Date: 2013-12-26
To: Food
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

Choosing the Best Foods for Your Hike-Choosing what food you pack for a long distance hike is the most important decision you make on the trail. Most hikers spend more money on food than anything else. There is no doubt if you are walking a long way food becomes the number one thought. And yet most hikers spend more time, before hiking, thinking about what gear to buy then what food to eat.To make the choice harder no hiker is the same, so one person can¢t advise another on their food choices. Taste, nutritional needs, cravings, and food concerns are different for every hiker and will change as they go down the trail. Reading about what other hikers eat and then copying them is not the best choice. So how do you choose the right foods for you?How would you like to carry less food weight but have more calories? Or eat more calories for less money? Or have a good selection of great tasting nutritious foods without cooking? If you are smart, have an open mind, and don¢t mind a little work you can improve the food you eat on the trail.Tips on food-1.        Learn to cook well! 2.        Research inexpensive high calorie foods!3.        Practice cooking trail meals at home!4.        Research where the inexpensive food stores are along the trail!5.        Eat the heavier foods first!6.        Share some food with other hikers when they need it!**Share food, I thought we are saving money?-you may ask. Most hikers are starving in-between towns and sharing can really help them out. It lifts your spirits as well. And sometimes, usually when you need it, good things will happen to you. You need between 3000 and 5000 calories per day to hike the trail. This is roughly twice as much as the normal person. Example- So let¢s say 4000 cal a day average and about $1500 budget for food, for you, on this hike. In a five month hike this works out to a nice round $10 a day for food, or $300 a month.Now, you can see that for every $1 you spend on food you must buy 400 calories of food. To give you an idea of how hard that is: a $1 Snickers bar, the official high calorie (240) snack of hikers everywhere, has too few calories per $ for you to buy. To make matters worse two of the food groups that you need, meat and fruits/vegetables, are incredibly low on calories. (This gets even worse if you are a vegan.) Oh my, what to do?The easiest answer- You know all the numbers now so let¢s use them in an example. You walk into a store where you need to buy food for three days. You know three days equals $30 for 12000 calories of food. Buy 11000 calories as cheaply as you can and then use the remaining money, if there is any, to buy the remaining calories in the low cal food groups. Or, keep reading-A simple exercise- You need to make a list, do some research, and a little math. I hope I didn¢t scare you. You probably did the same thing for gear. It¢s not that hard to do, I swear. Grab a sheet of paper and something to write with and I¢ll show you.First make a list of your food concerns¢¦(Food Concern= the things that are most important to you when you buy food for hiking. Like- Taste, Calories, Weight, Bulk, Cost, Nutrition, Etc.)Number your concerns in the order of importance to you, with the most important concern at #1. Sometimes two or more concerns will have equal importance; give all equal concerns the same #. Like-Cost and calories have the same importance to me so my list looks like this.1.        Cost1.        Calories2.        Weight3.        Nutrition4.        Taste(Some other concerns- Fat, Protein, Salt, foods you don¢t have to cook, Etc.) Now you need data on foods. Sometimes you need data on the same food in different sized packages. The data you get will be your concerns for each food item. Like-Peanut Butter- Cost=$2 Cal=3000 Wt=1lb 2oz Nu=8 Taste=8(I use a 1-10 score on Nutrition and taste with 10 being the best.)The best place to get data is a supermarket and/or convenience store like what you will shop in along the trail. I don¢t recommend making a food list before you go to get data. Data from items you normally would not carry on the trail may surprise you later in this exercise. The larger the data list the better your choices will be. I used a small notebook to record data while shopping.With the data list you can find out some interesting things by making comparisons and making lists. I made a master list using my top two concerns arranged from most cal per $ to least cal per $. It takes a little math to make a correct comparison ¢Peanut Butter- 1500cal per $1 (not the best for $1 but good.)By comparing Cost vs Calories I found numerous items that were 1000+ calories per $1 spent. I had so many items that the list got cut at the 800 cal per $ line. After making the master list you make adjustments by comparing your other concerns.By comparing Weight vs Calories I then reduce the weight I carried by moving items on the list.Calories per Ounce -etc.Items that were equal in everything else moved up in the list if they had a high taste or nutrition score.Now, with a list, you should be able to answer any food question when you get to a trail town.My list showed me how much better one food choice, based on my concerns, was from another by comparison. On the trail as concerns change so does my list. I didn¢t show you my list on purpose because yours should be totally different. Have fun making your own lists and save yourself some weight, money, pack space, or whatever your major food concern is.Now that you have a list you need to figure out meals. Make sure they are good tasting and fulfill all the requirements your hiking body needs. Taking a supplemental vitamin can help but shouldn¢t be relied upon and the same goes for protein powder if you can find it cheap.If you get a mail drop or have food shipped to you use a dehydrator.That¢s all I have to say about food.