Meals For Thru-Hike

[maxepstein]

I don't plan on eating anything 'fancy' or expensive on my thru-hike. Ramen noodles every night is not an issue. My questions for anyone who plans on hiking the AT in 2010 or has hiked it in the past is:

1. How often throughout the day do you eat?

2. On an average day what do you eat for each meal? (Curious as to what particular foods/brands you are thinking of purchasing/eating)

3. Is some sort of trail mix a good substitute for a meal(s)?

Thanks!

Max

[ShelterLeopard]

Max[/QUOTE]
I'm going NoBo 2010:
1. It depends. Sometimes I eat three meals a day (even occasionally cook for lunch) with a couple snickers in between, sometimes I only eat a full meal for dinner, and eat constantly throughout the day.

2. Example: Oatmeal and brown sugar, snickers, dried chicken noodle soup or pitas and peanut butter or cheese or jam, more snickers, an then Korr rice and pasta sides for dinner. (They're in the "prepared food" section of the grocery store, usually, and they are great. I think they're better than those hiker mountain house meals, and about 1/5 of the price. And there's a large variety.) I eat a ton of different stuff though. Occasionally I'm going to have tinned fish and barbeque sauce or rice and mushrooms (Korr sides, again).

3. Not a huge fan of trail mix, but I do eat lots of almonds- they'll get you your protein and calories, but they're on the expensive side sometimes.

[Pickleodeon]

1. How often throughout the day do you eat? All the time, any time you stop for more than a few minutes, I ate 3 meals plus snacks in between. I thought about food constantly.

2. On an average day what do you eat for each meal? (Curious as to what particular foods/brands you are thinking of purchasing/eating) Breakfast I had oatmeal when it was cold outside, sometimes those carnation instant breakfast packets (I'd use them with cereal too) and in the summer I ate huge amounts of cereal for breakfast with Nido (whole fat dry milk, it's discussed a lot in the food forum)

Lunch was pita or those deli flats bread things, or bagels/english muffins, something sturdy and whole wheat, with cheese and lunchmeat or the precooked bacon, or those packs of processed lunchmeat that are like 79cents a pack. Or pb and J. Or sometimes pb,j, cheese, and pepperoni.

Dinner- Knorr sides with tuna or chicken, kraft mac and cheese, some of the asian prepared meals or SuddenlySalad sides are good too. and then cookies or some kind of snack after dinner and snacks and trail mix throughout the day.


3. Is some sort of trail mix a good substitute for a meal(s)? Never, at least not for me. I need variety, in addition to trail mix. I carried goldfish crackers, m&m's, trail mix, granola bars, cookies for snacks, but always had a meal in addition, and most of the time I was still wanting food after the meal. I'm a pretty small female, but I can eat, especially on the trail. Toward the end of the trail I carried a tub of cake frosting through the 100 mile wilderness and every time I'd eat it during meals I'd want to just keep eating it. It was really tough to ration it.

[Jester2000]

1) About 5-6 times per day.

2) Breakfast: Oatmeal/Pop Tarts/Fresh fruit, instant coffee with hot chocolate packet mixed in

Lunch: Pita or bagel with cheese, summer sausage, mayo. Sometimes PB&J, usually ham or turkey first day out of town. And then more cheese and a candy bar or two.

Dinner: Lipton sides, Mac 'n' Cheese, Instant mashed potatoes, Stove Top Stuffing, Tortellini, sometimes mix in tuna/salmon/shrimp/turkey from foil packets to the above. Cheese added to mostly everything, particularly Parm. Some sort of dessert as well, mostly candy.

Snacking as well during the day on GORP, Clif Bars, cashews, Snickers Bars etc. I usually have some sort of flavoring for drinks and pick up different types each time I'm in town. Gatorade, Kool-Aid, Country Time Lemonade, Iced Tea Mix, that sort of thing, always the kind with sugar, which is heavier but makes me happy.

3. No. At least not for me.

I would caution you on thinking Ramen every night won't be a problem. You probably won't get enough calories from Ramen, but more importantly you'll probably want to make sure you have a good amount of variety for your meals.

[Many Walks]

Max

I'm going NoBo 2010:
1. It depends. Sometimes I eat three meals a day (even occasionally cook for lunch) with a couple snickers in between, sometimes I only eat a full meal for dinner, and eat constantly throughout the day.

2. Example: Oatmeal and brown sugar, snickers, dried chicken noodle soup or pitas and peanut butter or cheese or jam, more snickers, an then Korr rice and pasta sides for dinner. (They're in the "prepared food" section of the grocery store, usually, and they are great. I think they're better than those hiker mountain house meals, and about 1/5 of the price. And there's a large variety.) I eat a ton of different stuff though. Occasionally I'm going to have tinned fish and barbeque sauce or rice and mushrooms (Korr sides, again).

3. Not a huge fan of trail mix, but I do eat lots of almonds- they'll get you your protein and calories, but they're on the expensive side sometimes.[/QUOTE]
.....and BACON!

[Jeff]

This is a great topic that too few hikers spend enough time to research.

One issue I discovered (and others have agreed)...you will not have a big appetite for the first fews days of hiking. I found this to be true every time I started a section. Don't overpack the foodbag starting out & that is hard to accept.

[ShelterLeopard]

.....and BACON!

Well DUH!!!


And Jeff is right- I've been out for three weeks at a time (assuming it'll be similar for my thru) and the "hiker hunger" didn't start to kick in until the third week, who knows what it'll be like for the third month!

[ShelterLeopard]

And pickelodeon, I like the cake frosting idea! How bout snickers dipped in frosting??? Yes...

[Jester2000]

And pickelodeon, I like the cake frosting idea! How bout snickers dipped in frosting??? Yes...

Or Snickers bars dipped in Peanut Butter. I've done this & it's excellent.

[Powell19]

I'm planning a thru hike in 2011. So trail food is on my mind too.

I've always had good experiences with stovetop stuffing. It's really easy to deal with and has pretty high calories per ounce (especialy if you add some oil to it.) They make instant potatoes in lots of different flavors now too.

[BrianLe]

"... and the "hiker hunger" didn't start to kick in until the third week, who knows what it'll be like for the third month!"

I think various things impact this, including how much body fat a person starts the trail with ... on the PCT it took me about a month before "the hunger" came upon me and I could get my money's worth out of AYCE buffets and the like.

One idea I've not seen listed so far is some sort of protein shake; I think it's good to get protein along the way (and some will food-geek out on which type of protein it is ...). For me it's nice to get fresh fruit and eat a yoghurt, that sort of thing when in town.

To keep life simpler I'll just have 5 resupply mail points on the AT next year, so I'll have to be a little more creative in some of the smaller stores along the way. For example, I'm not a big fan of tuna-mix meals, but might have to go that route. It's also possible to open a can of something in town and repackage in a ziplock (or double ziplock ... with care). I use the freezer bag cooking method, so if the food contents aren't particularly sharp/pokey, it can be helpful to make up the per-meal units in town to limit packaging --- and also to improve the odds of having the right proportion of fixin's for the various main meals.

+1 to olive oil, just do it, add an ounce to every dinner.

[TimeSnake]

potato ramen dinners cheap and filling

[garlic08]

All my three-season hikes over the last four years have been stoveless, so my diet is slightly different than most. And I'm vegetarian. I don't eat the pots of warm salty glop that most do. Instead I carry tortillas, cheese, peanut butter, muesli and powdered milk, crackers, fig newtons, nuts, raisins. And I buy it all as I go. I hiked the AT with no food drops. Once I hiked a couple of days on nothing but hot dog buns and peanut butter, but that was part of the fun.

I eat something every time I stop for more than a pee break. Yes, trail mix is a great meal if you carry enough trail mix.

[a_tigger]

+1 to olive oil, just do it, add an ounce to every dinner.

just cause it tastes good, or because of a particular vitamin / attribute?

interested

[BrianLe]

The reason people typically start adding olive oil is because it's a calorically dense food, i.e., a lot of calories for the weight carried, and it's easy to add a little to a dinner type meal. Goes well too with dried refried bean powder on a tortilla.

The reason people keep doing it is not only for the calories, but because it tastes so darned good. Better I think for thru-hikers than for ordinary humans. Kind of like, I expect, that folks who are working hard in very cold conditions can eat sticks of butter. The reaction of someone reading about that at home in their armchair is "yuck", but when your body wants the calories, oils and fats taste really really good.

[BrianLe]

I guess an adjunct to the comment about "calorically dense foods" is that it can get difficult to get enough calories to avoid losing weight (and maybe muscle mass) on the trail, in a form that you're able to choke down. Thru-hikers compensate as much as possible by pigging out in towns, but after the first few weeks a good thing to factor into meal planning is trying to get as many calories as possible into whatever it is you're eating.

[JoshStover]

Or Snickers bars dipped in Peanut Butter. I've done this & it's excellent.

Doesn't get any better than that!!!

[maxepstein]

Thanks Everyone! This has been really helpful.

[buz]

I think you will have to experiment regarding eating levels on what works best for your body. For me, I can't start without eating something in the first am. I would also rather snack more often then eat a real meal around lunch time. For that reason, I am a gorp type person. Dinner, different story, I am looking for a substantial big meal. I would just advise trying different things as you start, and I would predict you will find the best mix for your style. Peanut butter and olive oil are great foods for the trail, once that hunger kicks in.

[garlic08]

"...+1 to olive oil, just do it, add an ounce to every dinner.

Good stuff...in moderation! Pay attention to "an ounce"--that doesn't mean "half a cup". I hiked with an olive oil guzzler once, who went through a liter every week, claiming all the benefits of long life, etc. He finished the hike with chest pains and shortness of breath, went home and barely survived a heart attack at age 40. Way too much fat in his diet. It turns out the long-lived Mediterranean people eat olive oil in moderation, like an ounce a day.