100 mile wilderness food

[Hedgehog]

I''m going to be SOBO in mid-June and I'm curious as to whatother people have carried for food through the 100 mile wilderness. Soem sample lists would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[Appalachian Tater]

Hi, are you doing only the 100 mile wilderness? Have you hiked before? How many days do you plan to be out? Give us a little more information, please.

[hammock engineer]

I am planning on carrying 10 days of food with me, plus another dinner or 2.

I haven't put my food together yet, but I am deyhdrating meals.

12 dinners
2 bags of gorp
10-15 candy bars
10-15 ceral bars
lots of coffee
little debbie snacks for dessert
mints (my food luxory)
12 oz of liquid refreshment

Hopefully that all gets comes to around 15 or so pounds. Look into dehydrated meals. I dehydrate my own, they are a lot lighter than most meals.

I'm not a big breakfest guy. I usually pack up and stop after a little hiking and snack. I usually just snack throughout the day instead of stopping for actual meals. For me that seems to keep my energy up more.

I also tend to eat dinner before I get to camp. That helps he get through the end of the day. A snack in camp holds me over to the following day.

[terrapin_too]

Hopefully that all gets comes to around 15 or so pounds. Look into dehydrated meals. I dehydrate my own, they are a lot lighter than most meals.

That sounds about right to me. Barring exceptional circumstances, a reasonably fit hiker should be able to get from Katahdin to Monson in seven or eight days.

[Jack Tarlin]

Why 12 dinners?

Most thru-hikers make it from Monson to Abol Bridge in around six and a half days. Assuming you're going slower, you'll need no more than eight. Keep in mind, you also have White House Landing as a possible re-supply point if you don't want to pack food for the entire section. But 12 days of food is an awful lot, and will probably weigh more than 15 pounds. Unless you are very slow indeed, you won't need to carry this much food or this much extra pack weight.

It won't take you 10-12 days unless you CHOOSE to go that slow. Carry 7-9 days worth of food and you'll be fine.

[Hedgehog]

Appalchian tater - I'm Thru hiking, just a little nervous with no resupply available. I was planning on 10 days to Monson and then resupplying there.

Hammock engineer - Thanks for the list, it's helpful.

Any other suggestions?

[Appalachian Tater]

Baltimore Jack gave good advice. Starting out your hike you'll be on the slow end of the range and that's a really nice section you don't want to hurry through, anyway, so it may take closer to ten than seven days.

There may be a tendency for starting thru-hikers to carry too much food. You may actually have a decreased appetite right at first, certainly not the persistent "hiker hunger" you'll have in a couple of months.

Be sure to get Baltimore Jack's supply article from the article section. It gives a good estimate of days between supply points.

I agree with the philosphy of one main meal a day, in the evening, of Lipton's, two packs of ramen, or other starch like stuffing or potatoes with a pack of chicken, fish, or bacon, or a freeze-dried meal; plus a combination of sweet and salty items (crackers, nuts, jerky, peanut butter, M&M's, food bars, toaster pastries, candy bars, dried fruit) for breakfast, lunch and snacks.

I also like having powdered drink mix and an extra day's worth of food. Even if you don't take an extra day, sometimes you may want a hot lunch.

So it may help to think in those terms: main meal, and sweet and salty for other times.

There is also the idea of the "third ingredient" that makes a meal so much better:

Stovetop stuffing + chicken + dried cranberries
Tortellini + bacon + sun-dried tomatoes
Ramen + cashew nuts + fresh squeezed lime

Onion and garlic flakes, Mrs. Dash, or powdered hot peppers make meals better, too.

[ric2hunt]

The is a hostel called The Little White House about 60 miles southbound that has mail drops. Also, when we hiked the wilderness, we put out food drops in bear proof drops at specified GPS locations so we were only carrying three days food at any one time. The LWH has some great one pound hamburgers,pizza, veggies and brew.

[Jester2000]

Why 12 dinners?

Most thru-hikers make it from Monson to Abol Bridge in around six and a half days. Assuming you're going slower, you'll need no more than eight. Keep in mind, you also have White House Landing as a possible re-supply point if you don't want to pack food for the entire section. But 12 days of food is an awful lot, and will probably weigh more than 15 pounds. Unless you are very slow indeed, you won't need to carry this much food or this much extra pack weight.

It won't take you 10-12 days unless you CHOOSE to go that slow. Carry 7-9 days worth of food and you'll be fine.

Keep in mind that Jack thinks going SOBO is an unnatural act and in violation of the laws of both God and Man. So he talks about going to Abol rather than from it. You'll probably go slower than a NOBO would, but faster than Jesus, who, I believe, spent forty days in the wilderness. As you don't have the ability to make due with one fish and one loaf of bread, I think 10 days is a good amount, keeping in mind that you have a bailout opportunity at Whitehouse Landing if you realize that you should have brought an extra meal.

I recommend bringing serious cheese.

[Appalachian Tater]

The LWH has some great one pound hamburgers,pizza, veggies and brew.

Damn fine burger!

[hammock engineer]

Why 12 dinners?

Most thru-hikers make it from Monson to Abol Bridge in around six and a half days. Assuming you're going slower, you'll need no more than eight. Keep in mind, you also have White House Landing as a possible re-supply point if you don't want to pack food for the entire section. But 12 days of food is an awful lot, and will probably weigh more than 15 pounds. Unless you are very slow indeed, you won't need to carry this much food or this much extra pack weight.

It won't take you 10-12 days unless you CHOOSE to go that slow. Carry 7-9 days worth of food and you'll be fine.

Like they said, I am going SOBO. I don't want to start too fast. 10-ish mpd is as fast as I want to start.

Also with my dehydrated dinners, each dinner only comes in at about 3-4oz. 12 dinners x 4oz = 48oz or 3lbs. Add in 12 candy bars at about 4.5 lbs, 3+ lbs gorp, 2 lbs of cereol bars, 1 lbs of debbie snacks, and that gets me to about 13.5. The rest will be extra snacks, coffee, mints, and drink mixes.

Sorry I forgot to add that I will have drink mixes and spices. There is only so much water I can drink.

Also my gorp bag usually has cookies and candies to feed the sweet tooth.

[mudhead]

"There is only so much water I can drink." Hmmm...

Wait until you get a taste of cool Maine water, with just a hint of moose poo.

Good stuff.

You might not like it if you are on city water. No essence of swimming pool.

[boarstone]

Appalchian tater - I'm Thru hiking, just a little nervous with no resupply available. I was planning on 10 days to Monson and then resupplying there.

Hammock engineer - Thanks for the list, it's helpful.

Any other suggestions?

Resupply is availlable providing you ship your own resupply to me and I'll drop it off at cooper brook trail crossing (see maine map #2) Do a search on this forum for "100 mile wilderness" and you'll find the info I have posted before about this very subject.

[hammock engineer]

"There is only so much water I can drink." Hmmm...

Wait until you get a taste of cool Maine water, with just a hint of moose poo.

Good stuff.

You might not like it if you are on city water. No essence of swimming pool.

Trust me I can't wait to drink the water up there. Just after drinking a couple/four liters of water a day I like to have a little flavor.

[latte]

I went past White House Landing last year. My friends who visited them were treated very rudely. Also expect the cost of resupply to cost 4 times what it should! My friends were not happy.

However, I tried to carry 10 days worth of food through. I was not fit enough to do it in the conditions. It had been raining for 3 months and we were slogging through water 90% of the time. The trail was often under the ponds!

If it was dry, I would have been fine. Make sure you do not take more than 1 1/2 lbs of food per day per person. Make sure you weigh your bag. It is very easy to overpack food.

[Jester2000]

I went past White House Landing last year. My friends who visited them were treated very rudely. Also expect the cost of resupply to cost 4 times what it should! My friends were not happy.

Were they unhappy people generally? Your third sentence should have read, "expect the cost of resupply to be significantly more than it would if you were standing in a grocery store in a town." What you think it "should" cost bears little relationship to the actual cost, which is mainly determined, I would think, by the fact that A) the owners have to haul in all supplies and B) there is zero competition selling what you might want or need.

You might as well say "the folks at White House Landing treat hikers badly by running their business as a business." Sounds silly, no?

In my experience, many people decide they have been treated rudely whenever they don't get exactly what the want how they want it. If the owners pushed one of your friends off the boat that they are nice enough to come pick hikers up in, that would be rude. Did this happen? What sort of "rudeness" did your friends encounter?

[Lone Wolf]

I went past White House Landing last year. My friends who visited them were treated very rudely. Also expect the cost of resupply to cost 4 times what it should! My friends were not happy.

ALL Inn/hostel/motel owners are rude at some point thanks to the high number of arrogant, elitist, Ahole thru- hikers they have to deal with.

[Creek Dancer]

I don't believe that White House landing accepts mail drops. I tried to send one to Nimblefoot a couple of years ago and the package was rejected. When he got there, they told him they don't take mail drops.

[sparky2000]

Keeping it in mind uze didn't ask for mud pies to spread thru-out but rather uze asked for a food list--- I don't won't pack candy or honey but will pack cereal w/dry milk mixed w/sugar 1 box in the zip, i buy dehy. meals because i can't cook but after much practice and schooling have managed to boil water. These may be transfered to zip bags and cooked in the .9l can.

[RockyBob]

Keep in mind that Jack thinks going SOBO is an unnatural act and in violation of the laws of both God and Man. So he talks about going to Abol rather than from it. You'll probably go slower than a NOBO would, but faster than Jesus, who, I believe, spent forty days in the wilderness. As you don't have the ability to make due with one fish and one loaf of bread, I think 10 days is a good amount, keeping in mind that you have a bailout opportunity at Whitehouse Landing if you realize that you should have brought an extra meal.

I recommend bringing serious cheese.

Or the Hebrews who spent 40 years in the wilderness.