Right at 110# so I concur. 25-27# is really pushing the limit for me.Originally Posted by Wolf - 23000
Very organised!You might want to read up on the benefits of cayenne pepper.
1lb of pure fat is only 3600 calories. 1lb of FD food like kiwis will have substantially less. How do you account for the calorie deficit?
This is why the whole, "well I carry this much..." or “what do you carry?” is really over blown. At 110# the gear your selection should be cater to someone with a small body frame (no offence intended). Some manufactures are better than others when dealing with smaller sizes. The gear you select should be different compare to someone like me at 225#. We are both different people with different needs backpacking.
Wolf
I will let you know after 30 days how I fared.
However, I am mostly eating meat - chicken, pork, sausage, beef - and 1 lb of these dehydrated translates into about 4 lbs of meat - and some vegetables, added fat and then raw nuts. 1lb of FDed kiwi would be about 5 lbs kiwi. Kiwi will be a very small part of my total calories.
https://tinyurl.com/MyFDresults
A vigorous five-mile walk will do more good for an unhappy but otherwise healthy adult than all the medicine and psychology in the world. ~Paul Dudley White
With due respect PP, some how I think you have it in your head that dehydrating somehow concentrates calories, sorry buddy, it does not, it only removes water weight. ADH's comment meant, I think, the very very best you can do for calories/pound is pure fat at 3600. You dehydrated meat/veggies is at most about half of that, meaning that you'll be carrying at most maybe 2000 calories/day if you carry one pound of food. Not sure what else to say, pretty much all food weights talked about on here are waterless weights, AKA dehydrated. But again, as said well below, you'll figure it all out! And you won't starve.
[QUOTE=MuddyWaters;2140352]Nope. And the thermostat battle is unending.
I like the house comfy warm during the day. But at night, I want my bed warm, and the air cool, meaning window open. So when I feel a hot flash coming on, I can stick a leg out, or two, or more and feel the instant chill of whatever temperature we're experiencing. Then when it's over just get back under the covers.
But it's not just about hot flashes, because I like the window open in summer too. Not entirely logical I guess.
My bag is rated to 20°and I plan on bringing a liner too! Being cold is a bummer!
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CSS
I went through the Smokies in March with a 45 degree bag. "Miserable" is the word I would use.
Hipbone, i would love some of your meal ideas and recipes.. a bit of clarification, though, please.. Did you DEHYDRATE everything, or did you FREEZE DRY items? If, indeed you dehydrated, how did you manage meats? I am planning at least a section hike (knee surgery has set my plans back a bit) and i would prefer to bring or mail ahead my own resupplies.. i have to watch my sugar intake and i can foresee a lot of problems from cramming down a box of twinkies or eating a whole container of ice cream or even living off of ramen noodles, like so many of the accounts that i have read.. and, being that my stomach is small, i wont be gorging like i've read of people doing... any thoughts or advice?My girlfriend and I dehydrate EVERYTHING. We did the Colorado trail this summer on 1.35 lbs of food a day for the whole trip (we weighed everything to the .1 gram hehe). At the beginning of the first few sections we were giving food to others to get rid of it. My GF focused on really nutritious food and high calorie snacks. We've been making our own backpack food for almost 20 years so we have it pretty dialed in. Disclaimer is that we're pretty small...I'm 135 lbs and she weighs a lot less than me. We definitely leaned out on our hike a bit but I only lost a few lbs and I don't think she lost anything. Base weight for the Colorado trail was about 10 lbs for both of us. I was never cold or hungry
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Hey...MtnGoat here (Hipbone's gf)
I think I can answer some of your questions. Our food is DEHYDRATED. We have a 5 tray Excalibur and it works great, but of course any dehydrator will work.
I HIGHLY recommend the book Backpack Gourmet by Linda Frederick Yaffe. This book has tons of recipes and the best thing about it is all of her meals are one pot meals. I have learned so much from reading that book and it opened my eyes to so many more possibilities with making my own trail food. Her recipes are healthy and filling and she has details like serving sizes, in oz and grams, for each recipe. It's not just a recipe where you are left to figure out how much you need to take. By using the info in her book and experimenting with portion size at home and on trail, we are now well dialed in to how much food we need to take.
Another good resource is Backpacking Chef. He has a lot of wisdom to share about dehydrating your own food. Plus he has a website with some recipes from his book (which I also have and it's great) as well as submissions from his readers.
We eat about 50-50 vegetarian and meals with either chicken or ground turkey so that is the only meat I can speak to from my experience. With that said there are only a few things you need to remember about using chicken and ground turkey.
For chicken ALWAYS use canned chicken in your meals. It is pressure cooked and it will both dehydrate and rehydrate much better and taste better than fresh chicken. I would go so far as to say you should avoid fresh chicken...maybe someone else has more input but from my experience canned chicken packed in water is the way to go.
For ground turkey cook until well done in the skillet and then put on a paper towel to remove excess fat. I normally try to use the lowest fat percentage possible like 96% and above.
As I mentioned above all of our meals are one pot..what this means is that we fully cook and prepare the entire recipe of whatever meal we are making and then put the finished and combined meal in the dehydrator.
An easy example of a one pot meal is spaghetti with ground turkey marinara. I make up a batch of my favorite homemade marinara sauce. I then cook (with all my seasonings) the ground turkey and let it rest on a paper towel to remove any excess fats. Then add the turkey to the marinara. I mean this is all stuff that I do anyway even if it isn't for a hiking meal. Now you have a nice sauce. The only other step is to cook up the spaghetti noodles. You need to break the noodles up into small pieces, say 1.5" pieces. Or you can use orzo which dehydrates and rehydrates great. Cook your pasta then when it is finished drain it and combine the sauce with the pasta in a big bowl. Once it is well blended just scoop it out and put on the dehydrator.
Once it is good any dry -and according to Linda Frederick Yaffe as well as my own experience- you cannot over dry a meal. But there should be no moisture left. When it's done, weigh it out and package it up in zip locks or vacuum sealed bags and store them in a dark and cool place until you are ready to use.
On trail all you do is add enough water to cover the meal (how much water you use depends on the meal...for example, pasta-based just cover it with water, rice-based add about 1" cover of water). Bring the meal in the pot with water to a boil on your stove then take it off the heat and put in a pot cozy and let it sit for 5-10 minutes more to finish fully rehydrating. Then ENJOY!!
As for loading up on sugar in town...just avoid it if you are concerned. When you get to town go for fruit for sweet and vegetables to fill you up if you are hungry. It is just as easy to find and eat the right things in town as it is the wrong ones. It is no different than being at home in that regard. You are still the one who is buying the food whether you are at home or on trail.
Ok so I know this is a long post and maybe even off the OP topic, but I wanted to answer this fully. Because making your own food is very rewarding in so many ways. YOU control the ingredients and you know what is in it. If eating a hot meal is what you want to do on trail I have every confidence you can do this and you will be far happier with something you have made
Happy hiking,
MtnGoat
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Thanks so much!!!! Your answer is pretty much exactly what i was looking for.. yes, i know it is my choice to buy the junk in town or not ( i love sweets) but my point was that most people are the trail are burning so many calories that they are eating high-caloric junk because it is cheap and tasty... i don't have that " luxury".. and, even though i want a Freeze Dryer, and may eventually get one when possible ( i like having canned/dried foods on hand anyway) i DO have several dehydrators, but hadn't heard of anyone drying meat other than jerky... i will look up that book and website today... Amazon is my best friend... lol! Thanks again.Hey...MtnGoat here (Hipbone's gf)
I think I can answer some of your questions. Our food is DEHYDRATED. We have a 5 tray Excalibur and it works great, but of course any dehydrator will work.
I HIGHLY recommend the book Backpack Gourmet by Linda Frederick Yaffe. This book has tons of recipes and the best thing about it is all of her meals are one pot meals. I have learned so much from reading that book and it opened my eyes to so many more possibilities with making my own trail food. Her recipes are healthy and filling and she has details like serving sizes, in oz and grams, for each recipe. It's not just a recipe where you are left to figure out how much you need to take. By using the info in her book and experimenting with portion size at home and on trail, we are now well dialed in to how much food we need to take.
Another good resource is Backpacking Chef. He has a lot of wisdom to share about dehydrating your own food. Plus he has a website with some recipes from his book (which I also have and it's great) as well as submissions from his readers.
We eat about 50-50 vegetarian and meals with either chicken or ground turkey so that is the only meat I can speak to from my experience. With that said there are only a few things you need to remember about using chicken and ground turkey.
For chicken ALWAYS use canned chicken in your meals. It is pressure cooked and it will both dehydrate and rehydrate much better and taste better than fresh chicken. I would go so far as to say you should avoid fresh chicken...maybe someone else has more input but from my experience canned chicken packed in water is the way to go.
For ground turkey cook until well done in the skillet and then put on a paper towel to remove excess fat. I normally try to use the lowest fat percentage possible like 96% and above.
As I mentioned above all of our meals are one pot..what this means is that we fully cook and prepare the entire recipe of whatever meal we are making and then put the finished and combined meal in the dehydrator.
An easy example of a one pot meal is spaghetti with ground turkey marinara. I make up a batch of my favorite homemade marinara sauce. I then cook (with all my seasonings) the ground turkey and let it rest on a paper towel to remove any excess fats. Then add the turkey to the marinara. I mean this is all stuff that I do anyway even if it isn't for a hiking meal. Now you have a nice sauce. The only other step is to cook up the spaghetti noodles. You need to break the noodles up into small pieces, say 1.5" pieces. Or you can use orzo which dehydrates and rehydrates great. Cook your pasta then when it is finished drain it and combine the sauce with the pasta in a big bowl. Once it is well blended just scoop it out and put on the dehydrator.
Once it is good any dry -and according to Linda Frederick Yaffe as well as my own experience- you cannot over dry a meal. But there should be no moisture left. When it's done, weigh it out and package it up in zip locks or vacuum sealed bags and store them in a dark and cool place until you are ready to use.
On trail all you do is add enough water to cover the meal (how much water you use depends on the meal...for example, pasta-based just cover it with water, rice-based add about 1" cover of water). Bring the meal in the pot with water to a boil on your stove then take it off the heat and put in a pot cozy and let it sit for 5-10 minutes more to finish fully rehydrating. Then ENJOY!!
As for loading up on sugar in town...just avoid it if you are concerned. When you get to town go for fruit for sweet and vegetables to fill you up if you are hungry. It is just as easy to find and eat the right things in town as it is the wrong ones. It is no different than being at home in that regard. You are still the one who is buying the food whether you are at home or on trail.
Ok so I know this is a long post and maybe even off the OP topic, but I wanted to answer this fully. Because making your own food is very rewarding in so many ways. YOU control the ingredients and you know what is in it. If eating a hot meal is what you want to do on trail I have every confidence you can do this and you will be far happier with something you have made
Happy hiking,
MtnGoat
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I am at around 20lbs pounds as well but I only carry 4 days of food and a liter of water which is around 8 pounds total for 1.5 pounds of food a day. I want to do 2 pounds a day because I am dropping weight out here. Ideally though I would love to only be carrying 15 lbs total with food and water. But that requires a different shelter and lighter sleeping bag. It isn't super hard to be at 20 lbs but it does feel like a chore to keep the weight constantly maintained. One day after a resupply my food bag was over 7 pounds and just felt too heavy and bulky. You really don't need a week's worth but five days may be better.
Eat your heavy food first.
It is strange that so many people do not plan to eat enough a day, but carry too much food overall.
I dropped twenty pounds from my base weight by losing twenty between section hikes.
Then I've shaved some more off by carrying less extra Corning. And some lighter equipment.
I'm hoping not to carry quite so much water on this section hike I'm about to do. Glad the droughts are over for now.
But I'm learning each section and by observing others.
Err. "Extra clothing".
[QUOTE=mtngoat01;2143410]Hey...MtnGoat here (Hipbone's gf)
I think I can answer some of your questions. Our food is DEHYDRATED. We have a 5 tray Excalibur and it works great, but of course any dehydrator will work.
I HIGHLY recommend the book Backpack Gourmet by Linda Frederick Yaffe. This book has tons of recipes and the best thing about it is all of her meals are one pot meals. I have learned so much from reading that book and it opened my eyes to so many more possibilities with making my own trail food. Her recipes are healthy and filling and she has details like serving sizes, in oz and grams, for each recipe. It's not just a recipe where you are left to figure out how much you need to take. By using the info in her book and experimenting with portion size at home and on trail, we are now well dialed in to how much food we need to take.
Another good resource is Backpacking Chef. He has a lot of wisdom to share about dehydrating your own food. Plus he has a website with some recipes from his book (which I also have and it's great) as well as submissions from his readers.
We eat about 50-50 vegetarian and meals with either chicken or ground turkey so that is the only meat I can speak to from my experience. With that said there are only a few things you need to remember about using chicken and ground turkey.
For chicken ALWAYS use canned chicken in your meals. It is pressure cooked and it will both dehydrate and rehydrate much better and taste better than fresh chicken. I would go so far as to say you should avoid fresh chicken...maybe someone else has more input but from my experience canned chicken packed in water is the way to go.
For ground turkey cook until well done in the skillet and then put on a paper towel to remove excess fat. I normally try to use the lowest fat percentage possible like 96% and above.
As I mentioned above all of our meals are one pot..what this means is that we fully cook and prepare the entire recipe of whatever meal we are making and then put the finished and combined meal in the dehydrator.
An easy example of a one pot meal is spaghetti with ground turkey marinara. I make up a batch of my favorite homemade marinara sauce. I then cook (with all my seasonings) the ground turkey and let it rest on a paper towel to remove any excess fats. Then add the turkey to the marinara. I mean this is all stuff that I do anyway even if it isn't for a hiking meal. Now you have a nice sauce. The only other step is to cook up the spaghetti noodles. You need to break the noodles up into small pieces, say 1.5" pieces. Or you can use orzo which dehydrates and rehydrates great. Cook your pasta then when it is finished drain it and combine the sauce with the pasta in a big bowl. Once it is well blended just scoop it out and put on the dehydrator.
Once it is good any dry -and according to Linda Frederick Yaffe as well as my own experience- you cannot over dry a meal. But there should be no moisture left. When it's done, weigh it out and package it up in zip locks or vacuum sealed bags and store them in a dark and cool place until you are ready to use.
On trail all you do is add enough water to cover the meal (how much water you use depends on the meal...for example, pasta-based just cover it with water, rice-based add about 1" cover of water). Bring the meal in the pot with water to a boil on your stove then take it off the heat and put in a pot cozy and let it sit for 5-10 minutes more to finish fully rehydrating. Then ENJOY!!
As for loading up on sugar in town...just avoid it if you are concerned. When you get to town go for fruit for sweet and vegetables to fill you up if you are hungry. It is just as easy to find and eat the right things in town as it is the wrong ones. It is no different than being at home in that regard. You are still the one who is buying the food whether you are at home or on trail.
Ok so I know this is a long post and maybe even off the OP topic, but I wanted to answer this fully. Because making your own food is very rewarding in so many ways. YOU control the ingredients and you know what is in it. If eating a hot meal is what you want to do on trail I have every confidence you can do this and you will be far happier with something you have made
Happy hiking,
MtnGoat
got it!!! I ordered it Friday from Amazon Prime and it came yesterday.... EASTER SUNDAY... i am reading it now and FIRED UP!!! I have already dehydrated some veggies that needed using up, have herbs in there now and am already planning some meals.. next to go in will be this mornings leftover oatmeal... then, leftover taco meat with rice.... i love to dehydrate and this gives me a definite goal, rather than just saving up for " someday"... i hadnt realized that you could dehydrate meats and MEALS, other than jerky, of course...
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lesliedgray
AWESOME!! I have been telling anyone and everyone about this book for years now.
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I told y'all I would report when I got back about how my food measured up. I ended up only hiking 5 days and going home because I missed my husband too much. Yes, it's true, I'm a mush. I've spent more than half my life with him and while the hiking was great, the views were great, the people were great - I wanted him with me to share it.
But on to the food!
I left the Hiker Hostel with just 22.5 lbs including 4 days food, 1 liter water and my trekking poles included. The food was fantastic and I was well fed. I did not make myself stop and make lunch every day and I should have as the weather was fantastic and I had the time. I found I flagged after "lunch time" but only ate nuts and raisins while hiking. When I do this again I will stop and make lunch every day. I truly believe if I had stopped and eaten my lunch and extended my hike, I would have continued to have good success hiking. As it was I averaged just over 10 miles per day for the 5 days I was hiking. A very short sample, yes.
https://tinyurl.com/MyFDresults
A vigorous five-mile walk will do more good for an unhappy but otherwise healthy adult than all the medicine and psychology in the world. ~Paul Dudley White
I very much like to stop at lunch and cook food vs doing it at night. I like the energy boost it gives me for the afternoon, especially if there is a big climb, and it forces me to take a good break which I have a hard time making myself do. I really don't like having to cook at camp as I'm usually pretty tired.
Without a gear list it's hard to tell if you are a genius or a fool.
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