[pct-l] Food

[Scott Williams]

On the PCT I ate constantly and ate mostly crap.  Any kind of sugared
cereal and cheese for breakfast, cheese crackers, corn nuts, candy bars,
jerky, nuts, dried fruit etc, every hour on the hour to stay fueled.  Lunch
was tortillas and cheese, salami, peanut butter and mac and cheese or
lipton sides for dinner with lots of junk to fill it out.  The healthiest
stuff on that trail were the foraged greens and onions, agave, mushrooms
and other tasties to be found as one hikes.  I do a lot of that on any
trail.  I made it to Canada fine, loosing 35 lbs but figure I was
malnourished by the end.  I was eating 2 boxes of mac and cheese per dinner
by Stehekin and was still hungry!  That's 8 servings according to the box!

I hadn't planned to thru hike, so most of this was purchased from trail
towns on the way.  I just couldn't stop walking and food be damned!

My diet changed drastically between that hike and the CDT, 2 years later.
 I stopped eating all processed foods, primarily sugar and flour.  Also on
the CDT, I went stoveless.  Everything was simply soaked.  So, for the CDT
my breakfast consisted of 3 oz of a mix of rolled grains, 2 oz dried fruit
and 2 oz nuts, soaked overnight and topped with a cup or more of yogurt I
cultured on trail from Nido.

Lunch and dinner were the same, 2 oz instant brn rice, 2 oz dried pork,
chicken, beef, shrimp or other Asian dried fish, dried cheese or TVP or
some combination of all that, 2 oz dried mixed veggies including seaweed
which I love, (that's a lot of veggies rehydrated) 2 oz nuts, 2 oz dried
fruit and 2 tbls olive oil, and spices and a bit of hard cheese and my own
smoked jerky.  People were blown away by the sheer size of these meals.  I
also sprouted seeds, beans and anything that would grow, in small zip locks
and loved the crunchy little guys as part of my meals.  That's over 1/2 lb
dried food at each meal.  Over the snowy San Juans I added more block
cheese and salami or summer sausage as I needed even more calories.  The
soaking of the next meal began as I was finishing the current meal, so they
all had 4 to 6 hours of rehydration and they were tender and  delicious!!!

What is amazing is that when eating all that junk on the PCT I needed to
refuel on the hour all through the day as I was starving and would start to
get light headed if I didn't.  On the CDT, I ate breakfast, lunch and
dinner throughout New Mexico and was never hungry, never bonked or hit the
wall energetically and never needed snacks, even on 30 mile days.  When I
entered the San Juans and needed more calories due to the snow and
ruggedness, I simply couldn't eat that much at one sitting and at that
point split my breakfast, half at 6am, half at 9am.  Lunch was split
between noon and 3pm and dinner I just ate in my bag till it was done.

It was a hell of a lot of work dehydrating enough meat and veggies for
nearly 5 months of meals, but totally worth it.  My meals were so good,
that as my speeds built and I began leaving meals in the hiker boxes, I
gathered a following of folks who loved them as they'd never had so much
quality veggies and protein in a trail meal.

For the AT this year I'm dehydrating a lot of meat and veggies as these are
the difficult things to buy in trail towns.  But I'm figuring I'll be
crossing into towns every 2 to 3 days, so much of the other  stuff, nuts,
dried fruit, basic starches and some fresh stuff, will be purchased on the
fly.  Amoeba, who hiked the AT twice in Crocs and most of the PCT, always
could pull out of her pack a nice juicy cucumber, red pepper or an apple
and man those were delicious on trail.  I loved hiking with her!  So maybe
I'll do a bit more of that on the AT.  But I'll ship out a basic bunch of
healthy stuff every 2 or 3 weeks and just put meals together as I go.  And
this time I'm cooking.  Too much time in shelters on rainy nights to not
have a warm cup of soup.

There's probably more, but this is enough to give you the picture.  Oh, and
I only lost 6lbs on the CDT.  I didn't need to loose much that hike, but
the increase in energy, fitness and basic happiness with what I ate on the
CDT was incredible.

But, damn, just go for it.  Bring as much healthy stuff as you can fit in,
but no matter what you eat, if you love living on trail, you'll make it
anywhere you want to go.  If you feel malnourished, and many find
themselves loosing more weight than they should, think healthy options,
stuff that sticks to your ribs and doesn't go through your system like a
flash in the pan.  Flour and sugar products which are absorbed within the
first few inches of your intestine leave me starving very soon after.
 Whole  grains and starches that have enough fiber to slow the absorption
rate will last you for hours, maybe even till the next real meal.

Have a wonderful hike Jake!

Shroomer


On Mon, Feb 10, 2014 at 8:59 AM, Jake Handy <jakers329 at yahoo.com> wrote:

>
>
> I understand that my caloric needs will definitely rise during the day to
> day hiking of a thru attempt, especially from that of my 2 to 3 day hikes
> I'm used to.  Can someone give me a snapshot of a typical day on the PCT of
> what they ate, including specific foods/amounts?  I realize that needs vary
> with the weather and terrain, but an idea of your average day would help!
>  By the way.... I'm a fit 46 y/o guy.
> Thanks!
> Jake
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