Dry diet (no stove) - is it possible?

[fuzz]

I've searched the forums a bit, but can't find any threads that have answered this question for me. I'll be setting off on a 2008 AT thruhike in the next few weeks and am interested in ditching my stove and trying a completely dry diet. I have used a stove in the past, but I have no problem with eating bland food over long periods of time. I've done it a few times when dieting ;-)

Lots of trail mix, dehydrated fruit, pepperoni, crackers and easy cheese, fresh fruit, some dried vegetables if I can manage, candy bars, etc.... I'm sure I'll learn as I go along and I'm going to try to get as much variety into my diet as possible. Have people ditched their stoves in favor of a dry diet? Any success stories or advice?

I figure that if it doesn't work out for me then I can have my stove mailed to me.

Thanks!,

Jake

[emerald]

It's been done before. The 1st was Gene Espy in 1952 who claimed to never have built a fire in the course of hiking from Georgia to Maine.

More hikers are apt to do so as it gets warmer. You can expect many more posts on this subject.

[rafe]

It's possible, but I question whether you could keep that up (or want to) for the course of a thru hike. You get to camp after slogging through rain and mud all day -- the rest of the folks are eating hot glop and you're stuck with your cheese and pepperoni and candy bars. But what the heck, try it and see. I tried it for a few short sections. Didn't work for me.

[JAK]

Bear in mind that mutant thumbs and pyromania are all that separate us from lower life forms.

[Tipi Walter]

I went for long periods without a stove, just had my snack food bag and water bottles. But the thing is, you can stay out a lot longer if you take a stove, and here's why: Snacks are heavier than cookables(water content), while cookables(oatmeal/dehydrated meals/mac and cheese, etc)can be cooked using water you don't have to carry(it's out in the woods).

So, on a long backpacking trip my pack will be lighter if I carry less snacks and more cookables. Now, on a short 2-3 day trip it's not a factor and a stove won't make any difference.

[max patch]

I did it on my thru -- mailed my stove ahead 3 weeks -- but I found I really liked a hot meal at the end of the day. Even in summer. I was glad when I caught back up with my stove.

[Tipi Walter]

I did it on my thru -- mailed my stove ahead 3 weeks -- but I found I really liked a hot meal at the end of the day. Even in summer. I was glad when I caught back up with my stove.

Yeah, the whole secret to backpacking eating is VARIETY, and a stove offers a bunch more food options. One is the pot/frypan option instead of the usual pot/Jetboil option. We've all had the usual mac and cheese, oatmeal glop, boiled water meals in a pot, but I recently got a stickless frypan that doubles as a pot(holds about a liter)and so I can now not only cook up the glops but also fry toast, eggs, etc. Expands my options.

[JAK]

Pease porridge hot,
Pease porridge cold,
Pease porridge in the pot,
Nine days old;
Some like it hot,
Some like it cold,
Some like it in the pot,
Nine days old.

I haven't had Pease porridge cold, but I've had cold oatmeal porridge on a long trudge once. Let's just say when you have it that way it is very easy to ration. If you are hungry enough anything will taste good enough, but if you want to put miles on and have the food to do it you will want some of it hot.

[tlbj6142]

Even that backpacking wacko Ray Jardine tried it and said "never again". In fact, I think he did it on his AT thru. A warm meal is very comforting at the end of a day.

If you don't want to cook every day, take a few esbit tablets and a smallish pot. My whole solo esbit setup (600ml Ti Cup, foil lid/snuffer, foil windscreen, Ti Esbit 'stove') weights next to nothing and is all self contained. That way you can warm some water once in awhile or go without and not pay much, if any, weight penalty for carrying a "stove". Don't use the Esbit stove use something else to hold the tablet (like the one I linked above) or an upside down pop can. I find one-half a tablet will boil 10-12oz (all I need for a boil in bag meal) in 9 minutes. I snuff out the tablet (with my foil lid) and save it for the next day. Pour the water in my meal bag. Put the bag inside my pot and wait 7-10 minutes (you don't need a cozy, the food will be too hot even after 10 minutes). Eat. Gives you plenty of time to setup camp (thrown up a bear line, setup tent/tarp, sleeping stuff, etc.) while you wait for your food.

Just a thought.

[sheepdog]

I know a guy who hikes without a stove. He pours water in his meals and puts the bag between his pack and his back, he then hikes all day. At the end of the day he has a semi warm hydrated meal. It is a good thing to know if your stove breaks.

[PJ 2005]

Chino (2005) hiked the last half of the trail on bars. Granola, candy, whatever. If it packaged like a bar, he ate it, and nothing else.

Personally, I need something to look forward to after 20 miles

[RedneckRye]

In '99 I went from Central PA to the middle of Mass without a stove. This was in the summer, when wanting a hot meal or drink because it was cold and wet out wasn't an issue ('99 was hot and DRY). This is also a section of trail where it is really easy to frequently resupply and deli-hike. Probably the optimum conditions for going stoveless. Even with that, having no stove pretty much sucked after the first 10 days or 2 weeks. Once I finally got the stove back ( I had mailed it up to a friend's place that I was going to leave the trail to visit for a few days), I was sooooo happy to be able to cook up a pot full of hot glop.

You couldn't pay me to be in the south in the spring time without a stove, 35 degrees and rain is miserable enough even when you know your day will end with a bog hot meal and a quart of hot tea.

[JAK]

I know a guy who hikes without a stove. He pours water in his meals and puts the bag between his pack and his back, he then hikes all day. At the end of the day he has a semi warm hydrated meal. It is a good thing to know if your stove breaks.

That's a pretty good idea. I think something along those lines was done traditionally also, with oats. Not sure. Its normally carried in the stomach, but you can only carry so much there eh. I know you can eat alot more oats if you only add half the water, plus some butter or fat or oil to help it go down, and then drink more water as you travel. I wouldn't want to run on a full stomach, but its a fine way to trudge. I could see making the meal for the end of the day in the same way and hiking with it under the sweater, and making breakfast the same way with it in the sleeping bag. Good way to recycle body heat.

If I was conserving fuel and couldn't burn sticks or anything like that I think I would still drink my hot tea, but maybe make my oats in the manner which you describe.

[tlbj6142]

That's a pretty good idea. I think something along those lines was done traditionally also, with oats.

The adventure racing crowd does this quite often. Between the body heat and the excessive agitation the food "cooks up" well. I have yet to try it. I don't really have a pack that would lend itself to this sort of cooking, except maybe my daypack.

[fuzz]

Thanks everyone who's commented so far. It's given me some food for thought. Probably I will end up taking the stove after all. I guess if it was easy to go stoveless then everybody would be doing it, especially the ultralighters. I'm still pondering though.

[budforester]

Here ya go... just the thing! Here's a link to the html version(their pdf displays better).

[fuzz]

Here ya go... just the thing! Here's a link to the html version(their pdf displays better).

Perfect. I just wish it came in banana flavor. Or maybe bubble gum.

[weary]

It's been done and obviously a committed person can do it. The question is why?

[weary]

It's been done and obviously a committed person can do it. The question is why would they?

[take-a-knee]

Even that backpacking wacko Ray Jardine tried it and said "never again". In fact, I think he did it on his AT thru. A warm meal is very comforting at the end of a day.

If you don't want to cook every day, take a few esbit tablets and a smallish pot. My whole solo esbit setup (600ml Ti Cup, foil lid/snuffer, foil windscreen, Ti Esbit 'stove') weights next to nothing and is all self contained. That way you can warm some water once in awhile or go without and not pay much, if any, weight penalty for carrying a "stove". Don't use the Esbit stove use something else to hold the tablet (like the one I linked above) or an upside down pop can. I find one-half a tablet will boil 10-12oz (all I need for a boil in bag meal) in 9 minutes. I snuff out the tablet (with my foil lid) and save it for the next day. Pour the water in my meal bag. Put the bag inside my pot and wait 7-10 minutes (you don't need a cozy, the food will be too hot even after 10 minutes). Eat. Gives you plenty of time to setup camp (thrown up a bear line, setup tent/tarp, sleeping stuff, etc.) while you wait for your food.

Just a thought.

Yeah, it was on Ray and Jenny Jardine's AT thru. Ray isn't much on admitting bone-headed mistakes but he fessed up to that one. Men have been cooking over some sort of fire for as long as there have been men.