[pct-l] PB, goo, & licking fingers

[charliethorpe@worldnet.att.net (Charlie Thorpe)]

Hello All -

ROYROBIN said:

>The refillable tubes didn't work well for me.  PB was
>too hard when cold...
>Mixing PB with honey, with or without liquid margarine,
>actually makes it less sticky and it's a powerful trail
>snack.  Still, you need something with a screw-top to carry
>it in.

I also had trouble when I tried to use the refillable tubes for my frequent
PB fix (oil leaked out and the PB got stiff when chilled).  I have always
liked PB/honey sandwiches, but I found that the PB/honey mixture would
usually get stiff over time (no matter what the temperature).

I ran into a Dutch ice climber ("No Name") on the AT who shared some of his
favorite trail snack:

1/3 super-chunky PB
1/3 honey
1/3 Parkay liquid margarine

He would buy a plastic jar of PB, eat it down til about a third was left,
and mix the honey and Parkay in with it.

I liked the mix so well that I experimented until I found my favorite
"super goo" proportions:

2/5 super-chunky PB
2/5 honey
1/5 Parkay liquid margarine

I never did find a very good way to mix the stuff in the field (can make a
major finger-licking mess in the middle of your resupply box explosion
<g>).  The best that I found was to dump everything into something like a
plastic bread bag, tie it shut, and then to squeeze it around until it all
was mixed.

My wife tried sending it to me pre-mixed in a zip-loc (inside another
zip-loc), but the oil easily got out and soaked the resupply box (Post
Office was very unhappy!).  We finally learned that we could package the
stuff in plain plastic (1 gal) food storage bags (the kind that come with
twist ties in the box).  I used about a cup of the stuff for every two
days, so she would mix up one batch of as many cups as I needed for a
particular resupply.

She put the entire batch of super goo into the bottom corner of one bag.
She poofed the air out and gently twisted the remainder of the bag into a
long "rope".  She tied a slippery half-hitch in the end of the
rope...leaving as much rope as possible between the knot and the bag's
contents (the extra space in the bag allowed the goo to assume any shape it
wanted as it got bounced around in the resupply box).  For safety, she
would put the sealed bag into another bag and repeat the sealing process
(we never had any oil leak out of the first bag, but we didn't want to take
a chance).

I carry a Nalgine wide-mouth screw-top jar (1-cup if solo, 2-cup if with a
partner) that I put the super goo into.  I poke a finger size hole in the
resupply bag and squeeze enough goo out to fill the jar.  I squeegee the
goo back from the hole enough to tie a knot at the hole location and store
the resupply bag (inside a safety bag <g>) in the bottom of my food bag.
The jar stays at the top of the food bag so that I can snack on it often
during the day (goes GREAT with flour tort's!).

I have discovered that I really crave the super goo mixture more and more
as I get months into a thruhike (especially as the weather gets colder).  I
always enjoy pancakes at a town stop and often sneak the super goo into the
restaurant to go between them.  It is too rich for me to eat much of here
at home or during the first few weeks of a long hike.

One of the Scout groups that I taught backpacking to liked the super goo so
much that they decided to use it on a week-long hike.  Unfortunately, they
made it for the trip with stick margarine instead of the Parkay...they came
back calling it "JOB" (Junk On Bread <g>).  They did pack it all back out
(almost completely uneaten).  I tried some of it and I completely
agree...the taste was very different from the super goo made with Parkay
that they liked.

BTW, I have found that the plain food storage bags work much better for me
than zip-locs for all food, both in the resupply box and on the trail.  I
now use the HD zip-locs (with duct tape reenforcing at the ends of the
zipper) just to organize stuff...primary storage of food is always in a
plain food storage bag knotted shut with a slippery half-hitch.  One
exception is bulk cooked/dehydrated meat...it is in a vacuum bag in the
resupply box and I put it into a food storage bag when I finally open the
vacuum bag on the trail.

- Charlie II  AT (MEGA'93)
             PCT (Mex@Can'95)
         Chipping away at the CDT


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