You can pack lighter if you eat wild berries every morning for breakfast, for example, and leave your oatmeal behind. So push bears out of way and gorge yourself on blueberries. Less weight on your back always feels better.

You'll also enjoy your backpacking more when you know that you won't be completely helpless moment you lose your pack, or a raccoon empties it for you. You don't have to be a survivalist to see value of knowing which of wild plants around you can be eaten.

I eat dandelions, wild courants, pine nuts and other edible wild plants regularly. I ate hundreds of calories in wild rasberries during a break, while hiking in Colorado Rockies. During a kayak trip on Lake Superior, a friend and I spent half a day stopping at every litle island, to fill our stomachs with wild blueberries. We were almost out of food, so our foraging helped us get through rest of trip. Edible Berries