[at-l] Butter on the trail (was Oatmeal...)

[m_factor at hotmail.com (Mara Factor)]

Butter is easy to bring on the trail unless it's so warm that it completely 
melts.  Butter does not require refrigeration so it won't spoil.  If you 
keep it in heat for a while, it will go rancid.  When that happens, it 
affects taste and odor but still won't kill you.  On the trail, you're 
unlikely to have butter long enough for that to happen anyway.

I carried butter on the AT both in the south and the north.  For the 
mid-Atlantic, it was just too warm and would melt.  At that point, it was 
deli-to-deli hiking anyway and I didn't miss the butter all that much.

I kept the butter in some sort of cheapo plastic container (Gladware maybe?) 
that wouldn't leak if the butter did start to melt.

If you do carry butter, you'll probably find a lot more uses for it than 
oatmeal.  It goes great in a lot of Lipton-like dinners, on bagels or other 
breadstuffs, etc.

I don't like the flavor of margarine so even though butter isn't quite as 
convenient as those squeeze margarine containers, I carried butter when I 
could.  There was at least one place along the AT where I couldn't get 
butter.  The Mom and Pop shop did carry margarine but not butter (too 
expensive).

So, enjoy your oatmeal (or grits) with butter!

Mara
Stitches, AT99

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>Of course, on the trail it may be more complicated to bring butter along
>unless the weather is very cold and then it is good to have a hot breakfast 
>that
>lasts.
>
>Skylander