[pct-l] Dehydrated Commercially Prepared Meals (and food

[David Thibault]

Heiki,  Be aware that you will get sick of meals that are pretty similar
day in day out.  I take food on the trail pretty seriously and usually do
about 10 resupplies from mail during a thru hike.  This is mainly to get
variety on the trail.  I don't ship myself things I can get on the trail.
For example Nido Milk powder is not easily found in most trail towns - I
ship that to myself.  Snickers bars, nuts, ramen, mac & cheese, pop
tarts are easy to find almost anywhere I never ship those.  Freeze dried
meal are nice an light but they get old very quickly.  Your body will
crave certain foods on a trip so having some wiggle room in what you eat
works really well.  If a town has a full grocery store I would recommend
just buying food there.  Send food to places with a limited selection.
Even at a limited selection allow yourself the option to pick up a meal or
two locally.

Also there are some great resouces for meals on-line like Dicentras "One
Pan Wonders" and ""Freezer Bag Cooking" (just do a google search).  When I
ship meals from home for a thru hike, I never have a particular meal more
than about 5 times total (except for my one or two favorates).  It is hard
to get sick of anything that you have less than once a month, although it
is possible.  Actually on the PCT I found my supplies from home where much
more varied than what I could get on the trail in trail towns.

Also supporting local businesses by resupplying as you go is a nice way to
help keep hikers welcome in trail towns.

Day-Late


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."