As I sit here, in the “office”, I am thinking about minor logistic details of the hike. You know, the less important things like food. It is kind of hard to plan for rationing while I lick the recent cup of beef soup off my lips, waiting for the yummy wrap with fries … no doubt some sweet thing in my near future. No quite sure why. Of course there are other distractions here at the moment that don’t help all that much either … like the two pretty bartenders in skimpy costumes (it IS Halloween), and the rack of about forty taps in front of me. I guess we can call this discipline training.
The suggested amount of food to plan for is 2 to 2.5 pounds per day of the hike. The 2.5 is for the colder periods of the hike, when we will use more energy. That means that if we want to be prepared for at least a couple weeks at a time, we will be carrying 30 to 40 pounds of food. In other words … most of the weight we will be carrying will be food.
By the way, It has just come to my attention that I can not multitask when it comes to food. I seem to have just bit my own finger. That might be really dangerous on the trail!
So the question becomes … what food has lot’s o’ energy and nutrition, but is small and light weight. Apparently Twinkies, Cupcakes, and Pop Tarts are a no go. I am tempted to study up on foods to be found in the wilderness; become an expert of mushrooms and berries and all sorts of other natural edible things … but frankly, while I like a bit o’ roughage … I am a carnivore at heart. So it looks like I might have to invest in a whole lot of slim jims!
Fortunately, it seems Mayday has an unforeseen, but very welcome talent. He makes his own jerky. This is definitely a blessing. He is sending me samples of venison jerky to see if it passes my taste buds, but assures me he can make any jerky I desire. This definitely has potential!
Any suggestions for good, relatively healthy, light weight foods folks? It would be nice to vary the menu occasionally, but I am not really THAT picky. And there are absolutely NO expectation of multi course meals waiting for us when we pass within a few hours of your house. I mean that would just be silly!
I gotta go right now. Time to order some dessert!
[ujicountdown id=”IDIOTS AWAY!” expire=”2014/03/20 07:00″ hide = “true”]
Have you read the book by Bill Bryson about his hike on the AT? One of the most memorable scenes he writes about is throwing away the cans of stew, or some such thing, and a huge sausage that he’d packed in order to reduce the weight of his pack. Apparently, carrying the heavy stuff was harder than being hungry. I definitely recommend that book….”A Walk in the Woods” . Check out the Wiki post for him….if he can do it, so can you!!! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Bryson
Thanks! I’ll have to take a look at that one! 🙂