[at-l] Food packing quesrtions

[icw39@ncfreedom.net (Clark Wright)]

Papa Bear wrote:
> 
> Some General questions to everyone:
> 
> 1) How many days do you pack food for (on average)?

Reply:  As few as possible; on the AT, it ranged from 2-5 days for me; I
would walk further on more remote sections specifically to keep the
number of days packed down . . .
> 
> 2) How much food per day (I've heard from 1 1/2 to 2 lb. - I would like more of a survey)?

Reply:  This is somewhat person-specific; I started with less weight and
less calories, and gravitated to more weight and more focus on high
calorie "real" foods, such as hardboiled eggs, precooked bacon, real
butter, tuna packed in oil, cheese, etc.

> 2a) How much do YOU weigh (should be related to above)?

Reply:  On my 2001 AT hike, I started at 188, ended at about 162;
unfortunately, I am back up to about 185 today . . . time for some more
hiking! :)
> 
> 3) What "real" food do you take and how long till it spoils?
>     3a) Bread?
Reply:  Depends on the form - pita is great, lasts well; I loved
squashed bagels, too [I did the squashing when packing them to reduce
volume and increase density]; I also squashed regular wheat bread slices
- sure shows you how much of that stuff is just air!!
>     3b) Cheese?
Reply:  Heck yes - all forms; swiss/jarlesberg is awesome and lasts
forever; cheddar varies a lot in terms of gooiness, but it's always
edible; you can add cheese to about any hot breakfast or dinner, too; I
also liked cans of cheese whiz - the empty can weighs little.
>     3c) peanut butter?
Reply:  A staple for many - a good, dense "real" food - but, I just
don't like it because it makes my mouth feel really dry; the newer
brands that have jelly blended in are better to my taste buds.
>     3d) Margerine (stick, not powdered)?
Reply:  The real thing is best in terms of caloric and flavorific bang
for your carried weight; I took the real thing on some shorter sections
[i.e., if only packing for 2-3 days], I also took the powdered butter
buds on longer sections [great on Backpacker's Pantry's freexe-dried
Green Beans Almondine and Corn], and also on several occasions would
split a bottle of squeeze parkay with 2-3 other hikers where we each had
smaller, empty squeeze bottles to put some of it in - leave rest in a
hiker box.]

B/T/W  -  I've not seen much reference to hiker boxes in the past 2
months on this list; you should not count on them, but if you avoid the
rigid scheduling of tons of mail drops, you may find you can engage in a
good bit of food provisioning give and take via the hiker boxes that are
present at many outdoor stores, hostels, and sometimes even at shelters,
where people donate food and other items they don't need, and others can
then take some things they need, and (hopefully) leave there or at
another location some things they don't need . . . 
>     3e) Anything else?
Reply:  I LOVE bagel crips [thin bagel slices, baked to a crisp - my fav
is cinnamon raisin], vitamin c fortified gummies, beek jerky or other
jerked meats, nutrigrain bars, hard lemon candies [both to suck on and
to add to hot tea in the winter], "gourmet" powdered hot chocoloate
mixes [since I don't do coffee], simple pasta dishes - ranging from
Kraft Mac & Cheese [look carefully in the grocery store - they make a
version that takes 10-15 minutes to cook, which is too long for me, and
a quick serve version that just takes boiling water], to the
freeze-dried pasta meals, which I found more filling and easier to
supplement with extra calorie or protein fillers [cheese or tuna].  A
few other thoughts - there are some itty bitty bottles of tabasco out
there that can add zing; or if you have a fav spice, take some along;
salt and pepper packets are good, too; I started by taking equal
packets, but quickly learned that the real thing (real sugar - refined
or raw) is much better calorically and taste-wise; I also liked the
powdered gatorade mixes, and Koolaid's lemonade mix - the heavier ones
with real sugar, that is!  I also would avoid powerbars; cliffbars are
better, and just quaker oats granola bars are a lot cheaper and still
pretty good . . . poptarts with real butter or squeeze parkay on them
are right edible, too . . .

Hike on/eat on!

thru-thinker

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