My Food bag is huge

[Chaco Taco]

I am going to be doing Fontana to Davenport Gap March 9 and am planning on 8 days of food. I have my stuff preportioned and my food bag is huge. What are some other things I could do to reduce the bulk. I have things in ziplocs and separated my Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. My menu is simple, oatmeal, snickers, liptons, ramen, cliff bars, GORP, and hot cocoa, and cereal, dehydrated meats and bag chicken. I realize this is 8 days and know I have to pack alot, it is just so bulky. Any suggestions? I am placing it in the middle of my pack above my sleeping bag. I have a few snacks in side pockets so I can grab without pulling my pack off.

[unl1988]

Well, if you have planned and weighed out your food to be as light as possible and still meet your requirements, that amount is what you need. The thing that you have to figure out is how you can get around carrying all 8 days worth at one time. Can you have a friend meet you halfway (Newfound Gap) and resupply you, or are you limited to just what you carry?

[Chaco Taco]

We have someone that is unsure about being able to make a food drop at Newfound. I am still waiting to hear. Just making backup plans if I do have to carry it all.

[unl1988]

Hmmm, just a thought, how about bringing only 6.5 or maybe 7 days of food. Nothing like a little pressure to walk faster. I normally overpack and have food left over, so that might work, too.

[neo]

:D i can never carry to much food:cool: neo

[Alligator]

If you have more than one car you could leap frog the cars. Place one car in the middle, hike to the car then do a second car drop. If you have three cars, you could place one car in the middle with the food in it.

When we went through, we carried all our food for the whole park. However, another group paralleling us had a car dropped in the middle. We were jealous!

[NICKTHEGREEK]

I am going to be doing Fontana to Davenport Gap March 9 and am planning on 8 days of food. I have my stuff preportioned and my food bag is huge. What are some other things I could do to reduce the bulk. I have things in ziplocs and separated my Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. My menu is simple, oatmeal, snickers, liptons, ramen, cliff bars, GORP, and hot cocoa, and cereal, dehydrated meats and bag chicken. I realize this is 8 days and know I have to pack alot, it is just so bulky. Any suggestions? I am placing it in the middle of my pack above my sleeping bag. I have a few snacks in side pockets so I can grab without pulling my pack off.

Try breaking it down into 2, 3 , or more smaller bags you can nestle into other spaces in your pack, same volume but maybe a bit more efficient use of space. Make sure you are getting all the air out of your sealed ziplocks. Just remember where ever you stash it to bag it all at night if you are inclined to bearbag.

[hopefulhiker]

This will become self evident but after one day your bag will be smaller, after two, smaller still.......

[The Weasel]

You don't detail the food, so it's hard to decide what you have, but the following suggestions may help in reducing volume, if not weight:

1) Cereal: Is it something that is dense, e.g. oatmeal or grits, or something with a lot of "air" such as Cheerios?

2) Meat: Do you really need it, or can you reduce it? Most hikers I know use meat/fish/chicken as a flavoring. I'll use 1-2 oz at most for a meal with pasta/rice as the main event.

3) Don't overload Gorp. It's main purpose should be a small energy jolt 2 hrs after your last meal. 2 oz per 'jolt' (a small handful) is about right; that works out to 1# for a week.

4) Add up your calories: You can do that by computing from nutrition labels or just weighing foods or both. Weigh foods that have no fat, multiply ounces times 150. Fat is 250/oz. Try for no more than 3500 calories per day for 8 days. You'll probably be burning more like 5,000, but your body will use up stored fat for the rest. If you have a 1,500 calorie/day deficit, you'll lose about 2 lbs in a week.

5) Crush high volume foods like Ramen. You're not eating Ramen for enjoyment, and crushing will reduce the size of what you carry. Consider using dense packing carbs such as rice.

Hope some of this helps....enjoy the walk!!!

The Weasel

[Chaco Taco]

You don't detail the food, so it's hard to decide what you have, but the following suggestions may help in reducing volume, if not weight:

1) Cereal: Is it something that is dense, e.g. oatmeal or grits, or something with a lot of "air" such as Cheerios?

2) Meat: Do you really need it, or can you reduce it? Most hikers I know use meat/fish/chicken as a flavoring. I'll use 1-2 oz at most for a meal with pasta/rice as the main event.

3) Don't overload Gorp. It's main purpose should be a small energy jolt 2 hrs after your last meal. 2 oz per 'jolt' (a small handful) is about right; that works out to 1# for a week.

4) Add up your calories: You can do that by computing from nutrition labels or just weighing foods or both. Weigh foods that have no fat, multiply ounces times 150. Fat is 250/oz. Try for no more than 3500 calories per day for 8 days. You'll probably be burning more like 5,000, but your body will use up stored fat for the rest. If you have a 1,500 calorie/day deficit, you'll lose about 2 lbs in a week.

5) Crush high volume foods like Ramen. You're not eating Ramen for enjoyment, and crushing will reduce the size of what you carry. Consider using dense packing carbs such as rice.

Hope some of this helps....enjoy the walk!!!

The Weasel

Thanks, this really helped. I am cutting some stuff down.

[Chaco Taco]

Hmmm, just a thought, how about bringing only 6.5 or maybe 7 days of food. Nothing like a little pressure to walk faster.
Thats the thing, I dont want to rush through the park, I want to enjoy it.

[Frosty]

Thats the thing, I dont want to rush through the park, I want to enjoy it.You'll be fine. Every day your pack will get lighter. Just remember to eat the heaviest stuff first :D

[Webs]

maybe try rolling some flat foods up in your sleeping bag since that can't get much smaller anyway.

[The Weasel]

Thanks, this really helped. I am cutting some stuff down.

Had a few other thoughts:

1) Repack the "Liptons" in small ziplocs, and remove air from them. Volume will go down for those by 20%.

2) Mix all items for each meal together where possible, e.g. cereal and instant milk, to eliminate further packaging and volume.

3) If you really want to eliminate volume, consider eliminating Clif Bars for equivalent calorie value of Snickers, which have greater fat content. Assuming you don't have heart issues, fats are twice the calorie density of carbs (9 cal/gram vs 4/cal/gram). You can do this further by carrying cheese instead of meat as protein source; hard cheese work best can can be added to pastas, esp. parmesan/romano. Similarly, if carrying tuna pouches, try to get tuna packed in oil, which has food value that water doesn't.

4) Consider "Yellow Grits" (Bob's Red Mll Brand at most stores...NOT "hominy" or "white" grits) which use far less water to make the same volume as pasta or rice, which means you save about 25% volume/weight for same calorie intake.

The Weasel

[unl1988]

Good point on the not wanting to rush through the park. I did it in about 5 days, plenty of time for me to smell the rhodedendrons and laurel and see the sites. Are you walking just the AT, or are you doing some side trails too? I walked the AT last June, and carried 6 days of food and had stuff left over in my pack when I was done.

I would be curious to know what works for you on the hike. Did you need all the food you packed? Was there something that you wouldn't mind being all crushed up and mixed together?

Enjoy the hike.

[Nearly Normal]

I always pack too much food. I think I have it down to only what I'll need but always pack some out. The hunger just doesn't kick in on short trips and I usually eat less.
You may not need as much as you think.
Pete

[Jim Adams]

Leave half home and Yogi at Newfound Gap?
geek

[Jack Tarlin]

Everyone's comments so far have been about reducing the size, weight, and girth of your food bag.

In point of fact, while you've received some good ideas on how to do this, it's entirely possible that it's perfectly proper to have a great big food bag for a winter traverse of the Smokies.

In short, you may well need all of that food, so I'd be a bit relectant to either cut back on foodstuffs, eat less, or try to hike further.

Instead of addressing your foodbag, I'd look at all your other stuff, and try to reduce some of THAT, i.e. are you bringing too many clothes? Can you get by with ones that do the job but are less bulky? Do you have a lot of incidental stuff that you can perhaps do without?

Re-examing the contents of your food bag is fine, but if you want to make more space in your pack, I'd examine everything else as well. Lose some of the things you're planning on bringing, reconsider some of your clothing and gear choices, and you may well discover that your enormous food bag is now quite comfortable in your pack!

[sarbar]

8 days of food no matter is BIG. At least it goes down ;) By day 7 you'll be wondering why it is all gone :D So don't worry!

[Rebel, with a Cause!]

Send a food drop to the Happy Hiker, an outfitter in Gatlinburg. They accept mail drops. Hitch out of Newfound Gap to Gatlinburg, Get your food, Buy a Funnel Cake, Hitch back just in time to hike the 3 miles up to Ice Water Springs. This is what I always do.

Depending on when you plan to get to Newfound Gap, I may be able to help.
You have my Number so let me know.

[saimyoji]

[quote=The Weasel;320865]You're not eating Ramen for enjoyment..../quote]

Sacreligious. Shame on you. :eek: :D

[highway]

........ I realize this is 8 days and know I have to pack alot, it is just so bulky. Any suggestions? I am placing it in the middle of my pack above my sleeping bag. I have a few snacks in side pockets so I can grab without pulling my pack off.

Some suggestions:

If you are hiking for 8 days you take just 7 days food. (you eat breakfast on day one before the trail and dinner day 8 at your destination)

Sort out food and weigh it, repackage it all into baggies and then weigh everything, every baggy, breakfasts, snacks, dinners, decide just how much food per day YOU require and then religiously stick to it. It is all to easy when packing to throw in a few more meals for a 'just in case' and wind up paying a horrible weight penalty in carrying that extra just for the 'eventuality' that never seems to present itself. It is often hard not to but don't. The AT is not that much of a wilderness where you would have too anyway.

Decide just how much a day you really need and stick to it. I used to go by what so many others advised for me to take at least 2 pounds a day and found that to be about correct, but not at the beginning of a hard trek-only after a couple of weeks or so of it. At the beginning I have a hard time with 1.25 pounds/day of breakfast, snacks, dinner, and that is what I allow myself at the beginning until my body adapts.

[DavidNH]

How much does your food bag weigh with a full eight days off food? that I think is the bigger question.


I carried 8 days of food into the 100 mile wilderness and it is certainly doable. Just eat less food per day.

What would really weigh ya down is if, say you carried 16 snicker bars (2 a day for 8 days).

Barring bad weather you should be able to do the trip in six days..though you may be wise to have extra food as a just in case.

DavidNH

[Chaco Taco]

Ok, I have gotten my food bag to a more reasonable level. I baggied everything, threw out some breakfast stuff. I just dont think I iwll eat oatmeal every am. I changed it up a bit. Reduced my GORP bag. I dehydrated my dinners and reduced them into smaller ziplocs. Its right where I want it now. Thanks for all of the suggestions. Really helped!!!

[DawnTreader]

I like Jacks suggestion.. The only reason I really started to lighten my pack significantly was so that I could carry more food, I never like to ration food to myself, I eat when I feel like it. I can't get enough...

[Chaco Taco]

I like Jacks suggestion.. The only reason I really started to lighten my pack significantly was so that I could carry more food, I never like to ration food to myself, I eat when I feel like it. I can't get enough...

Yea I hear ya on that. I dont want to rush through either. I want too see everything on this section. Its one of the longest and most beautiful sections of the entire AT. Just want to pack enough food. Im trying to look at a food drop at Newfound and dont know where I would tell the person to leave it for us.

[Supernova]

Although many people will tell you different you may find it advantageous to practice portioning out your food for each meal from bulk bags. For example keeping all your cereal in one large ziplock and just taking out what you need every morning. It may take some practice but it will reduce the number of little bags in your foodbag and make it easier to pack and find things.

[weary]

Thanks, this really helped. I am cutting some stuff down.
It takes time for trail hunger to set in. Unless you have been very active in recent weeks you probably won't eat anything like 3,500 calories a day. I plan on about 2,000 calories a day for short hikes -- mostly because I always have a few extra pounds I'd like to get rid of.

[Chaco Taco]

It takes time for trail hunger to set in. Unless you have been very active in recent weeks you probably won't eat anything like 3,500 calories a day. I plan on about 2,000 calories a day for short hikes -- mostly because I always have a few extra pounds I'd like to get rid of.
Also considering i will be eatting alot the night before. I plan on ditching a couple of pounds. I do like to eat though. Im not packing heavy for days 1 and 2 but am adding alot of calories for days 3-6 since hunger will start to set in. Like I said earlier, I want to eat good. I have some really good jerky I made to go with rice and risotto, varied the flavors and dehydrated some veggies. My breakfast is looking like some granola cereal that I add carnations to for the protein. I made a ton of jerky to naw on for lunch plus my GORP (granola, raisins, peanuts/cashews, peanut m+m's and dried bananas), I like to put some milk with that and its pretty darn good, esp with the banana. I cut back on the ramen but did pack couple of packs just cuz I like it. I think I have it down now. I may not even have to do any kind of food drop. Thanks again everyone.

[The Weasel]

Ok, I have gotten my food bag to a more reasonable level. I baggied everything, threw out some breakfast stuff. I just dont think I iwll eat oatmeal every am. I changed it up a bit. Reduced my GORP bag. I dehydrated my dinners and reduced them into smaller ziplocs. Its right where I want it now. Thanks for all of the suggestions. Really helped!!!

Lowspark:

The key is doing the doublecheck by doing the 'weight/calorie' computation. 3500 calories is a good input, since that's about 1 pound (for 30 years my rough rule of thumb always was 1 pound = 1 day). Assuming it's nearly all carbs, that's about 14 oz, and you always end up with more like 16 oz. If your much over 4500, you're probably carrying more than you will expend. This is a pretty good test.

The other suggestion, similar to the one above, is don't count the number of days, but the number of meals, i.e. if you think you're going for 8 days, that's probably of each meal. If you plan for 8 of each, you're 14% too heavy.

I'd be interested in what your overall food weight ended up after all your effort.

The Weasel