My Food Thoughts

Special Note: My friend Anne from Norway, we knew her as Gummi Bear on the trail in 2013, has donated to my cause and I will be having a grand breakfast either in Julian or in Idyllwild. Thank you so much for your thoughtfulness, Anne, you know what a hiker needs. We hiked with her from Mt. Laguna to Scissors crossing and had a ton of fun with her and Lucky Winner.

I have been giving serious thought to the food I will be bringing along with me for this thru hike. In 2013 we just about got it right, and I will be
taking most of the food that we packaged up for that years hike and is now keeping in the freezer.(It is kind of nice to know that if there is a disaster in the near future, we have enough food to keep us for over 5 months)! And yes, it is still fresh even after 2 years, I am still currently eating the trail mix.

That being said, as a solo hiker, there are a couple of changes I will be employing. This time I won't have to compromise, and will be able to take all the food that I like.

First up: the trail mix. This mix was very good, and I don't think I'll ever tire of it. The base was mixed nuts, chocolate covered espresso beans, and candy corn. Then each batch received a new item such as spice gum drops, chocolate covered pretzels, Swedish Fish, M&M's, Jordan Almonds, and my personal favorite, chocolate mint balls.

The two real unexpected bummers on the menu were cold cereal in the morning, and Kraft Mac and cheese for dinner. I love both of these items, but they did not translate well on the trail. I think it might have been the dehydrated milk that left these two items not as good as expected. I will take the mac and cheese next year but in very limited batches. I might have one dinner for every other section.

 

My real problem with the cereal was that my stomach definitely does not wake up very early. I need to hike first, wake up a little bit, then eat breakfast. I am in the process of trying to find something quick like a bar to eat for first breakfast, then have my cereal for second breakfast a couple of miles down the trail. I have been testing out eating instant pudding as soon as I get up, and this looks sort of promising. I can have the pudding set up as I am breaking down camp, eat it quickly, and if I can't eat it all, I can carry it with me further down the trail. I can put nuts in the pudding, I have found that peanuts goes well with chocolate pudding, and walnuts are great with butterscotch.

 

The very thing to replace the mac and cheese will be Couscous. Love, love, love the stuff!

 

This particular brand cooks very quickly, and if I'm too tired to cook, I can just add water from my Platypus, leave it sitting for half an hour, and it will be done and ready to eat just as it is. I have tried all the flavors: Toasted Pine Nut, Parmesan, Garlic and Olive Oil, Plain, and Curry. I didn't have a lot of couscous in 2013 because Mark just isn't into couscous. I love the versatility of this item, and the flavor, and will be adding a lot of it for this year. I even considered that I may grow tired of this, then I read http://www.storiesfromsteve.org/, and found out Steve ate couscous all the time and didn't seem to get tired of it. So considering how much I love this stuff, I'm willing to give it top billing for my dinners this year.

I will be shopping in towns more for snack foods, these are the items that are just fun to pick up as you go and as you start craving certain things. The item I seem to miss the most on a long trail, is fresh bread. I will be adding tortillas and bagels into my pack, tortillas are great for putting almost anything into, even couscous, and refried beans. It will add some dimension to my meals, plus some calories. I have never carried these item for whatever reason, but most hikers do. This will be new to me, but will work well, I'm sure.

I have also received some items from a friend from church, Noni, that will complement my food choices tremendously. She gave me powdered protein, some powdered sour cream (for refried beans and tortillas), and some packets of lemon and lime juice. Thank you so much for thinking of me and these items will be very useful.

I have resisted carrying peanut butter and Nutella, since these are bulky, and I couldn't bring myself to buy the tubes to fill up for backpacking, for I didn't want to spend a lot of time filling tubes. I love peanut butter, but am not a huge fan of Nutella, which everyone seems to carry for the calorie bang it packs. I have now found the one item that may change all that.

This is Triple Yummy! What more can you ask for, Hazelnut, chocolate, and coffee? Yes, Please!
This tastes a lot like when we used to melt Hershey bars over the stove when they came packaged in aluminum foil. A taste right out of childhood. Packs a wallop of calories and will be useful for energy for the big climbs. The only problem: it comes in a glass jar. So I may end up getting a few tubes to put this treat into. Too good to pass up for the whole summer. Special note on this item: I can't find it in the stores any more. I may email JIF and see if I can't buy from them directly. I am super bummed that I can't find this.

Thanks go to my coworker Britt who introduced me to the Shot Bloks. These worked well on some of the stiffer climbs, and will be included this year as well. Worked good, Tastes great!



I am thinking of adding this to my pack, for some oomph to my water, or to add some flavor to snow I scoop up for a special snowcone. I am still thinking about this, don't know if it will make it into the pack this summer.