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Re: [at-l] cheese
Hello All -
Gammara1 asked:
>...What kind of
>cheese is dry- kind of, packed in a way that allows you to take it on the
>trail and will survive 95 degree days without becoming rancid?...
I love cheese so I make sure that I always have some whenever I spend time
on the trail. We used to use the little bulbs of flavored "squeeze cheese"
(survived many a hot week-long Alabama summer river or trail trip without
refrigeration), but I haven't been able to find them for quite a while.
We did our cheese a little differently on the AT and the PCT. We stuck
with the white cheeses because we had noticed that the yellow/orange
cheeses seemed to bleed out oils a lot quicker in hot weather. We learned
that a factory sealed chunk of cheese does better than trying to seal it up
ourselves. We had a few hunks of cheese get mouldy on us when we tried to
do up our own. I would guess that the factory has some way to keep the
mould spoors out when they package their product.
We would sometimes pick up a little block of white cheese from the little
grocery stores along the trails, but it usually didn't last too long once
we opened it <g>. Our normal cheese resupply was to use the little 1 or 2
oz individual packages of "string" cheese. We bought these in bulk (big
carton) at Sam's and would usually have 2 each/day. Would eat one with
flour tortillas (and a glop of super goo!) as part of lunch and would often
toss the other into our grits at night.
We did our resupply by mail from Alabama for both hikes. Just guessing, I
would say that the longest time that any cheese sat (in a mail truck, at
the post office, and then in our packs) before we ate it was about a month.
The hottest we got into was in southern California (105f+) and the coldest
was just above zero (both at Roan Mountain and in the Sierras). Never had
any problem with cheese going bad (other than mould...which we ate around
<g>...when we tried to package our own and send it from home).
The "Gang of Four" bought a huge block of some kind of orange cheese in
southern California and ate on it for weeks. It was looking kind of ratty
when we pushed on past them...but as far as I know it was still plenty
edible...at least it wasn't stopping them from chowing down <g>.
Cheese will definitely be a part of my next hike!
- Charlie II AT (MEGA'93)
PCT (Mex@Can'95)
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