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[pct-l] Question - Cookless on the Trail
At the risk of repeating something that may have already been covered
here, Golite's website contains a description of a cookless strategy
used by Golite founder Coup Coupanas on some of his hikes. I'll give
you a link at the end, but for some reason this information is very
difficult to locate on Golite's website, so here is the essence of
the strategy, copied verbatim from the website:
FOOD
As an experiment, I tried carrying 100% raw, no-preparation required
foods with me. The staple was
mangoes, but there were also plenty of dates, pecans, macademia nuts,
and kelp. The experiment went
fantastically. I found that I needed far less raw food than I do
cooked food to keep me feeling great and
moving well. I consumed only 1.6 pounds per day. Having packed
almost 3 pounds per day for an 11-day
itinerary, I soon started looking for people I could give food to.
These I found, thanks mostly to the fact that
I was giving away macademia nuts I suppose. Over the trip, I parted
with 12 pounds of food and still had 2
pounds left over at the end! I will pack far less next time. Basic
strategy was to (1) eat all the fruit I wanted
at each rest stop; (2) then have a handful of nuts to keep my body
burning fat all day long; and (3) finish with
a piece of kelp for electrolyte mineral balance and to keep my teeth
pretty clean in between
brushings/flossings. I?d follow this trio up with lots and lots of
water. This routine made for twice daily
glorious gifts to the Earth in GoLite?s official ?Sun? color ? too
bad they had to go into cat-holes.
WEIGHT LOSS
I started the trip at 201.5 pounds ? too much for a 5?9? dude in no
threat of being crowned Mr. Olympia. I
ended feeling wonderful at 188, fully hydrated pounds and without a
hint of hunger pang. Apparently, I
burned 13.5 pounds of mostly fat, and probably a little bit of
muscle, off my frame in less than 10 days. I
wonder how much I could charge for this protocol if I bound it in a
cheap, chatty paperback and called it the
Sierra Nevada Diet?!
The URL for this part of the Golite website is: http://www.golite.com/
team/athletes/coup/jmt_report.pdf
This approach has some obvious limitations: Expensive ingredients.
Hard to resupply from a gas station convenience store. You can't
continue losing weight at more than a pound a day for an entire thru-
hike.
Wayne Kraft
On Nov 6, 2005, at 9:35 AM, Michael J. Lissner wrote:
> cookies, chips, bagels, bread (inc. raisin bread), peanut butter,
> pop tarts, more bagels, lots of bars, crackers, cheese, nuts, dried
> fruit, and for me, that was about it. I guess if you eat meat, you
> can throw some meat in there somewhere.
>
> I was eating three bagels a day when I went no cook, but by the
> time that happened, I was using food as an energy delivery system,
> not something I looked forward to even when I still had my stove.
>
> I guess I'm not the most idyllic model for no cook. I was eating
> plain pasta for dinner and plain bagels for breakfast for hundreds
> of miles for I went no cook, and for me, that was great - SOM
> (state of mind).
>
> -patch
>
>
>
> Carl & Judy Rush wrote:
>
>> What cookless foods would you take on a long distance hike ?
>> Carl
>>
>> On 11/6/05, Jeffrey Olson <jolson@olc.edu> wrote:
>>
>>> On a section hike in the southern sierra this september I didn't
>>> take a
>>> stove. I didn't miss it. I am a coffee addict and I had a
>>> headache for
>>> a couple days, but that was it. In June I got wet going over
>>> Packwood
>>> Glacier - wind and rain - and was glad to set up dinner in the
>>> middle of
>>> the trail under one of the first trees on the south side at 11AM and
>>> chow down a hot pot of mashed potatos. I was cold, cold, cold. That
>>> said, when I hike alone, I'll leave the stove at home.
>>>
>>> Jeff Olson
>>> Martin, SD
>>>
>>> Hiker97@aol.com wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>> I am wondering how valuable it is to cook when out hiking. It
>>>> seems to me
>>>> the nutritional value gained is hardly any greater than going
>>>> without
>>>>
>>> heating
>>>
>>>> up water, etc. There are so many items to take hiking these days
>>>> that
>>>> provide just as much energy and go power without all the hassle
>>>> of a
>>>>
>>> stove.
>>>
>>>> I know a hot meal or drink is a treat at the end of the day,
>>>> especially
>>>>
>>> if
>>>
>>>> it is cold. But I am thinking more of three season backpacking
>>>> and not
>>>>
>>> winter
>>>
>>>> hiking.
>>>>
>>>> May be I am just a lazy backpacker, but I am thinking of dumping
>>>> the
>>>>
>>> trouble
>>>
>>>> of cooking meals. I only do it for dinner anyway. What's the big
>>>> deal? To
>>>> me it is a pain. Plus, if I eat dinner and then do more hiking,
>>>> which is
>>>>
>>> a
>>>
>>>> good technique, going cookless seems more time efficient. Then
>>>> all I do
>>>>
>>> is
>>>
>>>> have a dessert in my camp at the end of the day.
>>>>
>>>> Any opinions on this? How many PCT hikers are cookless today?
>>>>
>>>> Your hiking buddy, Switchback
>>>> Eat & Run Backpacker & Will Be Glad to Finish Your Hot Meal Left
>>>> Overs
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