Date: 2013-01-24
To: Food Glorious Food!
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

I love the song from the musical 'Oliver' - Is it worth the waiting for? If we live 'til eighty four All we ever get is gru...el! Ev'ry day we say our prayer -- Will they change the bill of fare? Still we get the same old gru...el! There's not a crust, not a crumb can we find, Can we beg, can we borrow, or cadge, But there's nothing to stop us from getting a thrill When we all close our eyes and imag...ine Food, glorious food! Hot sausage and mustard!I think this must be the hiker's mantra. For my readers not familiar with the legendary 'hiker's appetite', you use a LOT of calories hiking. After all, this is your so-called job - walking every day, all day long for 6 months on the average. Some (usually younger individuals) do this trail in 3 or 4 months. They're cranking out 20+ miles on a daily basis. Additionally, there's the 'challenges' such as the 4 State Challenge - you start just before the Northern border in VA, walk through WV, MD, and into PA in a 24 hour period. About 50 miles, 4 states in one day! People do this!! -but not this one...When reading past hikers' journals, I always got a big kick out of the entries that go along like this... 'I got up, had my first breakfast. Then hiked three miles...had my second breakfast...had a snack...time for lunch....second lunch...dinner...' You get the idea - there's a lot of eating going on!Now add to this, the challenges of finding food in places convenient to the trail that is lightweight, satisfying and can fulfill the nutritional needs of asking a lot of your body. Some hikers - and again, I'm not casting dispersions on any one set, indeed, I am a bit envious that they can get away with so much - carry a lot of snack foods and candy bars (Snickers seem to be THE trail food). Add to that, ramen noodles, and you get a lot of calories. But are the goodies satisfying or do they just lend to that 'race for the barn' mentality when you get close to a town. Watch out for those towns - they are vortexes - sucking the unaware hiker right in and next thing you know, you've been there three days and minus a lot more $$ than planned!! So, what is this hiker wanna be's strategy? Well, when I was basecamp for my daughter's hike, we went with 100% mailed food resupply - I dried and assembled the meals in maildrops (flat rate USPS boxes for the most part) which I mailed out just before she would come to a PO or hostel. I am the testimonial for the US Mail service - they never lost a box and deliveries were spot on. I'm also aware that this is not always the case. Plus, you're adding on $10 - $15 bucks to every mailing you make.I'm doing a hybrid stategy. First, if you can do the dried food - it is so lightweight and delicious! I would weigh the maildrops I sent and six days would weight 6 lbs. - about half of resupply in regular grocery stores. So while I'm down South and within reach of Hoop and Socks, they'll be getting food drops in places I'll be passing through (hostels, motels, or just meeting up with me). After that, there are some places where I'll be having maildrops sent but the majority will be resupply in grocery stores, gas stations, or whatever, along the way. I plan on making big bags of vegetables I can add to my Ramen noodles, which I actually likeI'll be adding more on the dehydrating and compiling in my next entries so if you aren't like me - a foodie - then you might want to just skip those. Eventually the big day will come and we can talk about HIKING! Bring it on....