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perrymk
05-23-2016, 13:30
I see two common issues when discussing food for thru hiking.

1. One gets sick of eating the same thing/prepared mail drops/one's tastes change.

2. One is so hungry that one will eat anything/everything tastes good though it sounds like food might not actually be tasted if one is cramming it down from excessive hunger.


Which is it? Or is it different for different people?


I have not thru hiked. My closest experience to long term excessive physical and mental stress would be a 12 week basic/advanced army infantry training many years ago and I don't recall food being a big issue. I was and still am a vegetarian (not vegan) and I still managed OK. I generally have a fairly simple diet and the big change I anticipate on a thru hike is I get to eat more. Even though my diet is simple I do enjoy eating. Also, a loss of appetite has never been an issue for me. I find I need to count calories to help prevent overeating.

As an aside, I like to say that if you are what you eat then I'm cheap, fast and easy.

Bronk
05-23-2016, 13:36
All of the above, just at different times and different stages. You sit there at the shelter eating a bowl of ramen noodles dreaming about a 5 gallon bucket of mashed potatoes and gravy and a hot fudge sundae and a bucket of fried chicken and a bacon double cheeseburger with onion rings and a pound of bacon and a half dozen fried eggs and a giant plate of spaghetti and meatballs...and the conversation goes on like that as you go in a circle around the campfire dreaming of food.

left52side
05-23-2016, 14:20
1. One gets sick of eating the same thing/prepared mail drops/one's tastes change.

This is one thing that worries me about sending mail drops next year,but honestly I have heard from several different thru hikers that along the way resupply points/stores all really stock the same thing to,so if you are on a bubble then you are gonna have to acclimate to eating the same ol same ol whether you mail it or pick it up along the way.
My opinion is I would rather know what kind of instant mash (hypothetically speaking)I can have as opposed to having to eat whatever the store has,same goes for mountain house type meals etc.

Pedaling Fool
05-23-2016, 14:35
Both are true feelings, I was hungry enough to eat a horse, but at the same time, I hated eating my trail meals and over time just considered it something I had to do, i.e. just another chore that had to be done on the trail. But I could eat and eat once I got to town:D

Call it one of the paradoxes of the AT.

I had really good meals for dinner and I tried to mix it up, including using various spices and that helped, but over time you get sick of them.

rafe
05-23-2016, 15:15
The elves gave Frodo a health supply of lembas, which apparently would keep a hobbit alive... but even Sam and Frodo got tired of lembas day in and day out.

The food we carry hiking is chosen for its non-perishable nature mostly. That doesn't keep us from craving exactly what we can't have. After a few days in the woods I crave fresh fruit, an ice cold grapefruit juice or lemonade, salad, ice cream -- precisely because it's not something I get to eat or drink on the trail.

Pedaling Fool
05-23-2016, 15:26
The elves gave Frodo a health supply of lembas, which apparently would keep a hobbit alive... but even Sam and Frodo got tired of lembas day in and day out.

The food we carry hiking is chosen for its non-perishable nature mostly. That doesn't keep us from craving exactly what we can't have. After a few days in the woods I crave fresh fruit, an ice cold grapefruit juice or lemonade, salad, ice cream -- precisely because it's not something I get to eat or drink on the trail.
Yeap, that's true. My beef jerky could last a year and gives me the protein I need, but still not the same -- meaning not the same taste -- as a big, juicy, charbroiled steak.:D

Bronk
05-23-2016, 15:28
They also say you're burning 5,000 to 6,000 calories a day on a long distance hike. Eating that much every day is work. I remember sitting on a rock next to the trail at 9 o'clock in the morning looking at a honey bun thinking "man, I'm really starting to hate honey buns." But I forced myself to eat it anyway. I had bought them because the jumbo ones were 800 calories each.

Dogwood
05-23-2016, 17:53
I see two common issues when discussing food for thru hiking.

1. One gets sick of eating the same thing/prepared mail drops/one's tastes change.

2. One is so hungry that one will eat anything/everything tastes good though it sounds like food might not actually be tasted if one is cramming it down from excessive hunger.


Which is it? Or is it different for different people?


I have not thru hiked. My closest experience to long term excessive physical and mental stress would be a 12 week basic/advanced army infantry training many years ago and I don't recall food being a big issue. I was and still am a vegetarian (not vegan) and I still managed OK. I generally have a fairly simple diet and the big change I anticipate on a thru hike is I get to eat more. Even though my diet is simple I do enjoy eating. Also, a loss of appetite has never been an issue for me. I find I need to count calories to help prevent overeating.

As an aside, I like to say that if you are what you eat then I'm cheap, fast and easy.


This is one thing that worries me about sending mail drops next year,but honestly I have heard from several different thru hikers that along the way resupply points/stores all really stock the same thing to,so if you are on a bubble then you are gonna have to acclimate to eating the same ol same ol whether you mail it or pick it up along the way.
My opinion is I would rather know what kind of instant mash (hypothetically speaking)I can have as opposed to having to eat whatever the store has,same goes for mountain house type meals etc.

There is a really really simple solution to not getting bored with food. Don't always eat the same thing. Don't buy, or eat, or pack every resupply box with the same foods. We live in the U.S. with perhaps the greatest variety of food choices perhaps most widely available on the planet. People who get bored with food by eating the same old same old day after day REALLY need to break out the creativity and add variety in what they consume. No need to pack every resupply box the same. Now that would be as equally boring packing these boxes the same as they would be to consume the contents. PLEASE, avail yourself of the umpteen blogs, recipes, food options, no cook food options, dinners, b'fasts, etc available. It doesn't take an Emril Lagasse or Bobby Flay to consume healthy scrumptious trail foods. There are SO MANY options. Would be cool encountering Bobby Flay at a campground doing a Cook Off though.

rafe
05-23-2016, 18:05
Who's got time for fancy recipes or packing each food drop with "unique" treats. You don't get any economy-of-scale if each drop is unique. In fact I'd say that's an argument against food drops altogether -- you won't really know your on-trail taste till you actually hit the trail, and your taste is likely to change along the way.

One principal I hold to is a decent mix of snack food (for power during the day) and stuff that needs cooking. And maybe err on the side of too much snack food, since there may be a night or two when you're too tired, or the weather's too foul, for cooking.

Vegan Packer
05-23-2016, 18:09
I am always working on creating new meals during my off season:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJY0xUxopXE


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTZ1MHUnHMk


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrW0AV7ozzE


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcGVF6okjP8


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29S1vJeY3UE

Greenlight
05-23-2016, 19:17
Accomplished thru-hikers correct me if I'm wrong (it wouldn't be the first time) but...aren't the intense discussions about food some of the best memories? From previous hikes and camping excursions, as well as being in the military for 20 years and having had my share of bad food and MREs, I can only guess that is the case. I've also been a starving college student eating Ramen (I preferred Mrs. Grass's soup), heating Pete's Pride pork fritters in the toaster oven, back when they were only a buck for five of 'em, and staving off gurgles until the free weekly Presbyterian Church all you can eat spaghetti dinner rolled around...I've had my share of "food insecurity." That's all it is. You hate what you have in the fridge or in your backpack simply because you know what it is and you want something different. Human nature. So Taco Hell is torturing your brain, even though you only have 13 cents in your pocket and lint in your wallet.

I know what I'll be eating on the trail. Pretty much what I eat every day, or have eaten regularly in the past. Breakfast is Pop Tarts or some reasonable facsimile, bacon and eggs (bacon jerky which is fabulous! and powdered eggs made with boiling water and maybe some crusty bread, if it keeps...), or Oatmeal with whatever is available. Brown sugar, walnuts, raisins, Skittles... Lunch is PBJ for all I care. Or summer sausage and string cheese. Dinner will be whatever Sriracha salmon, chicken cubes, dehydrated cheesy taters, hot dogs (you can't kill them), dehydrated refried beans, lentils, kippers, anchovies, boiled eggs, whatever strikes my fancy when I resupply (I know how to put a meal together). During the day I'll partake of the standard hiker trash fare of skittles, Little Debbie markdown of the day (Oatmeal Creme Pies?), Snicker Bars, Odwalla bars, G.O.R.P., dried fruit, whatever edible stuff I find along the trail (precious little, I know). All of this is tempered with the knowledge that when I get to town, I'm hunting down Hardees or Carl's Junior to get a reasonably priced quadruple bacon cheese burger with rings, a hot fudge sundae, a 64 ounce cup of Orange Fanta, and a chocolate chip cookie. Etc. I know how to eat. I've been really hungry before. Just not for six months on end. :) Be anal retentive, or wing it. It doesn't matter, you're still going to feel like your food sucks, and you can't wait until you get some variety, because that's how we roll. 'Merica!

Dogwood
05-23-2016, 20:33
Who's got time for fancy recipes or packing each food drop with "unique" treats.... -- you won't really know your on-trail taste till you actually hit the trail, and your taste is likely to change along the way...

Case in point. Lack of creativity, abundance of complaints and ridiculous assumptions.

Connie
05-23-2016, 21:54
I go to outdoor activities as healthy activities. If not, I do something else.

I know I will want tasty grain-based dishes. I know I will want a spicy dish, on occasion.

I know I like sturdy backpackable vegetables, primarily root vegetables, as entree add-ons.

I know I need meat protein, not as a theoretical need: I hit "the bonk" if I don't have it.

There are few "snacks" that sustain me: only home-made "granola" food bag, homemade "gorp" or homemade "meal bars" satisfy my need for actual nourishing food. That said, I have been paying attention to the information in food threads at White Blaze forum.

I have to find those brand items online.

It is my experience chain stores and convenience stores carry identical items, offering no real variety at all - not for sustained exertion or the long haul.

I have had real privation, in a hospital bed at home and eventually in a wheelchair after a car wreck, at one point authentic starvation. I also wished I had salad, during my "salad days" at college and at university. I saw Rhoda make ketchup packet soup on the Mary Tyler Show, and I thought "that looks good".

That said, I have no interest in pushing myself hard. I am a section hiker, until I can have excellent food variety choices to put in resupply boxes.

Most stores are appalling! Only San Francisco and Bay Area stores had actual food variety, I have experienced.

I really like to see: best food ideas, and, best stores for resupply, and, best restaurants "remarks" at White Blaze.

Diamondlil
05-24-2016, 08:48
I found a great place to buy Freeze Dried ingredients. Redwicks Preserves.
https://www.facebook.com/Redwicks-Preserves-1997432257148006/
I've ordered beef, sausage, eggs, fruit and veggies. I have made my own meals using these by adding spices and seasoning. I make meals just like I would eat at home, only in a single serving. I then vacuum seal them.
I'm headed out this week for a LASH I'm sending 6 resupplies, I don't think I have doubled up on more than two meals total. I've tried all of them at home and they are really good.
I did this purposely because of all that I've read here on WB about how bored everyone gets eating the same thing. I don't want that to happen.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

QiWiz
05-24-2016, 17:18
CAVEAT: Longest trip I've done has been three weeks. Used mailed resupply packages. I tried to put as much variety as possible into what I sent myself and was happy I did. I think for a thru hike I would send myself things like olive oil packs, Esbit fuel, freeze dried veggies - stuff that's hard to find or hard to find in the quantity I want to carry. I would supplement this with things I can buy along the way as my cravings change, as I'm sure they would.

I am a believer in always having something savory/salty and something sweet at each meal/snack. Sometimes I crave salt and sometimes I crave sweet. When its hot, more emphasis on salty; when its cold, more emphasis on sweet.

A little serving of a candy with a different taste can be really special. Try Good-And-Plenty or Orange Slices on trail if you don't believe me. YMMV.

RockDoc
05-24-2016, 19:03
Your point number two is driven by a high-carbohydrate diet. Your insulin surges, then plummets, leaving you starving (you don't have to go hiking for this to happen; in fact this mechanism has fueled the obesity epidemic). The solution is to boost the consumption of fat, which satiates your hunger and provided long lasting power for your hiking. So avoid the pop-tarts, oatmeal, and bread and pump some avocado, olive oil, and cheese. Meat and fish doesn't hurt either. Really, you won't be hungry for a long time and you won't be harming your health because high-carb causes the whole suite of conditions listed as metabolic syndrome.

We evolved on high-fat, low-carb. It won't hurt you.


2. One is so hungry that one will eat anything/everything tastes good though it sounds like food might not actually be tasted if one is cramming it down from excessive hunger.