Date: 2011-06-12
To: Food Thoughts
Miles today: 0.0

The basic cadence of an A.T. hike seems to be 4 - 5 days on the trail and off to a nearby town to resupply. The first part heading south represents one of the longest segments without a town; Maine¢s 100 Mile Wilderness takes 7 - 9 days between Katahdin and Monson. But, even here there is a hostel, White House Landing, about 30 trail miles from Baxter State Park and at least one other option further south for the civilization starved. The general consensus among long distance hikers is 1.5 - 2 lb. of food per day should do it, so 8 - 10 lb. fully loaded for a 4 - 5 day stretch.. One canister of fuel should be enough -- 4 oz., unless like me one carries a spare, then 8 oz. Since water is mostly plentiful along the A.T., 2 liters, about 5 lb., is added to all that. So from a weight standpoint, consumables should add about 15 1/2 lb. at most to the base weight of a fully equipped pack as one steps away from a town to rejoin the trail. As I detail in my two previous preparation posts, this means for me just under 30 lb. total weight to be carried and every drink, snack, and meal lightens the load.A full day of A.T. hiking with the characteristic assents and descents is a lot of work. A 180 lb. male might easily burn 4,000 - 6,000 calories, or even more. Since protein-rich foods and carbohydrates pack about 4 calories per gram and fats about 9, a little math shows that it is very difficult to carry enough food to cover the calories burned while backpacking. Of course, a pound of butter or olive oil is over 3,000 calories, so a diet of pure fat would allow replacement of all 6,000 calories by about 2 lb. of food.   But a healthful diet that supports hiking all day, week after week, has to have significant protein -- over 100 grams/day according to sports nutritionists. And protein is hard to get from the kinds of food that can be carried. Example: only 4 grams of protein in an ounce of organic peanut butter. A compromise seems in order. Go for as much protein and calories as is practicable in 1.5 - 2 lb.. of food per day, along with reasonable fiber and limited simple carbohydrates (sugars), and supplement when in towns once per week or so. Hikers love an all you can eat breakfast or dinner. Salads and fruit too, although one reads more about ice cream binges than apples and carrots. Obviously a junk food diet will not provide the stamina that a long hike requires and losing some body mass is almost a universal experience as reported by hikers out for more than a few weeks.Food provisioning is further complicated by the fact that cooking times of over 5 or so minutes use excessive amounts of fuel. So brown rice, for example, which requires 45 minutes of steaming is out of the question as are many other healthful, non-processed foods. What seems to work best is a core set of ingredients that are eaten cold such as nuts, dried fruits, bagels or simple crackers,, dry milk. For evenings when the stove comes out, parboiled rice (e,g, Minute Rice), thin pasta, couscous, with tuna and chicken in lightweight packages (foil packets or paper-type ¢cans¢). These can be jazzed up with spices and hard cheeses that keep well, plus other favoring agents like powdered garlic and dried onion. An ounce of olive oil adds calories and flavor. Many hikers rely on instant oatmeal to start their day. Two problems here. It is processed almost to nothing and it requires boiling water. A column by the New York Times food writer Mark Bitman recently suggested that regular rolled oats if soaked in milk for 8 minutes or so, is quite good even without any cooking. So oatmeal can be added to the cold food list. And peanut butter, which of course is the same weight and food value as the equivalent amount of peanuts (as long as no other junk is added). According to the USDA database, this diet might have around 80 grams of protein if it consisted of 1 cup of oatmeal with a cup of milk (dry reconstituted), 2 oz. of peanut butter on two bagels, 1/5 lb. nuts, 2 oz. of foil-pack chicken and 1 cup of rice, and 2 oz. of cheese. The remainder of what I might carry, things like dried fruits, chocolate, granola bars, has little further protein to add.All of this will make those resupply stops seem like mini resort vacations.