[pct-l] Vegan Thru Hike

[Barry Teschlog]

Becky

I knew a couple in '06 that were Vegan (her) and Vegetarian (him).  They lit afterburners on me around Tahoe and finished a couple weeks before me.  To the best of my knowledge they didn't stray from their respective diets.  With careful nutritional planning and a certain amount of ability to have a supply person a home make "on the fly" changes you can certainly do a vegan thru hike if you choose to, AND be a strong and healthy - I personally saw others do it.  


I believe this 2006 couple made all their own meals at home and mailed them out to themselves, or had a supply person at home doing the mailing of the pre made meals for them.  They didn't really go to town all that much (going in just long enough to get their supply package), preferring to take their zero's on the trail much of the time I was hiking with them.

If you can easily eat vegan 
from a Safeway type store, you'll likely do fine in the larger towns 
(Mojave, Mammoth, Tahoe, Mt. Shasta City, Ashland, Sisters / Bend, etc).  If you can't keep your diet from a Safeway type store, you may want to plan on eating nearly 100% from home / supply packages.


Best of luck out there.  Enjoy the hike.

Note:  I'm an unrepentant animal exploiter when it comes to food so don't have specific vegan suggestions other than nuts, more nuts and still more nuts and olive oil, both of which I used lots of on my thru hike.  I mostly supplied as I went since I was a non-organic omnivore on a see food diet out on the trail - see it, eat it.