RE: [pct-l] Canister Stoves

[Ronald Moak <ronm@fallingwater.com>]

Tom writes >> What I would NOT do is follow the practice of only cooking one
(1) meal a
day, at least where water was available. There are lots of lightweight,
satisfying, nutritious foods available in the supermarket that only require
water and heat. To carry these foods prepared [ready to eat] instead of
dehydrated [dry] appears to add a pound for each day's food carried, to the
pack weight. Yes, I know, cooking takes time, but I would take the break and
eat better. <<

Many thru-hikers I've seen do cook 2 meals a day (breakfast and dinner).
With dinner meal coming at different times depending upon the area you're
hiking in. While I generally cook the evening meal after I get into camp, If
it looks like a dry camp, I'll cook it at lunch then snack for supper.

Personally I'd like to get rid of cooking breakfast. Mine generally consist
of either oatmeal or grits. I've yet to be able to put together a decent no
cook breakfast that I like to eat day after day. Pop Tarts are defiantly not
on my list. I've tried several cereal combos but am still not happy.

As far as dinner is concerned, many hikers carry more than is necessary.
However, to be fair most thru-hikers don't have the months to prepare their
food in advance. And when many do, they often discover that what taste good
at home is pretty disgusting after a few weeks on the trail. Just check out
the different drop boxes along the trail. 

Lipton's noodle dinners are fine but I like to augment them with a can of
tuna or chicken. Dehydrated chicken or tuna is good, but that takes lots of
time and prep. A seven oz can of tuna weights about an ounce dehydrated. 

Also dehydrated foods add a layer of complexity to the food prep. Some
combinations require several hours or more cooking time to properly
re-hydrate. I'm not knocking dehydrated foods. I intend to use them
extensively on next summers hike. I also recognize the added layer of
complexity they require.

In the beginning of a thru-hike, the weight of the daily dinner and
breakfast foods represent a relatively high percentage of the daily food
weight. However, as the hike progresses. Less emphasis is placed on these
meals and more snacks are a carried. So the weight of snacks foods
increases. These foods are not easily dehydrated. Also most snacks are
purchased in stores along the trail where selection is typically less than
optimal. 

It would be interesting to see if anyone could come up with a good
thru-hiker meal plan that would provide adequate nutrition, a variety of
meals, is easy to prepare (both on and off the trail), and cooks with
minimal fuel.

Most of the so called backpacker cookbooks are useless for the thru-hiker.
They lack any nutritional information, the meals are difficult to prepare
and weight too much. 

Ron "Fallingwater" Moak
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Fallingwater Journals - www.fallingwater.com
Pacific Crest Trail Assoc. - www.pcta.org
American Long Distance Hikers Association - West -
www.gorp.com/nonprof/aldhaw


* From the Pacific Crest Trail Email List |  http://www.backcountry.net   *

==============================================================================
Cc:            "PCT-L Mailing List (E-mail)" <pct-l@backcountry.net>
From:          Jeffrey Olson <jjolson@uwyo.edu>
Date:          Wed, 24 Nov 1999 10:37:53 -0800
Subject:       [pct-l] Dinner variety...
Content-type:  text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Ronald Moak wrote:
It would be interesting to see if anyone could come up with a good thru-hiker
meal plan that would provide adequate nutrition, a variety of meals, is easy to
prepare (both on and off the trail), and cooks with minimal fuel.

I came up with a plan for dinners that satisfied me in terms of variety.  There
were four different food groups stacked in a pyramid.  The first is bulk carbos
like wheat or corn spaghetti, rice, cous cous and potato flakes.  Depending on
"when" in the trip I was eating, this was 3 to 6 oz.  The second was 3 oz of
dehydrated soups, such as split pea, black bean and lentil.  The third was the
"binder" which for me was 2 oz Kraft Parmesian Cheese and 1 oz dehydrated milk
with 4% milkfat.  The fourth was spices and anything else I cared to throw in,
including dried fruit (raisins were particularly welcome), dehydrated veges, soy
bacon bits, etc.  I could get 12+ different meals out of this combination.  I
found the black bean dinner to require more salt than the others.  I ate potato
flake based dinners only once a week.  it was the "treat" dinner.  Lots of soy
baco bits.  I also added TVP to up the protein levels.  My craving in towns were
corn chips and Doritos, mostly for salt and fat...

I introduced this "backpacking food" to a friend who runs marathons a couple
times a year and he now regularly eats these combinations for dinner, varying
the amount of parmesian to suit time of year and training status.

Jeffrey Olson
Laramie WY







* From the Pacific Crest Trail Email List |  http://www.backcountry.net   *

==============================================================================