[pct-l] bulk foods (and "REAL food" question)

[cmkudija at earthlink.net (cmkudija@earthlink.net)]

Amy,

I thought I'd comment on "I have a feeling I'll miss my meusli and tvp and
other such "real-food"
staples (no offense to pop-tart connoisseurs...:)"  -

In '94, inspired by Cindy Ross's "Journey on the Crest" and a couple who
gave a PCT presentation on thru-hike preparation, I spent HOURS dehydrating,
preparing, & packaging what my husband & I estimated to be our needs for a
6-month hike.  We ate far better than many other thru-hikers - but we had
lots of food left over since we had to cut out Northern Calif and Oregon due
to injury and time pressures.  (we hiked from Campo to Sierra City, then
from Cascade Locks to Canada, skipping the Glacier Peak section due to
another injury; did that section a year ago).

A cautionary note on meusli, and a story I've told before: I purchased a
50-lb sack of rolled oats for meusli from Smart & Final, a small
restaurant-supply warehouse chain.   I dumped the rolled outs on a clean
bedsheet on the living room floor, added another 20 lbs or so of other
flakes (barley, wheat, nuts, etc) and merrily shook everything together with
the help of a cousin (who really was wondering at our sanity).   Because of
the quantity, I decided I didn't want to try to make granola (too much
cooking, I thought) and just packaged the resulting meusli in Ziplocs, which
I distributed through our collection of resupply boxes.    What I forgot to
consider is that bulk grains often are contaminated with insect eggs,
typically granary moth eggs.  In about August, my niece who was housesitting
for us and on the hook for mailing our resupply packages, asked on the
phone, "Aunt Chris, do you have a moth problem in your house?"   Turned out
the meusli was hatching...and on returning home I spent 3 days sorting out
food and throwing out many bags that were, um, crawling inside.

Yick.

That said, I think that the dinners we had (lots of combinations of (ahem)
corn pasta, dehydrated sauces, dehydrated bean soups, dehydrated frozen
veggies)  were pretty good, and we never experienced the ravenous thru-hiker
hunger in town stops.    I really think it's a judgment call on your part -
what do you have time to do, what foods you particularly like, etc - who you
can recruit at home to pick up stuff at the store and mail to you.   A long
hike takes a toll on the bod, and you want to fuel it appropriately (no
criticism of the pop-tart aficionados meant).   Something that may have been
a factor in my injuries on the trail was that I spent lots of time preparing
food and not walking instead.

We purchased too much hummus mix and got royally sick of it.    I made far
too many fruit rolls from peaches pureed and frozen the previous summer -
they were heavy, bulky and caused GI upset.

I think you're right on with thinking about staples that can be augmented in
town stops.  Good luck!


Christine "Ceanothus" Kudija
PCT partially '94



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