[at-l] Food weight

[icw39@ncfreedom.net (Clark Wright)]

I did some of both; boiled in hostel kitchens - or anyone elses kitchen
that I could MOJO into letting me! :) - and also did some on my own
using my trusty MSR Whisperlight stove.  Also boiled a batch over
campfire once - as a cute Boy Scout trick aside, did you know that you
can actually boil an egg in an old-fashioned, waxed paper dixie cup full
of water right in the middle of a blazing campfire?  Ahh, the pyro
memories of my scouting youth . . . But, I digress . . . Back to my
white gas stove . . you actually can boil a half dozen real efficiently
in a gas stove by putting the eggs in from the start, and then by
turning the stove off after just one minute of boil - with a lid of any
kind, the heat will finish the job of hard boiling in about five more
minutes.  In anything but raging 95 degree heat, hardboiled eggs will
keep many days.  This, plus the pre-cooked bacon and cheese of all kinds
were life-savers for me.  I'm pretty skinny to start with, and have a
high metabolism, and like to hike 20+ mile days pretty often. That was
almost a lethal combination for me during my first month as I lost
almost 25 pounds!  Too much, too fast!  I also started forcing myself to
eat more "on the run" - and for that reason it is critical for me to
have access to some sort of pocket pouch and a hydration tube, so I can
eat and drink in between meals without taking too many sit down breaks. 
It sounds kinda strange, but one of the reasons I like to hike without
too many "stop and take pack off" breaks, is that I like to dawdle at
the magical spots that catch my fancy - it took me forever to get
through the Grayson Highlands and the Whites, for instance.  The
squashed, fresh bagels, and bagel crisps also are good energy, not to
mention the old stand-by of peanut butter (which I don't like too much
as it is too sticky and dry for my tastes, but the jelly swirl varieties
are pretty kewl!)

hope this helps - hike on!

Thru-Thinker
[Clark Wright]

Jan Leitschuh wrote:
> 
> Hi
> 
> I've been wondering about the metabolism thing too.
> I want to know about your hard-boiled eggs. My metabolism demands protein
> and plenty of it!
> 
> So, the incredible edible egg seems like a good idea to me, in its own
> little hard-boiled package. Cheap, high quality protein.
> 
> I have seen some hostels with stoves. But what did you do on a regular basis
> to boil your eggs - did you burn stove fuel, or find a place in motels,
> or...?
> 
> By the way, I know a couple of women who lost alot of weight on their thru
> and stopped functioning for awhile in a womanly fashion, if you know what I
> mean. Kind if like marathon runners. So, it can happen to women.
> 
> Didn't Ready file a report in her journal: "Help! I've lost my breasts?"
> Another woman, Grace Winters, author of "Walking Home," confessed to eating
> a whole stick of butter on the spot!
> 
> I am hoping that carrying plenty of fats in the form of oils and cheese will
> help keep the hipbones padded.
>  And butter in the cooler months. I tried some clarified butter (ghee) this
> summer, and that seemed to work well, keeping for at least a week. It was
> easy to make, just melt the butter stick and decant the golden liquid into a
> little plastic REI "pot," toss the white milk solids.
> 
> I also thought that every occasional hostel kitchen I came upon, I could
> cook up a pound of bacon and crumble it. It should last a week in a ziplock
> and add some flavor for very little weight.
> 
> But I want to know more about the egg thing.
> 
> Clark Wright wrote:
> >
> > I agree - what I found is that most guys with regular to fast
> > metabolisms actually cannot even carry all the calories they need (can
> > be as much as 6,000/day!) for a multi-month thru-hike.  The theory for
> > guys is that the extra weight needed to carry the calories requires more
> > calories to burn, resulting in an endless downward spiral . . . Women,
> > on the other hand, I believe I've read, generally can carry all the
> > calories they need.  I think some exercise physiologist did a study to
> > this effect sometime back.  I started out with a bunch of fancy
> > freeze-dried goods, etc. - and promtly lost 25 pounds in less than a
> > month doing the strenuous winter thing starting mid-March at Springer.
> > I changed to fewer planned food drops, and the Earl Shaeffer (sp?)
> > hardboiled egg routine - breakfast often involved pre-cooked bacon,
> > hardboiled eggs, squashed bagels, and cheese; while lunch generally
> > became just a series of nutritious snacks, especially as it got warmer -
> > supplemented by every single greasy cheeseburger and fries I could get
> > my hands on!  Dinner was the real challenge - how to get 2,000+ calories
> > into one meal?  I came to rely on more pre-cooked bacon; more cheese -
> > even carried cans of Cheese-Whiz! - and the new foil packed tuna was
> > also good.  As the weather got hotter and hotter, I found it harder and
> > harder to eat larger, hot meals; did a lot more "continuous
> > GORP/nutrigrain bar snacks, cheese and crackers, etc.  Tried to add some
> > cheap calories using the powdered gatorade mixes, done to about half
> > strength . . . Basically, more than anything, my rule of thumb was to
> > eat everything in sight in town; carry pre-cooked cheeseburgers out of
> > town to eat along the trail that day; and carry more and more real
> > (albeit heavy) food than I ever thought I would have done at the outset,
> > counter-balanced by less "heavy" food and tons more gatorade type drinks
> > when it got real hot . . . another favorite of mine were the bags of
> > cinamon-raisin bagel crisps - thin, crispy slices that are great for
> > crujmbling into hot oatmeal, or just crunching on during the day . . . I
> > reckon this is kinda my "unplanned menu" stream of consciousness for the
> > day! :)
> >
> > Thru-Thinker [Clark Wright]
> >
> > Bob Cummings wrote:
> > >
> > > Two pounds of mostly dry food, such as oatmeal, rice, pasta, peanuts, augmented
> > > by some vegetable oil, sugar and maybe some dried meat or summer sausage will
> > > provide you with 3,500-4,000 calories, which is abount the minimum most need to
> > > thru hike without major weight loss, or major eating in towns to make up for
> > > skimping on the trail.
> > >
> > > The way to keep pack weight down is to resupply more often, either in trail town
> > > stores or with mail drops. My rule was to resupply whenever there was a food
> > > source within a mile or two of the trail. Sometimes that was a store, but often
> > > I found post offices closer. The data book and either Wingfoot's book or the
> > > Companion are essential for the planning needed to minimize weight.
> > >
> > > Weary
> > >
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> --
> ========================================
>     Jan Leitschuh Sporthorses Ltd.
> 
> http://www.mindspring.com/~janl2
> 
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