Food for three days, what would you buy?
You have just eaten the last of your food for breakfast. You are at the cash register at Wal-Mart. The next resupply is three days down the trail. What is in your shopping cart?
Granola
Nuts
Dried fruit
Pop tarts
Tortillas
Nutella
Foil packs of meat (tuna, spam) about six or eight ounces per day
Instant rice sides -3
Mozzarella sticks
Crackers
That's 2 breakfasts, 2 dinners, 3 lunches, and 3 days of snacks. Unless it's very hot outside, here's my cart:
Breakfast:
Box of pop tarts, or small jar of Nutella and some whole wheat tortillas, or some instant oatmeal
Instant coffee packets (Via, if available, otherwise Nestle is ok)
Lunch:
Pack of tuna, bag of pepperoni or salami, 8oz block of Cabot super sharp cheddar
Tortillas (share w/breakfast) or those flat round breads (same)
Mayo and mustard packets
Box of Double Stuff Oreos (yeah, hate on me all you want, these are awesome)
Box of instant drink mix packets, like iced tea or lemonade
Dinner:
2 Knorr noodle and sauce sides, or instant mac and cheese
2 small pouches of meat (chicken, real bacon, tuna, whatever)
Dried veggies of some sort, tomatoes are easiest to find
A nice chocolate bar
Decaf green tea bags
Snacks:
Bag of nuts, bag of dried fruit, bag of M&Ms (make gorp)
a box of bars of some sort, I prefer granola or whatever instead of "energy" bars
Anything else that catches my eye because I'm hungry and shouldn't be shopping (adds a lot of excess weight)
Notes:
Other nonfood resupply stuff as needed: a roll of TP, small container of powder, Purell, first aid supplies, that sort of thing.
The coffee, iced tea, and mayo/mustard packets usually last through several resupplies.
In hot weather I don't bring a stove, and would just double up on lunches and snacks, and bring iced coffee packets.
I'd want to know how far I was hiking and roughly how much climbing--are talking 45 miles in Florida or 60 miles in Colorado?
My rough estimate is based on miles rather than days, and that's roughly one pound of food per eight to ten miles (I carried eight pounds north into the hundred mile wilderness on the AT, for instance). I buy a mix of carbs (oats, raisins, tortillas, crackers, fig newtons, Little Debbies, etc) and fats (nuts, cheese, peanut butter) to make up the weight. It's probably around 130 cal/oz average (compared to 100 cal/oz for pure carbs, 200 cal/oz for pure fat). I don't really plan meals.
"Throw a loaf of bread and a pound of tea in an old sack and jump over the back fence." John Muir on expedition planning
what i would buy for three days:
pasta sides.
tortilla wraps.
peanut butter.
pop-tarts.
snickers.
peanut butter
tortillas
precooked bacon
salami
3 Kind bars
peanut M&M's
Larabars. Pringles (in summer, especially.) Cheese. Pepperoni or summer sausage. Kirkland chocoloate-covered fruits, if you know the temps are going to be under, say, 70F or so. (They do melt in the heat.)
Peanut butter and beer.
Pasta/rice sides
Peanut Butter
Pita bread
Instant oatmeal
Mash potatoes
Beef jerky
Dried fruit
Nuts
Lunch from the hot bar
Friut cup
Salad
Milk
Bananas
Last few items never make it into my pack
Sent from my SM-T110 using Tapatalk
Love people and use things; never the reverse.
Mt. Katahdin would be a lot quicker to climb if its darn access trail didn't start all the way down in Georgia.
What the great blue heron said (bigcranky).
One detail seems to be missing. Are you going stoveless? The answer ton that question could eliminate many food choices.
In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years. - Abraham Lincoln
Those little kiddie fruit cups are heavy but make a delightful dessert after a hot day of hiking.
Let's see...three days: 6 cups mixed nuts, 6 spam singles, 6 probars, 6 epic bars, 3 cups couscous, 3 pkgs of salmon (or something with the most fat). That's pretty close. The walmart in my imagination sells probars and epic bars.
hikers gonna hike
EASY. Been in this situation too many times to recall. However, I too would want to know the trail terrain ahead, how long of a hike I'm on, how far into it I am, and my fitness and physical condition at the Walmart resupply and when I started. I make regular adjustments en route on a LD thru-hike in my eating/nutritional habits as these characteristics often change on lengthy hike.
For a 3 day in 3 season conditions the rest of my kit would be really UL so I could afford to balance it out a bit with some heavier food choices. I'd definitely be adding in some fresh fruits and vegetables especially greens(kale, mustard, collards, swiss chard, spinach,etc), green onions, mini peppers, broccoli/broccolini, garlic, avocado, cucumber, radishes, mushrooms, etc
Wally Worlds definitely have some regional food choice variations in stock. Some Wally Worlds have been increasing their marketing of organic healthier IMO products. If I was cooking and it was hot outside I would be going w/ a cold b'fast. For b'fast maybe some dried unsulfured fruit, Lara bars(ME LOVE their filling Cashew Cookie variety!), cold oatmeal doctored up with nuts/seeds/fruit/crystalized ginger(found in the spice racks)/cinnamon, Belvita B-fast Biscuits or a Bear Naked Granola based bar smeared with a nut butter/tahini/hummus and a handful of made trail mix. I've seen some Wally Worlds carrying various nut butters made by Justin's and Peanut Butter & Co in 1.15 oz squeeze packets. Trail mixes are usually nuts, dried coconut/fruits from the bakery/snack aisles at WW. The smaller packs of pine, macadamia, pecan, walnuts, cashew pieces etc are very fairly priced and seem to move fast enough at WW that they are reasonably fresh enough. Some WW's have carried Let's Do Organic Edward & Sons Unsweetened Coconut Flake. This company also makes a delicious dehydrated Miso/Tofu/Seaweed Soup sometimes found in WW's in single serving packets or a box of 4 single serving packets and a coconut bar using for cooking or flavoring dinners while jumping the fat content.
Usually in the produce section of Wally Worlds I find delicious Sahale Snacks. If you get a chance try the Valdosta Pecans and Pomegranite Vaniila Cashews(yum yum). http://sahalesnacks.com/products/nut-blends/ Some WW's also have single serving package sizes of Sahale Snacks. In the same area I would look for Calbee Non GMO Snap Pea Crisps(I like the lightly salted and Ceasar selections) and Lentil Snaps(I like the onion thyme and tomato basil varieties). The Lentil Snaps are harder to find in that I've found only a few WW's carry the Lentil Snaps. http://harvestsnaps.com In the produce area I find Odwalla(Go Mega, Super Protein, and Berry Blast varieties. In the same area of the Odwalla Bars in the produce section of WW you'll find a brand I'm not recalling offering Sesame seed and Nut bars. All these bars are reasonably priced in the same ballpark comparatively priced to Snickers or Pop Tarts.
WW's also carry KIND/Strong&Kind, Bear Naked, Balance, some Cliff(White Chocolate Macadamia Nut is my favorite but many Cliff bars are loaded with added sugars that I feel, have to be balanced out with other foods or noshed quite slowly to avoid some energy bonking), and Luna bars(get over it, males can eat them too!, I haven't grown any breasts yet as result of mixing a few Luna bars into my trail food bags) which I find all acceptable for a short term resupply.
Might throw in some Anne Chung's Wasabi variety seaweed snacks to round out the trail snacks.
WW's have CHEAP Wild Salmon and Flavored StarKist and BumbleBee Tuna packets. The tuna packets in olive oil have the highest cal/oz ratios with good non ho hum flavor in the Chipotle & Olive Oil, Sundried Tomato & Olive Oil, Jalepeno & Olive Oil, and Yellowtail Tuna in Olive Oil(GREAT low price at WW!) varieties. Since this is only a three day food supply I may take along some canned Smoked Baby Clams, Petite Oysters in Safflower Oil, smoked herring, and/or Sardines in Olive oil, too. IMO, by far the BEST Sardines in Olive Oil are the King Oscar brand Two Layer in 100% Olive Oil(small, many, and tasty!). I eat a lot of fatty sustainable fishes mainly adhering to a pesce vegetarian diet. The BEST tasting tunas are the Albacore and Yellowtail in Olive Oil. Wild Planet has GREAT tasting sustainably caught canned fish varieties acceptable for trail use as well which are carried by a very few WWs.
To that while on trail where I might want some added protein I might rarely throw in some Perky Jerky Turkey in the Sweet and Spicy variety or Krave Turkey jerky in the Citrus & Basil or Garlic & Lime varieties. http://perkyjerky.com/what-is-perky-jerky, https://www.kravejerky.com/p/lemon-garlic-turkey-jerky. Under a three day food scenario I also wouldn't be averse to hauling some smoked packaged Non nitrite/nitrate containing wild candied salmon found in some WW fish department areas.
Dinners are easy. Some doctored up non hydrogenated oil containing mashed potatoes(starting out with plain mashed tatters and taking it in the taste direction you individually want to go is a better healthier alternative!), a Knorrs/Lipton side(Teriyaki Noodles or Rice are a nice change, some questionable ingredients IMO), UDON Somen BUCKWHEAT Noodles(w/ PB, non MSG containing soy sauce packets, fresh green onions, and some red pepper flakes), Simply Asia Thai Kitchen Rice Noodles in Spring Onion variety, and/or a box of Annie's Organic shells and white cheddar might be included.
WW's also sell tasty single serving packets(at some stores) of Cuginos, Sushi Chef Miso, and Bear Creek dehydrated soups which can be used to flavor meals yourself or be doctored up to create a larger more nutritionally dense dinner.
ChrisJackson, I've scanned extensively in WW's for ProBars and EPIC bars. I've only found a handful of WW's across the U.S. that had VERY LIMITED supplies of ProBars.
Some Wally Worlds carry Seeds of Change Whole Grain mixes like parboiled Quinoa and Brown Rice, Seven Whole Grains, Caribbean Style rice, etc that pair well with Taste of India, Taste of Thai, Kitchens of India, or Annie Chung Asian and Indian inspired meals. It is after all only a three day food supply so I wouldn't be as concerned with carrying one days heavier food opps for a long mileage day's dinner.
http://www.walmart.com/search/?query...ahead=seeds%20
Gosh, you guys are so boring with your ho hum as usual food choices. So many other options even for a picky eater like myself at WW.
Walmart has a million choices and what could it matter? Just for three days? Heck, you could fast from food for that amount of time and still be ready to hike. Or if you're just carrying a measly 3 day food load, (what? 6 extra lbs??), well, grab a cantaloupe and an avocado and some grapes and maybe a plastic bottle of fruit juice and some cheese oh and even a watermelon. Who cares?
Easy. One Mountain House chili-mac 2 serving pak. One Mountain House beef stew 2 serving pak. 3 packets of instant oatmeal and apples. 3 pita pockets. 3 tuna salad packets.4 Cliff bars. One small bag of trail mix.4 ounces of premium coffee,3 packets of half and half.
Beer is a food in my book.Originally Posted by gregpphoto
Sent from my SCH-i705 using Tapatalk
3 knorr sides of different flavors
Dehydrated retried beans
A few various foil packaged meats
Whole wheat tortillas
Instant oat meal
Trail mix to dump in oatmeal
Fruit leather
Snack sized snickers
Raisins
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Some would care because three days of hiking don't always entail hiking 25 miles total over those three days. For some, three days hiking could represent 80+ miles of travel possibly over strenuous terrain with a huge three day food wt negatively affecting ones ability to comfortably cover that distance. The more one carries the more it often can affect footing, balance, mental attitude, etc or lead to slips or falls especially on strenuous terrain or under foul weather hiking conditions. And, the hike is not over at the next resupply. By taking on a huge overly burdensome high volume three day food wt it can negatively affect longer term physical ability possibly impairing the finishing or greater enjoyment of the hike or possibly aggravating or leading to additional medical concerns. Not all backpackers are as fit as you or as accustomed to carrying the huge heavy voluminous loads as you or hike your typical daily mileage or backpack with your hiking philosophy.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
