what was your favorite food you could always get your hands on?

[dancingbear]

I'm planning on a Thru in 2013, and I'm going to buy my food along the way instead of mail drops. I was wondering what are some of your favorite meals that you always found readily available in towns? Like uncle bens rice or hamburger helper; stuff like that?

[Monkeywrench]

Any flavor of the Lipton sides with a foil pack of tuna or a Spam single added in for protein, along with a bit of olive oil for a calorie boost. You'll be so hungry everything tastes like ambrosia after a while.

Don't forget to be friendly to weekenders; they always have way more food than they can eat!

[Old Hiker]

Tortillas
1st day out: the Old El Paso pouch meals - I ate one for a meal.
Lipton RICE sides - noodles always tasted wrong without milk or butter - same calories, same time
Canned chicken - not many calories, but had fat
Tuna
Bagels and mini-bagels - mini, esp. - 12 lasted 3 meals
Cream cheese in the tubs - lasted 3 meals
Spam singles

[4shot]

peanut butter or especially peanut butter/jelly mix (plastic jar) on the thin bagels that you can get everywhere. Ate that every single day for lunch. snickers, never got tired of those (who does?). Tuna pouches, got tired of them and put them in the hiker box at Rambunny's hostel in Atkins and swore to never eat one again as long as I lived - a sacred pledge that I have kept to this day.

[Rain Man]

Don't forget to be friendly to weekenders; they always have way more food than they can eat!

And I thought that thru-hikers were simply an out-going, friendly, kind lot! Now I know they merely want my food! LOL

Rain Man

.

[Another Kevin]

Don't forget to be friendly to weekenders; they always have way more food than they can eat!

We might be clueless, but we have our uses. :)

[Fredt4]

I went from 185 to 140 on my 2011 hike. Ate everything in sight. Trail towns were great. When I left town usually had eggs and ham. Bread was not that packable. Flour tortillas well worth it. The ramen noodles with extras were good, peanut butter and Nutella was also good. Tuna in pouches was good for protein, poor on calories. Chocolate was always was welcome treat. Gab some fresh onions when I'm town. Trail foods not so good and expensive but always a welcome sight in the hiker boxes. (Wonder why so many were thrown in those boxes) Anything you can cook in a ziplock baggie is a good choice. Section hikers always have more food then they need and usually are happy to part with some (to lighten their load and also make a contribution to us unworthy thru hikers). Olive oil was excellent. Tried to eat a snack (100 calories per hour during the day) but the particular snack varied over the course of the hike. Was always getting tired of that great new snack after a while. Trail mix was sort of OK but after a while needed something else. Potato flakes were good, sometimes added to other foods for substance. Dehydrated beef (home made) is good. Honey (couple ounces per day). Agree that Lipton sides were good. Interesting snack food is dehydrated onions. My base pack weight was relatively low so having some fresh food for the first day or two was something I did when I left a trail town.

[SOBO_Pace]

I think that little Debbie is making all of her money off of hikers. I would always leave town with a couple boxes of honey buns, zebra cakes, chocolate swirl cakes or something along those lines. I went through a box of POP tarts a day as walking snacks. If you are shipping boxes try and dehydrate some food it is really easy and I was always happy to see it in my boxes. Ground beef and chili were really easy. Learn to like ramen (decent calories and good source of protein), but also keep a eye out for the big ramen meals. They are bigger and have dried veggies and other things to go in them. I also carried hot sauce which was non-negotiable. I carried it in a glass jar too. You may want to airplane bottle it. Any candy you can get cheap is always great. Think outside the box when you get to stores. Look for stuff in bulk and split it of you can. I also enjoyed the tiny semi sweet chocolate bites like the one you use to make cookies. Cheese was also a must for me. 4 sticks of butter will fit into a empty pb jar.
I started my hike at around 230 lbs and was under 180 when I got done. You will eat everything in sight. We would try and see who could get the most calories for $10 sometimes and it produced a lot of crazy combinations.

[SunnyWalker]

Get tuna in Oil/Olive oil if you can not in water.

[Siarl]

Well that's just plain sad 4shot. Tuna salad sandwich is my favorite.

[Siarl]

I have not gone on a thru-hike. Still in the planning stage for 2015. But on some of my shorter camping days, three days or less, my favorites were peanut butter and jelly on bagels or tortillas. I can carry for very short term days if it's cold enough, a whole onion, celery, cumin, pepper, salt, tuna packs and make tuna salad wraps right on the spot. Of course, one does need a sharp knife. But while I'm considering a thru-hike, food for me, is a great morale booster. Especially if it is really great on the taste buds. So, I am considering bringing a very small chef's knife with me. On my hikes, I can survive for a while on junk food or sides but it gets very old quickly so one of my meals at least needs to be something fresh and invigorating. For me, tasting food flavors is on par with sex. In fact, while I am eating, if it's good and the flavors are wonderful, I have been told before, to shut up and stop the moaning. So I guess if there is any way that you can think of your ingredients that really make you feel good, see if you can convert them to dry or semi dry so that they will only need water or ones that won't spoil if not refrigerated.

[4shot]

Well that's just plain sad 4shot. Tuna salad sandwich is my favorite.

I love good homemade tuna salad with mayo, relish, with salt and pepper. What I was referring to above was just the plain old tuna straight out of the pouch. Without the other stuff it tastes a lot like what I imagine cat food would taste like. Apples and oranges.

[Monkeywrench]

My favorite food on the trail is anything somebody else carried in and generously offered to share with me.

[RED-DOG]

Well that's just plain sad 4shot. Tuna salad sandwich is my favorite.

I found in my Grocery store TUNA SALAD in Single packs all mixed and ready to go on a Tortilla Wrap, And i also have found this in a couple of grocery stores along the AT, so I am sure this is widly available.

[RED-DOG]

Anything But " OATMEAL ".

[Starchild]

Cold Cuts in individual sealed packages, even the $0.69 packs or the $1 ones, with a slice of swiss cheese and mustard or mayo in a wrap.

Beef Jerky day, that was the day into the next resupply location, and I really looked forward to that -normally a 1/'2 of hiking. There is a particular bread that sort of market it as a health food, and has unusual flavors and is excellent.

[Astro]

Anything But " OATMEAL ".

Between oatmeal for breakfast and cliff bars and granola bars through out the day, I got tired of oatmeal much faster than I thought I would. Perhaps because it was blander, I never got tired of grits for breakfast. Or maybe it was just my southern roots. ;)

[Siarl]

I think that's because grits can taste so good with butter and pepper and has a texture. Oatmeal on the other hand, well...there's a reason why it goes so well with wallpaper. I will have to keep a lookout for the tuna salad pouches Red-Dog.

[garlic08]

Another vote for tortillas. They're nearly everywhere. So's peanut butter. Cheese was almost always available, but I didn't find really good stuff until New England. Fig Newtons are common. I was seldom disappointed after a shopping trip, even after walking out of a C-store with a couple of days worth of hot dog buns and PB. It's all part of the adventure.

[Son Driven]

Nido powdered milk cream, is awesome. In my 1 quart Gatorade bottle, 5 spoons of instant coffee crystals, 5 spoons of Nido, 5 spoons of coco mix, table spoon of honey, or real VT real maple syrup, Fill with ice cold mountain spring water, shake real hard. Once I discovered this concoction, I left my stove in a hiker box. Had one every day for the last two months of my 2013 thru hike. You can add calories to almost anything you eat with Nido.

[MamaBear]

Nido powdered milk cream, is awesome. . . . . You can add calories to almost anything you eat with Nido.

Totally agree. I made a similar concoction, but less complicated (and probably less tasty) than Son Driven's for breakfast every day on the LT. Two packets of Carnation instant breakfast, plus a big scoop of Nido in the Gatorade bottle with a good shake and breakfast was served! We also used the Nido for making the Lipton noodle sides, gives them a bit more creaminess and of course calories.

One thing we loved was adding Fritos, or chips of any kind, to home dehydrated meals or as nice crunchy topping with a bit of extra flavor on those noodle sides.

[CarlZ993]

Fig Newtons. Never tired of them. Good for lunch, breakfast, or anything in between.

Always packed olive oil in a 16 oz plastic Coke bottle. Added taste & calories to my evening meal.

[jdc5294]

One of the luxuries I allowed myself was having Nutella with me. I always bought one of the big jars when I went into town, and it was perfect for getting scooped out on a clif bar or the nature valley granola bars. Great for going with lunch but even better as a in between meal snack.

[squeezebox]

Coffee does not do well with me. I'm thinking nuetella, nido, banana, coconut? , dark brown sugar as needed.

[takethisbread]

pbj tortillas never fail and are easy to get even at convenience stores, sometimes subbing in bagels or bread for tortilla.
also
Fritos
blocks of cheese
hot dogs/presliced meats.
for the stove less types


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[mrcoffeect]

I love my bisquick. pancakes for breakfast, biscuits for lunch and chicken raman and dumplings for dinner.

[peakbagger]

Jello instant pudding mixed with powdered milk and coffee creamer for desert in the evenings. Before leaving town split box in half and dump half into small ziplock. Add a couple spoons of powdered milk and a teaspoon of coffee creamer if you have it. Add water at campsite and let it sit preferably in stream for a few minutes. Then cut a small hole in corner of the ziplock and squeeze it out into your mouth. No clean up. There are usually 5 to 10 varieties at most stores. I expect Nido may also work in place of instant milk and coffee creamer but havent tried it.

[Del Q]

Not passing judgment but there are some Post Offices, hostles or hotels which are on the trail - shipping yourself fresh socks, food, etc sure is nice to pickup.

My go-to dinner is spam single serving. Typically pack pita bread with requisitioned mustard packets that I always have my eye out for! (C stores, etc)

Have also taken a liking to ramen dry, the noodles are already fried, works for me. 2nd option is carry the ramen with flavor pak in a zip loc baggie, fill with some water at lunch time, by dinnner you have a huge and heavy bag of ramen ready to burst the bag open.........yes, I double bag. Tasty and a great no cook option.

[johnnybgood]

Tortillas with BLT & mayo works for me . Most places have at least two-thirds of what I'm looking for.

[juma]

big block o cheese - gets better every day. cheezits.

[doobe01]

Bagels, pepperoni and block cheese. Ate it almost everyday for lunch.