[pct-l] Food Strategies

[Seth Jacobs]

What'll make it very expensive is if you get 1/3 the way through your hike
and find that you can't stand your food.  I hiked 2 sections this year, and
prior to that I did what I thought was a lot of food testing.  I dehydrated
my meals and tested them out on 5 training hikes.  But this was my first
long distance solo hike and I discovered a couple things:

1. I needed far less food than I expected.  Hiking supressed my appetite.
This doesn't happen to everyone, but for those affected by it I've heard
that this "problem" goes away by the 3rd to 6th week.

2. Even though I had several different types of meals I found that after
about 5 days I couldn't stand the dehydrated fruits (except for the
pineapple, kiwi, and strawberries).

3.  Food is rehydrated on the trail from available sources and often those
sources that, even filtered, didn't taste very good.  I'm not fond of the
taste of concrete or iron, so next year I'm going to bring a purifier.  You
have to drink alot of water on the trail and if you're sensitive to how it
tastes, it makes it difficult to drink as much as you should.

4.  Salty foods are good.  You're going to be sweating out alot of salt and
need to replace it.

5.  I never got tired of oatmeal for breakfast, but lost my appetite for
dehydrated apples and jerky.

6.  Next year I'm going to bring some fresh fruits and vegetables.  They're
bulky and heavy, but the heaviness comes from the water, which I have to
carry anyway, one way or another.

Hope this helps.  All the best on your hike.

Seth



Message: 10
> Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2012 23:17:19 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Heike Carrel <hcarrel26 at yahoo.com>
> Subject: [pct-l] Dehydrated Commercially Prepared Meals (and food
>         strategies      in general) - Share your thoughts!
> To: pct-l at backcountry.net
> Message-ID:
>         <1343715439.60472.YahooMailClassic at web161301.mail.bf1.yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
>
> I'm not looking at a PCT Thru Hike until 2014, so I still have lots of
> time to plan and prepare...
> ?
> I also realize just about everyone on here will most likley agree that
> this?food option?is probably *the most* expensive option for food, but I'd
> be interesting in hearing your thoughs/opinions regardless. :)
> ?
> As far as food goes, I've kind of thought about carrying commercially
> dehydrated meals. That is planning to?eat one of these types of meals each
> day (which would be approximately?120 purchased meals if you did the trail
> in 4 months) *in addition to* other foods for breakfast, snacks, lunch,
> etc. I know, I know....commercially prepared dehdrated meals are probably
> the most expensive meal option, but it seems like it could help ensure your
> at least eating one sort of balanced meal a day, though I guess a good
> multivitamin could help with that too. I would remove the dehydrated
> dinners from the original packaging and put htem in heavy duty ziplocks to
> reduce some of the waste/trash.
> ?
> As far as food in general, I would most likely plan to have some
> food?shipped to me (or personally?ship a box ahead of me as I go), but also
> plan to buy some along the trail. And that is another reason I've thought
> about buying some dehydrated meals--they make a bunch of different
> dinners...definitely enough to offer variety. ...And since I plan to hike
> the trail over a year from now, I could start buying some of these meals a
> little at a time to spread the expense of the purchase out.
> ?
> Assuming $10/meal (which not all cost that much, I'm just estimating on
> the high end) x 120 =$1200, then that'd be about $300/month in
> freezedried?food plus the other food you'd be purchasing for other meals,
> snacks, etc. For my planning, I am considering town stops (i.e.
> restaurants) to be a separate category from "trail food" food expenses.
> (I'm looking to keep town stops minimal.)
> ?
> Has anyone who's already completed a PCT thru-hike and resupplied along
> the way?calculated?how much they spent resupplying as they went? I've heard
> that this method can be expensive too, especially if you're in a small
> town?or the stores are small with "gas station"-type of prices. I'm curious
> how this option compares, expense-wise verses dehydrated meals.
>
> Thanks in advance for all your thoughts, opinions, and advice! It is much
> appreciated! :)
> ?
> Heike
>
> "Goals allow you to control the direction of change in your favor."
>
>