Food on the Trail

[ovationcs257]

I have been planning to do about 20 mail drops for my thru starting in April but now I’m more concerned about this than ever. I had planned to dehydrate about 2 months of food ahead of time and my brother and sister in law have offered to dehydrate the rest as I go. I have always used this method due to its ease of use on the trail, boil water put it the bag, even I can’t screw that up. This method also allows me to bring just a mug/pot to boil water. For those who bought along the way what kinds of diners were you making and what did you bring for cookware?

[Lone Wolf]

[FONT=Calibri][SIZE=3]I have been planning to do about 20 mail drops for my thru starting in April

bad idea for so many reasons. do some research about mail drops on this site

[jersey joe]

I had 14 mail drops and it worked out ok for me...

[Lone Wolf]

I had 14 mail drops and it worked out ok for me...

you were lucky. most don't make it and they don't post on websites like this

[Blissful]

Here we go. Hikers that do mail drops and those that don't have both made it. Where is the stats to say any different? It's just that ones that don't do mail drops tend to be the noisiest on WB.

Anyway, for recipes, esp dinners (Lunch and breakfast you can basically get in stores check) the ATC site for their thru hike cookbook. Has some good stuff in it. I did it for medical and nutritional reasons and glad I did. Though I would not take as many drops probably next time.

Do a check also of threads for those who bought along the way- but your food choices esp for dinners are about the same (lipton, mashed potatoe, stuffing) and can get pricey esp buying at convenience stores (which you need to do in certain areas). Check Jack's resupply article also. And I have a mail drop / resupply list that I used on my blog.

[Jack Tarlin]

The biggest problem with preparing all your food ahead of time and having it mailed to you is that in all likelihood, after awhile on the Trail, you're gonna get really tired of some, if not all of it.

But if you've prepared 180 days of meals, tho, you're sorta stuck with them. You end up either eating food you hate, or you send it home/give it away, meaning you've wasted money twice, once on the original mailing costs, and twice when you re-purchase stuff that you actually want to eat.

For many different reasons, most folks these days prefer to buy the majotiry of food en route, as they go. I'd be leery of dehydrating and shipping six months of food.

Plus, hate to say it, but what are you gonna do with all of this stuff if your trip ends up ending prematurely?

I guarantee you're not gonna want to eat it at home.

[Dogwood]

If his trip ends prematurely he can send all those delicious energy bars to you JT. We all know how you love them! Just busting your chops JT.