Trail mix. Granola bars. Beef jerky. Those dehydrated meals hanging in packs at the store.

We have our go-tos in the backcountry. But maybe we all too often settle.

“I’m a firm believer that just because you’re camping and backpacking does not mean you have to sacrifice on flavors and the quality of food,” says Brit Olson.

She’s a coordinator with University of Colorado Boulder’s Outdoor Pursuits program, which offers several wilderness workshops for students. “Our backcountry cooking workshops are definitely some of the most popular of that series,” Olson says.

This spring over camp stoves on campus, students whipped up dishes in a “Chopped”-style competition — a glimpse into creativity struck by those willing to go the extra mile not just on the trail but also on the food front.

“Once you get a dehydrator, that’s when you can really start going down a rabbit hole and start experimenting with foods you like to eat,” says Nick Cote.

He’s written a book on the subject, “Wild Eats: Campsite Cooking.” It’s a book of tips, techniques and 60-plus recipes, from simple snacks to more elaborate meals that hit the spot after a long day on the trail.

Cote likes to cook and season ground beef, dehydrate it and vacuum-seal for efficient packing and cooking over the camp stove.

“It’s really good in curries,” he says. “There’s this Japanese-style curry paste that comes in these blocks. Mix that with water, throw in ground beef and add a couple of fresh ingredients, potatoes and carrots or whatever you like.”

Another favorite from “Wild Eats”: a soup of dehydrated mushrooms, corn, peas, carrots, onion, quinoa and bouillon cubes that simmer into a stock. He uses those cubes and mushrooms also in a bowl of soba noodles, soy sauce, ground ginger, ground coriander and dried seaweed, nori.

Cote’s book is a product of Colorado Mountain Club. The group educates on other basics related to backcountry cooking: understanding fire regulations, identifying water sources on a trip and proper filtration.

Proper energy is no small part of trip planning: food that is “filling for both your senses and also for your stomach,” says Ashley Hanlon, Colorado Mountain Club’s membership and marketing director.

Her go-to: a lightweight, carb-loaded pasta she calls her backcountry carbenera. “You can buy dehydrated egg powder, which adds a great level of protein. I’ll make an egg sauce out of that and maybe add some bacon bits.”

She’ll add some flavor from her handy-dandy container for seasonings: a daily pill organizer instead storing salt, pepper, oregano and red pepper flakes.

Pasta is a great way to go in the backcountry, agrees Susan Graham, who suggest rethinking the bread you’d typically eat with it at home. “Traditional bread products are not gonna make it up the trail,” she says. “Go with harder breads, like bagels or pita or tortillas.”

Graham is a crew chef with Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado, the group rallying helpers on labor-intensive trail and restoration projects deep into the wild.

“Put Susan on a project, and it’s gonna be full,” says Katie Goodleaf, a program manager.

Graham is known for breakfast casseroles, shrimp gumbos and cakes and cobblers baked in Dutch ovens. Her kitchens are complete with griddles, coolers and other equipment hauled in by pack animals.

When the weight is hers to carry and she’s feeding only herself, she simplifies to ramen and dehydrated veggies and other sides. “You can still create some delicious one-pot meals that way,” she says.

At CU Boulder, ramen travels from dorms to woods. Students call them “ramen bombs” — “a combo of ramen and dehydrated mashed potatoes and different spices and seasonings,” says Olson, the Outdoor Pursuits coordinator.

Another student favorite is “really tricky but really delicious if you get it right,” Olson says: “It’s a bagel, cheddar cheese and brown sugar, and you flash steam it so the cheese melts and the brown sugar melts and carmelizes on top without the bagel getting soggy.”

For herself for breakfast, she’ll go with dehydrated hashbrowns mixed with powdered cheese. It’s backcountry Thanksgiving for dinner: dehydrated mashed potatoes and dehydrated stuffing over the stove, mixed with cranberry raisins and chicken from a pouch (think StarKist).

Thanksgiving in nature makes sense to Sarah Daulton. She’s a career chef who owns Denver Cooking Classes and also a regular camper — thankful indeed for a meal around a fire.

“Cooking outdoors is my favorite thing in the world,” she says.

She especially likes a frontcountry set-up, where she can cook meat and veggies over flames. For backpacking, “vacuum-sealing is your best friend,” she says.

She might vacuum-seal steak with butter and herbs, freeze it and pack it while it thaws for cooking at camp that night. She might also cook chili at home for packing and heating in a pot.

Whether it’s cooking at home like that or dehydrating ingredients of your own, “preparation is probably the biggest thing,” Cote says.

It’s not for everybody, he adds. “But at least for me, I really do like having a good meal at the end of the day. … It’s definitely rewarding to know that you did that all yourself and you didn’t just go buy a package off the shelf.”

Not to say there aren’t fine options. Goodleaf, with Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado, loves Durango-based Farm to Summit’s dehydrated meals. Daulton recommends Heather’s Choice.