Foodstuffs. This is the single most talked about topic for David and I. It’s also the topic we’ve spent the most time researching and experimenting with. The first thing we noticed about trail food is that it isn’t particularly “healthy”. I’m used to cooking and eating fresh meat, fruits and vegetables. On the trail everything will be dried and packaged and processed, with the exception of the dehydrated homemade meals we will bring. We threw the idea of eating healthy out the window and instead switched our focus to calories per ounce.
It’s normal to lose some weight on a thru-hike. It’s near impossible to consume enough calories each day to make up for all the calories burned. It’s nearly impossible because you have to carry all of your food. And you have to keep it in a bear canister, which limits the amount you can physically carry and fit in the canister. The canister is heavy duty plastic and looks like a giant Nalgene bottle. It’s rigid, so unlike a flexible food bag, you can literally only fit a finite amount of food in it. Bear canisters are required on the trail because black bears are native to the Sierras and a common occurrence- the old school method of hanging food from trees is ineffective as the bears have figured out, over time, how to get at the food. There has been a bear located on a specific stretch of the Appalachian Trail who has been reported to have figured out how to open the bear canister we’re using, so I guess it’s only a matter of time until the Sierra bears figure it out too. But for now, the BearVault is an approved canister. It’s kind of unbelievable that the Appalachian bear can open this canister, I can hardly get it open. And I have opposable thumbs.
Anyways. Back to the food stuffs and consuming calories while on the trail. I’ll be honest, I’m looking forward to losing a few pounds. David however, is not. He doesn’t have any body fat to begin with, so he really doesn’t have weight to lose. As we started doing our research, we learned that a lot of serious hikers have a general rule of thumb that they try to only eat foods that have a calorie to weight ratio of 100 calories per ounce. A few exceptions include sources of protein like jerky, foil packets of tuna or chicken, but protein isn’t deemed as important as fat and carbs in regards to sources of energy. I’ll be experimenting with dehydrating foil packet/canned chicken soon. I’ve read that these rehydrate the best and if they are dehydrated, it will reduce a lot of weight.
So we started a spreadsheet to track all this foodstuffs, which was David’s idea, and it’s been really helpful. We’ve recorded over 100 food and drink items and their calorie/ounce info along with ease and speediness of cooking, tastiness etc.
We plan to do most of our meal prep/cooking in zip-loc bags to make cooking easier, reduce the amount of dishes that need to be cleaned and to conserve stove fuel. Most of the meals will be “just add hot water to the bag” type recipes. In backpacker lingo, this is called Freezer Bag Cooking, or FBC for short. You add hot water to your bag o stuff, stir it up a bit, put it in an insulated "pot cozy" or bag or winter hat or jacket, and let it sit for 10-15 minutes or so while you finish setting up camp or make yourself a nice tasty beverage. There are many websites out there that have FBC recipes. We’ve picked out a few that we think we might like and have been test driving them at home to find out how they cook and taste. Some have been great, some have been modified and others have been crossed off the list!
Here, I'm using the JetBoil at home to boil water and experiment with prepping trail foods- at whatever the elevation Pewaukee, WI is at and a cozy 68 degrees in my apartment, it took about a minute to boil 2 cups of coldish water. On the trail it will take at least 2-3 times longer as we'll be at a minimum elevation of 8,000 ft and will not likely be so warm, especially in the morning. Boiling water for coffee and oatmeal in the morning will take much longer as it will likely be around 30 degreez.
Using the insulated "cozy" method of cooking is a strategic way to save stove fuel and weight, as we will each likely only need to carry one fuel canister at any given point on the trail. Rather than using more fuel to keep the water and food boiling/simmering, once hot water is added to the bag and the bag or pot is put in a cozy, the food continues to cook as the heat is retained.
Example: Cooking Ramen. The package instructions say to bring 2 cups of water to a boil and then add the noodles, then return to a boil for 5 mins. This would use up a lot of fuel and is not necessary. Instead, we add 2 cups of hot water to a bag with the noodles, put the bag in a cozy or something insulated, then let it sit for about 10 mins. After about 10 mins the noodles are nice and soft and ready to eat and you've saved at least 5-8 mins of stove fuel.
Here's a picture of David test driving eating a meal straight out of the freezer bag= no dishes to wash! If you couldn't see the couch, keyboard or counter top, you would almost think he was eating in camp! He's dressed for it!
I’m trying to do this trip as gluten free as possible. A Paleo/Primal menu isn’t going to work, so I’ve added grains, like rice and rice noodles, into the menu to get extra calories. Regular Ramen is not gluten free, so I did some experimenting to see how my stomach handled it. I felt mostly OK but I do not want to have stomach issues while on the trail, so will try to keep the Ramen and other things made of gluten to a minimum.
David doesn’t seem to mind going back to eating grains and gluten, he is more concerned with getting as many calories as possible. He has an intense Mac N Cheese recipe on his menu that is loaded with more than 1350 calories! Woo!
We’ve been trying to plan our menus with plenty of variety so we don’t get sick of eating the same things for 28 days. While on the trail, you don’t have the option to eat anything else besides what you’ve packed. The resupply locations all have cafes (except for Muir Trail Ranch) where you can be sure we will have a meal or two (and ice cream!). But apart from those couple of days, everything else is dried food.
One thing we are both looking forward to eating on the trail: candy bars!! They are a tasty way to get lots of calories. Snickers, Kit Kats, Twix, Reese's oh my! This is one of the items I am most excited to shop for! Plus there are many servings of M&M’s and other candy on the menu!
Other things I’m looking forward to eating: whole bags of chippers! Yesss! FunYuns, Cheetos, Doritos, Baked Lays! YES! Also, gluten free cookies, gluten free pretzels with nutella and peanut butter and honey. Word.
Other strategies to get more calories is to add olive oil to most dinner recipes. Olive oil in Stove Top stuffing, mashed potatoes, rice, pasta and pretty much any other dinner recipe will be quite tasty. On my menu, I have several Asian inspired recipes in which I will add sesame oil, which is of course packed with fat and calories just like olive oil.
We’ve tried a few freeze dried backpacker meals like Mountain House and Backpacker Pantry….although the taste was OK, they had an enormous amount of fiber in them which made our GI tracts do weird things. We tried Katmandu Curry, which consisted mostly of lentils. The first few bites we thought, wow this is tasty! But after a few more, the flavor was overpowering and the amount of lentils was ridiculous. Freeze dried Katmandu will not be on the menu! We’ve tried a couple others that were good and will make it on the menu. We will keep these meals to a minimum as they are super expensive, and like all other dried foods, super high in sodium! We are currently brainstorming on how to reduce sodium intake. Homemade dehydrated meals are a good start, but we need to look for additional ways to reduce the salt...
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