[pct-l] trail food

[jolson at olc.edu (Jeffrey Olson)]

I posted this a couple years ago.  I was killing some time going through 
my backpacking e-mail files to see if there was anything I could 
incorporate in my planning for hiking next summer and ran across this... 
___________________________

My favorite dinners are a compilation of cheap, healthy components.  There 
are four basic levels.

The first level is the base; pasta, instant rice, cous cous, polenta (grits) 
or potato flakes, my favorite.  4 oz for the first couple weeks, 6 oz for 
the rest of the hike.

The second level is a dehydrated soup; split pea, black bean (with extra 
salt) or my favorite, curried lentil.  2 oz for the first couple weeks, and 
3-4 oz for the rest of the hike.

The third level is the "binder."  I never knew about binders until I got 
disgusted with prepackaged freeze dried food - mostly price.  The binder is 
the ingredient that ties everything else together.  Rice and black bean soup 
mix gets old real fast.

The bind I favor is parmesian cheese - Kraft or some other generic version. 
The stuff lasts forever and has good fat content.  For the first two weeks - 
2oz, and 3 oz for the rest of the hike.  You can carry oil or margarine, 
fake and tubbed, but I've found that good old Kraft Parmesian makes me smack 
my lips as I wolf down dinner.  I usually include an ounce of 4% dehydrated 
milk as another binder.

The fourth level is where you get creative, and can use the dehydrator. 
Anything goes.  An oddity I like is to include dehydrated blueberries, an 
ounce or two, in a dinner once in a while.  Vegetables, etc.   Whatever the 
imagination can concoct.  If you use potato flakes, include fake margarine 
and about three ounces per person of soy baco bits.  That's a lot of baco 
bits, believe me...  They are salty and absolutely wonderful.  Potato flakes 
makes the greatest volume per weight, but there are some issues with the 
hypoglycemic spike some people might have to consider.

I package dinners at home in the same manner.  Use a gallon freezer bag to 
put the rice/pasta/cous cous in.  Then put the soup in a quart/pint freezer bag. 
Put the cheese in a quart sandwich bag.  Put both quart bags in the gallon 
bag, seal the gallon bag so there is the least air in it as possible, and 
then secure with a small strip of duct tape.

I know all these bags sounds wasteful and lots of extra weight, but being 
able to get the water to boil, put in the instant rice, let it cook for 20 
seconds, mix in the soup, turn off the stove, or some favorite order - makes 
controlling the process easier.  Finally, you can either add the parmesian 
just before serving to the whole pot, which means you have to spend more 
time cleaning it, or to your individual servings, which means you only have 
cheesy residue on your cup.  I fknow all this as I weight and measure and 
bag and tape.  Experience has me do what works for me.

You can vary your dinners so you don't have the same dinner but twice a 
month.  I found I preferred more curried lentil dinners and fewer black 
beans.  I really liked potato dinners once a week.  They make a LOT of food 
for the weight, and taste so, so, good with the margarine and baco bits. 
I'm a little suspect about the potato dinner's nutrition, hence they are a 
treat - once a week.

This stuff is all bought in bulk.  The idea of shopping as you go has its 
fans, but I don't like leaving the trail, and I know what I will eat on the 
trail.  Mac and cheese it ain't...  My package disappeared from the Big Lake 
Religious camp and I had to hitch into Sisters for a resupply at the store 
at the edge of town.  $50 for five days.  I figured that I was spending 
about $4 a day if I ate nothing but bulk food.  My folks live in the bay 
area and shipping the food was not that expensive.  I so appreciated my next 
food drop at Timberline Lodge...  The store bought stuff just wasn't the 
same.  Where were the baggies?

When I added the mealpack bars, the cost easily doubled.  That said, I'm a convert to 
the 4oz bars you can buy for less than a buck at http://mealpack.com/.  You 
get 440 calories for less than a buck!!!  You have to buy a minimum of 50 
bars for this price, but that's not a big deal.  

On my solo hikes now I don't cook, and eat four of these a day.  Ummm... 
For dinners without cooking, I'm a big fan of fareast mixes.  I used to shop 
at Ballard Market in Seattle, and the choices for a week long solo hike in 
the bulk bins still make my mouth water.  There is nothing like the sensory 
experience of chewing up 8 oz of far east mix while lying in the tent or on 
the pad, staring off into space, tired, aching, ready for sleep.

The cooked dinners are easily inhaled.  The far east mix has to be chewed, 
and water drank, or it gets stuck in the gullet, and then you choke and get 
all flemmed out trying to get it to go down, or if it's bad enough, to go 
up!  I enjoy nothing more than putting my butt on the ground and eating fast 
hiking food really, really slowly.  To generate enough saliva to swallow - 
that is the goal...!!!  And when I find myself licking the bottom of the 
baggie for the last salt, I know I'm not too full, but I'm satisfied...  The 
cat with the chesire smile.

All the preparation of food deals with the sense that being alone on the 
trail for any length of time is going to be hard.  To have any routine that 
connects me with home will comfort.  Lots of little baggies with different 
kinds of food in them is really, really comforting...

So while I don't cook when alone, I do put my food in lots of baggies.  I do 
chew not just to be able to swallow, but to remember that I chose to eat far 
east mix because I like to chew.  I'm a happy boy when I chew my food.

The order in the planning and packing and parsing and boxing is all a grand 
preparation for being in a life where there is no order, no planning other 
than to get through the next day, no parsing other than holding emotions in 
check.  Knowing I will open a baggie with food in it while I'm putting the 
food in it is both spiritual and absurd.  But what isn't???

Jeff Olson
Martin, SD