[at-l] maildrops - Dehydrator Recommendations?

[edwilliams@plangraphics.com (Ed Williams)]

Any recommendations for a good dehydrator at a reasonable price?

Thx!
Ed '02

-----Original Message-----
From: at-l-admin@mailman.backcountry.net
[mailto:at-l-admin@mailman.backcountry.net]On Behalf Of Bob Cummings
Sent: Friday, September 28, 2001 12:30 PM
To: at-l@mailman.backcountry.net
Subject: Re: [at-l] maildrops


You can thru hike using all maildrops, no maildrops, or some combination of
both. There is no absolute answer to which is better. My rule was to do
drops
when the post office was closer to the trail than a store and to shop when
the
store was closer. As a result, about half my food was mailed. The rest
purchased
along the way.

I found my pack was always heavier when I left a store, as opposed to a post
office. The reason? The things I wanted to buy almost never came in a size
suitable for lasting just until the next resupply point, or in the lightest
weight container, so I tended to carry more than I needed and heavier than I
needed. Admittedly, I'm handicapped by a  congential inability to discard
good
food. (My mother used to preach, "eat all your food. Think of all the
starving
people in the world.")

Those new to long distance hiking obviously may find the opposite problem --
maildrops may be heavier. But being older than I like to think about, I was
pretty sure how much I would eat, and what kinds of things I would eat, so I
judged my mail drops pretty accurately.

I tend to avoid packaged concoctions like Lipton Dinners and instant
oatmeal. I
carried generic oatmeal, rice, bouillon, pasta, spices and mixed my own. The
savings by so doing greatly surpassed the cost of postage. Lipton dinners
sell
for $3-$4 a pound -- more in country stores. Supermarket rice and macaroni
with
time for planning and shopping at home is available for 50 cents a pound or
less. The nutrition is the same.

I carried a wood-burning Zip stove so it didn't bother me to spend 20
minutes
cooking white rice, or 40 minutes, cooking brown rice. Fuel was plentiful,
free,
environmentally friendly, and required no weight in my pack. I even left my
PUR
Hiker at home, boiling two quarts of water each night for use on the trail
the
next day.

>From time to time I experiment with drying food at home, but I didn't for my
walk in 1993, since I decided too late to do such detailed planning.

These decisions really depend on your personal preferences and how much you
have
to spend. Most people will eat at least two pounds of dry food a day. You
can
buy those two pounds for $1 plus condiments or for $8 to $15. A healthy
trail
diet can be achieved by spending $400 for six months, or by spending $3,000
and
more for six months.

Weary '93


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