

It was about 4 p.m. when we made camp. We dumped our gear, gave our trail-weary feet a brief soaking in the nearby stream, then set about preparing a feast of immense proportions.

While the grill chef bustled about creating the least environmentally damaging way to construct a grilling pit, I speared chunks of fresh zucchini, mushrooms and onions on bamboo skewers, plopped a zip-topped bag of marinating cucumber slices down in the water to cool and wrapped potatoes in foil. Finally, with the sun only three fingers off the horizon and the potatoes snuggled up next to the charcoal, we headed down to the water’s edge to relax while the coals worked up a fine coating of ash.

It was well past sundown before we finally sawed into our steaks. They were superb. Sitting on my rock, munching delicately charred fresh vegetables between sips of a pertinent Bordeaux, I savored the moment. The myriad stars splashed over the velvet alpine sky seemed too few to rate this restaurant.

Trail food tips

Elegant repasts aside, my theory regarding trail food is simple: anything considered edible at the beginning of a hike will be downright exquisite by the fourth day. So it’s always a good idea to eat most of the good stuff at the beginning of a journey when the palate is most discriminating. On the other hand, with all the options out there these days, it’s easy to plan delectable meals and snacks for the entire journey.

Some additional food for thought:

• Don’t overlook instant couscous, a delicious pre-cooked and dried starch that’s also very lightweight. Just bring some water to a boil (flavored with a bit of salt or dried bouillon), stir in the couscous and any other dried veggies, such as tomatoes and onions, cover the pot and let it stand for 5 minutes. This is perfect backpacking food.

• Potato flakes: lightweight and a wonderful way to give a little substance to a powdered soup or stew.

• Can’t live without the taste of fresh-ground coffee? REI sells a spoon filter, made of plastic and fine-meshed netting. Just scoop up a serving size of ground coffee into this hinged spoon, clamp it shut and place it in your mug, along with boiling water. Stir until your coffee reaches the appropriate color. Of course, I make room for my cone filter, which means I’m packing soggy paper filters and grounds as they accumulate, but it’s worth it. And there are portable single-serving French presses to be had as well.

• Bend-area friend and adventurer Dennis Hanson observes that “what to take depends on the trip length, your own tastes and how much weight you want to carry. To the extent possible, use the heavier fresh food early in the trip and then move down the trail to your lighter items. Commercial freeze-drieds are great for cutting weight in an overloaded pack, but too often you have to relish the sloppy taste of wet cardboard. Instead, consider dehydrated fresh food mixed with some creativity. Even some common lightweight foods (such as ramen noodles with pepperjack or Parmesan cheese) can make a lively dinner. Also, a number of delicious meals can be made ahead of time — fresh bread, desserts and chopped vegetable salads using beans, hummus, and tabbouleh.”

• How about a pertinent chardonnay with that first-night meal of salmon? Transfer the wine out of the heavy glass bottle into plastic water bottles. Once the wine’s gone, the plastic bottles can be returned to their original intended use. And while we’re on the subject of alcohol … if you are going to encounter clean snow fields, throw in some plastic 1.5-ounce “airline bottles” of your favorite liqueur for some adult-style snow cones. Of course, who needs snow fields? My liquor of choice: Scotch.

• Cheese is the hiker’s lunchtime staple. Hard cheese keeps longer without refrigeration, so take a variety and label them either by name or by day to be eaten. Two to four ounces are enough for one adult lunch with crackers, nuts, and fruit. And even though I could enjoy our pal Dan Bottom’s cheese of choice — Old Amsterdam — for an entire backpacking journey, if you’d like a little more variety than that, here are some other cheeses to consider: Danish fontina, dry Monterey jack, Kumminost and a smoked gouda; also, throw in a hunk of Parmigiano Reggiano (a little bit goes a long way, though), which can complement many noodle and couscous dinners.

• For my husband Steve, lunch is one of the times he’s particularly hankering for a little extra flavor. So lately, we’ve been bringing along the “canned” tuna commercially packed in foil pouches, which we doctor up with squirts from single-serving sized packets of mayonnaise and mustard. One time we were even able to add fresh wild onions we’d found along the trail. Ak-Mak is our preferred cracker for transporting tuna from pouch to mouth.

• Another Steve topping for Ak-Mak is peanut butter and my homemade raspberry jam, each component packed into a plastic backpacking food tube. He’s also fond of carrying along Tabasco sauce to boost the flavor of otherwise tame offerings, such as the various freeze-dried entrees. This hot sauce comes in tiny, single-serving packets, but Steve’s particularly fond of carrying his very own little 1⁄8 fluid ounce bottle (I find ’em in liquor stores!), which can be brought from the pack and applied with a dramatic flourish.

• Check out your favorite bulk-food source for some great trail food inspiration, such as dehydrated cooked lentils and refried beans. You’ll also find seasoning mixes, instant vegetable (and beef and chicken) stock powder and dried soup mixes in bulk form.