View Full Version : Most disgusting/weirdest thing you've eaten on the trail?
This can be either on the trail itself, i.e. "trail food" or maybe something weird or disgusting you ate in town due to an unusual craving, etc.
On the trail: The worst was Quaker cheddar cheese flavored instant grits. The ONLY trail food I couldn't actually finish. I thought they were oatmeal when I got them out of a hiker box. I got a bunch of mayo packets from the little shop on Greylock and ate them plain, along with some relish.
Towards the end of my AT thru I was eating absurd combinations of things- Cinnamon gummi bears with havarti cheese and Nutella on jalapeno tortillas was one I remember. This made some SOBO's in northern Maine gag, who were still eating their Backpacker's Pantry and oatmeal for breakfast. Pshaw! :rolleyes:
On the LT I started drinking flavored tuna packs dumped into a liter bottle of Gatorade and shaken up. This was actually quite tasty.
I discovered that blueberry muffin mix powder and water is pretty good to slurp on on the Superior Trail in MN earlier this year. I'd heard it was okay before but didn't have the oppuurtunity to try it until then. Only costs $1 for a big packet and has a lot of delicious fat.
Just Jeff
11-08-2006, 19:18
I drank hot raspberry Jell-o - it was awesome. Then I tried the Jell-o pistaccio pudding hot. Holy hell that was gross.
I've had those cheese flavored grits...I love me some grits, but Quaker must scrape those things from under the devil's toenails.
Does survival training count? I had herring rice soup - just boil the fish and rice and serve. Gross, but I ate it. Didn't finish the liver cabbage stew - I think they put sand in it.
Jack Tarlin
11-08-2006, 19:26
Most disgusting things consumed:
On one memorable occasion, I mixed up what I thought was my last quart of Tang. It turned out that it was instead phosphorescent orange cheese death-powder that typically goes into ones Mac and Cheese.
Very unpleasant going down your throat on a warm day.
On another occasion in 2003, I was drinking Grape Kool-Aid from a Nalgene and found something kind of gritty and slimy in my mouth, sort of like a really nasty lunger. I spat it out into my hand and discovered a large, and quite dead slug.
I should also mention that I'd previosuly drank half of the Kool Aid without having discovered the extra ingredient.
Mountain Dew personally witnessed this, and filmed my subsequent reaction, which was memorable; seldom have I produced a more cinematic ammount of vomitous.
Actually, the day I found the dead guy at the Doyle actually took the Gold medal in this event. But then bringing up two liters of Hawaiian Punch in front of 100 horrified people tends to do that, especially if you're leaning over a balcony at the time.
As far as the most unusual thing I've consumed on a thru-hike, that would undoubtedly be the splendid haunch of blackened cajun chipmunk that I was presented with at Piazza Rock shelter in Maine.
And no, it didn't taste like chicken.
Having steeled myself for what was coming, in retrospect, I think it tasted like bourbon.
Downunda
11-08-2006, 19:32
Someone left a packet of cheese grits in a hiker box. Being an Aussie that had never had grits before I thought I'd try them. Absoloutely the worst thing I've ever eaten. A freshly prepared grits any better, I wonder.
I was craving peanut butter and pickles...no, not pregnant, low iron level...I just sort of dug the dill pickle in the pb jar and noshed away. Looking back I can't believe I did that...
Amazonwoman
Someone left a packet of cheese grits in a hiker box. Being an Aussie that had never had grits before I thought I'd try them. Absoloutely the worst thing I've ever eaten. A freshly prepared grits any better, I wonder.
Grits have to be cooked right and flavored right. Unlike cream of wheat you don't put sugar or milk on grits, you use butter, salt and pepper. Fancy instant grits are never that good, cook on the stove and make slightly runny, not thick like oatmeal.
Best breakfast ever: Cook you some grits (the right way), fry two eggs sunny side up (in bacon grease) and cook two or three sausage patties. Put the eggs and sausage in the grits and use your fork to mash it all together. Add lots of butter, salt and pepper. Eat hot with cold orange juice or milk. Heaven!
Maybe I'll show you all how it's done at the SORUCK!
Amazonwoman (souther girl or GRITS - Girl Raised In The South):sun
Slugs, worms and grass hoppers…all great sources of protein…no not for me but my nutty college age son :eek: has tried them all on our hikes.
Skidsteer
11-08-2006, 19:53
There seems to be a consensus forming on the 'cheese grits'. :eek:
Gotta love WB!
Two Speed
11-08-2006, 20:02
My worst backpacking meal almost killed backpacking for me.
Without going into all the gory details, three friends and I managed to spend 4 or 5 days on the Mad River in Ohio getting our sorry butts rained all over. (Craig, did you check the weather forecast? Yeah, it's gonna be great. Hey, bogart, pass that thing, it's gonna go out.)
Anyway, we somehow wound up under a bridge and managed to get a fire started. Half cooked pancake (complete w/gooey center) with honey never tasted soooo good.
chknfngrs
11-08-2006, 20:19
I think all-time desert island top five worst meals consumed while hiking:
1. Blackbean Tamale Pie from backpatter's pantry; a horrible chunky brew.
2. cold pork and beans and raw onion
3. cheez-its wrapped in a tortilla with allspice on top
4. Powerbars/Powershots/GooGel/Energy Drinks
5. 1/2 cooked hard boiled egg
nice topic
I like cheese grits!
Nastiest thing I ever did was probably the time I went to the grocery store hungry (big mistake) and walked out with 14 cans of vienna sausages... since I was leaving town the next morning, I had to eat them all that night... yucky.
Oh, or the time I drank a bottle of squeeze butter on a bet for a six pack. That was pretty nasty too. Had lots of energy the next day though.
And, quite frankly, the half gallon of ice cream was nauseating by the end of it.
being a vegetarian, i thought a packet of protein powder would well complement my carb-laden diet....turns out, it was berry-flavored. I wasted my whole bottle of water on a 90 degree day on a horrible downhill and all i had was a nauseating liquid that tasted like lukewarm milk w/rotten strawberries! :(
Instant mashed potatoes with powdered tomato sauce and spam was my worst. We called it Spomato, and with a little bit of shredded cabbage, it looked just like it probably would have in vomit form. I still don't remember why we ate that.
A friend of mine was going for hot granola with powdered milk for breakfast, but accidentally put the instant mashed potatoes on the granola instead of powdered milk. That looked mighty tasty.
Lone Wolf
11-08-2006, 23:22
A small can of pork brains in milk gravy. Bought it in Hot Springs. Armour brand I believe.
the goat
11-09-2006, 01:01
rattlesnake.
rattlesnake.
Did you catch it yourself?
Gee, my habit of eating raw ramen or tortelini can't hold a candle to these stories. Yikes!
TJ aka Teej
11-09-2006, 08:41
Freshwater clams from a lake in Maine. (Kalamatus ExLaximus).
Second place goes to a recent nostalgia-enduced mistake of packing some 70s backing staples: Spam, deviled ham, sardines, vienna susages, etc. Yuck, what, oh what, was I thinking?
Two Speed
11-09-2006, 09:22
. . . Yuck, what, oh what, was I thinking?Senior moment, possibly?
Don't get offended. My brother, only three years ahead of me, is starting to have geezer attacks on a pretty regular basis. :eek:
mogilews
11-09-2006, 10:05
Backpacker's Pantry Chicken and Dumplings AKA Gray Bits and Sludge. This was the worst meal of the entire trail. Luckily I got it in a hiker box. I can not fathom the homicidal rage that would have possessed me had I actually paid the list price of 7 dollars. I probably would have dropped off the trail that very moment so that I could track down the CEO of Backpacker's Pantry and feed him to death with his own noxious products.
Instant Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Sardines and Potted Meat Product
. It didn't taste bad at the time, but when I told my fiance why my pot smelled so bad, she almost vomited.
First I have to say I usually like, even LOVE Quaker products.
The WORST thing I EVER have eaten (on or off the trail) Quaker Tostables. Like Pop Tarts, but, , , , , well, I imagine its what a pop tart, stored in brown paper, under a chicken coop for 3 years would taste like. Last trip, I tried to eat one from each of 3 boxes, bought seperatly, the expiration date was still a year off. I threw them ALL away.
Oddest thing I ate: stopped for a brief (standing, leaning against a trailside tree) break, looked down & found a yellow M&M laying in the dirt, I ate it, looked for more.
Doctari.
Cheesy Grits are good, I'm not quite sure what yall are talking about
Nastiest thing is Oatmeal, I ate it pretty regularly for a while, mostly for nutritional value, but I got to the point where it made me gag, and I can't even eat a whole packet of oatmeal to this day.
Ugliest thing but not completely nasty: went on a weekend hike w/ an outfitters, one of the guides had never cooked for a group that big, nor did she have much experience w/ cooking pasta. The pasta looked more like porridge, she didn't have enough water for the pasta. It had a peanut butter based sauce for it that was good, but combined w/ the porridge/pasta it was an okay taste, but the look of it made you want to hurl.
Also I didn't try it, but i was told, if you take a bunch of ants, crush them up in water over night, in the moring strain the ants out (or leave them for protein) the water will taste like lemonade.
Doctari, sounds like that m&m is in the 10ft rule, never mind 3 secs rule, if its in 10ft and ya can catch it then you can eat it.
Sausage gravy & biscuits. Nuff said.
Hammerhead
11-09-2006, 12:05
The worst for me was an unheated turkey ala king MRE. I had to chase it with one of those tiny bottles of hot sauce.
Two Speed
11-09-2006, 13:04
Backpacker's Pantry Chicken and Dumplings AKA Gray Bits and Sludge. . . .No, no that was wallpaper paste. They charge extra for sludge.
Instant Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Sardines and Potted Meat Product. It didn't taste bad at the time, but when I told my fiance why my pot smelled so bad, she almost vomited.Dang, I almost hurled and I didn't even smell it. If that girl did't puke she's a keeper.
Littlest Hobo
11-09-2006, 13:20
Uruguayan rugby players :D
Recipe for an energy drink popular on parts of the AT in 2003: 50% extra virgin olive oil, 50% ranch dressing (the highest calorie count brand of course. It has zillions of calories, take a few slugs whenever you miss lunch or you know that big uphill is coming up. The taste takes some getting used to though.
hopefulhiker
11-09-2006, 19:17
It was probably just before coming out of the 100 mile wilderness. I ate some gorp that i shared with a mouse....
hopefulhiker
11-09-2006, 19:25
The mouse had run around in the gorp. Another hiker said it was disgusting for him to eat. It was his gorp but I was hungry enough that I ate it...
the goat
11-09-2006, 20:47
Did you catch it yourself?
yes. but it was actually quite good.
i would have to say that the most disgusting/weirdest thing i ate was squid jerky.
LostInSpace
11-09-2006, 20:54
I love squid jerky ... shipped fresh from Maui ... washed down with a few pints of brew. Haven't had it for many moons or on the trail though.
I just tried a bag of dried anchovies I bought at an oriental grocery near home. They are about 3 inches long and complete with heads and internal organs. They are rather cruchy and taste like, well, sardines. I am thinking about them as a backpacking protein source since they are light and need no refrigeration.:rolleyes:
saimyoji
11-09-2006, 23:04
I love squid jerky ... shipped fresh from Maui ... washed down with a few pints of brew. Haven't had it for many moons or on the trail though.
I can hook you up with some at cost if you like. PM me your details. ;)
mweinstone
11-10-2006, 00:29
indian corn from a feild near lehigh gap. hershes bars from a bar that tasted like smoke.chicken hawk from picnicers. it had bones we never saw before.did anyone else see that mallow cup sitting on a post in va this year? it was in the rain and i really really wanted to eat it but it was just too naked and unatended.
Paul Bunyan
11-12-2006, 15:52
Sausage gravy & biscuits. Nuff said.
Your Nuts, that stuff is awesome. My worse was actually not on the trail, but on a boyscout hike. Someone had bought microwaveable mac and cheese instead the regular kind. Lets just say, it was mac and cheese mush. It was sooo digusting.:eek:
Dances with Mice
11-12-2006, 18:12
Coors Lite.
I have no excuse.
Sausage gravy & biscuits. Nuff said.
:confused:
I think Biscuits and Sausage Gravy would be about as close as you can get to the perfect trail breakfast.
Thanks for the idea! Now I need a Bakepacker. :D
:confused:
I think Biscuits and Sausage Gravy would be about as close as you can get to the perfect trail breakfast.
I LOVE biscuits, but the whole gravy & sausage thing, besides looking like a train wreck, runs through me like I'm a sieve. I can't run that fast anymore!
I LOVE biscuits, but the whole gravy & sausage thing, besides looking like a train wreck, runs through me like I'm a sieve. I can't run that fast anymore!
Well, I gues your stuck with butter and jelly... or honey.
But that's really not a bad thing. :)
freefall
11-12-2006, 18:42
Sausage gravy & biscuits. Nuff said.
Your Nuts, that stuff is awesome. My worse was actually not on the trail, but on a boyscout hike. Someone had bought microwaveable mac and cheese instead the regular kind. Lets just say, it was mac and cheese mush. It was sooo digusting.:eek:
Oh I miss biscuits and gravy! Out here in Colorado they just look at me weird when I ask if they can make it.
My worst trail meal was loaded baked potato mashed taters with potted meat. It ended up less like food and more like mortar mix. I thought about using it to re-chink the shelter walls but ate it anyway. Sat in my stomach like a rock for the whole day and night.
Paul Bunyan
11-12-2006, 23:13
Oh I miss biscuits and gravy! Out here in Colorado they just look at me weird when I ask if they can make it.
My worst trail meal was loaded baked potato mashed taters with potted meat. It ended up less like food and more like mortar mix. I thought about using it to re-chink the shelter walls but ate it anyway. Sat in my stomach like a rock for the whole day and night.
What brand of potatoes?
I never had a bad meal on the trail.
Panzer
Downunda
11-13-2006, 00:46
I lost a yellow M&M on the trail in 2000, near a tree I think. I'd appreciate its return if anyone sees it please!
Um, I think I ate it. :rolleyes:
Right year & color, by a tree.
Are you SURE you want it back :eek:
Prolly mostly digested by now I would think.
Doctari.