Date: 2013-10-04
To: Food Conclusion
Miles today: 0.0

I had a question from Cindy on my guestbook about the type of food I packed and would be happy to share how my food strategy evolved during the course of six months. Initially, I was going to do a combination of maildrops and store resupply. Maildrops can get costly and so I thought to do all maildrops down south (I could drop off myself or have Socks and Hoop get them to me) with some in select places North where I knew resupply was limited or where I wanted lightweight dehydrated food (such as the Whites and 100 Mile Wilderness). The meals were all dehydrated and boxed pre-hike. They were addressed and put in the freezer so all Don had to do was get them out and put in the mail.A couple of things changed this - first, Blueberry didn't hike the planned two-weeks in the beginning so I had extra food, I didn't take into account town meals so I had extra food, and the first time I did a store resupply, I hated the food (pretty much Noodle and Rice Sides)! I then had the opportunity to rejuggle my extra food before leaving the Asheville area and Socks mailed the boxes to me - actually getting me to Harpers Ferry. I went home for a few days when in PA and had Don dehydrate some things like chicken and vegetables, pasta sauce. I then filled in what I needed up North and so did probably 90% of the hike with my dehydrated meals. You can do such a variety of meals - there is no comparison. Even people that did Mountain House meals got tired of them. They only do so many different meals. And it was funny - if you were to put a dehydrated meal in a hiker box down South, it would stay there forever; do that up North and hikers knew the value! It would be gone in a flash. I had many comments such as 'What are you cooking? It smells so good.'The things I would do differently would be to increase the amounts for later in the hike and include more dried fruits and vegetables (I cooked the dried fruit and it was such a treat!). It is hard to preplan meals for months in advance. You get tired of some things and want to add others. I supplemented snacks from local stores but you pay a premium in most hiker towns.A daily supply of food would be breakfast, two snacks, lunch, a snack, dinner, dessert (which was usually a candy bar). Breakfast for me could be 2 instant oatmeals (you can eat it right in the packet), couscous w/cranberries/nuts, or my biscuits and gravy (sausage gravy w/dressing). You can improve on this - I was usually hungry an hour later. A hiker said he ate a mix of oatmeal, peanut butter, instant breakfast and it had staying power. You may think this sounds gross but it sounds great to me! A lot of hikers also mixed up a liquid mixture of oatmeal and protein powder the night before and drank it the next morning.Snacks were things such as granola bars, crackers, gorp mixes (nuts, fruit, M'nM's), Little Debbie Oatmeal cakes (the only Little Debbie snack I ever ate). I couldn't do candy bars during the day - it gives you a sugar spike and then crash. Not good for you.Lunch could be a dried meal if I wanted to have a hot lunch but more likely was tortilla with pepperoni or tuna salad. I tried to pack out an apple and the slices were so good with this. When weather was cooler, I also tried to pack out cheese to supplement lunch or to add to pasta for dinner.Dinner was my dried meals. Oh so good! I sometimes had to add Lipton Alfredo with a pack of tuna or salmon or a Rice side. And don't forget packing out food after a town stay. I can verify that leftover Pepperoni Pizza eaten after two days in temps of 70 degrees will not make you sick. And then I also had my drink pack in all my maildrops. This included coffee and tea bags, instant drink mixes, dried milk for the coffee, spiced cider, hot chocolate.I never was able to eat enough to replace the calories I used - hence the weightloss - but honestly I never felt really hungry or deprived until the end. This was in the 100 Mile Wilderness and on day 5. I was starved! I could have eaten my entire food bag in one sitting. Fortunately, Long Skirt had a few extra items and offered them to me. That definitely helped! I think when you are able to get to a town every 4 days or so and eat a lot of town food it satisfied those food cravings. I hope this helps future Thrus. The only thing I would suggest is that you don't pack a lot of boxes with the same things for the entire hike - mix them up! Otherwise, you will get tired of the choices. ON A SEPARATE NOTE - I wanted to also suggest that future thru-hikers consider getting maps for certain areas and not rely just on the guidebook (you can get them from local Outfitters). I had one for the Whites and wish I had them for the 100 Mile Wilderness. It wouldn't hurt to have them for others too. Sure the guidebook is great for water sources and highpoints but there is nothing like a map to really show you the area you are travelling plus it shows exit points if needed.