Food for a SOBO.

[AlbertaHiker23]

Because of the re-supply points are few and far between in maine, is dehydrating food for the first 10-12 days the best way to go for the first section of a SOBO?

[hammock engineer]

I'm planning on doing that. Partly b/c I will be starting and not resupplying, but mainly since my dehydrated meals are lighter and I am going to need to carry 11 or 12 of them. They usually come out to 4oz or so a meal.

[Marta]

I carried 9 days of food with me into the Wilderness. It was plenty. I hiked mostly quite short days, and had food to shared the last couple of days. Several of the young men hiking the same schedule as I was ran out of food because either they had thought they would get through the Wilderness faster, or because they had grossly underestimated how much food they needed per day. Or both.

A suggestion--do a calorie estimate of your planned meals and make sure you've got 3000+ per day. Along with your home-dehydrated food, include some stuff loaded with calories, like nut butters and high-fat candy bars.

When I originally started laying out my food, I sorted it day by day. Then I did a calorie count. Although I thought I had been generous, I discovered I had less than 2000 calories per day. Even for an older woman like me, that's diet rations back home, and way less than I need when I'm hiking. I ended up sticking with my original food and just adding 1000 calories per day in snacks--bags of nuts and candy. It worked very well for me.

Marta/Five-Leaf