how do I eat and carry 4000 calories

[Grimace]

that weighs anything. An empty can weighs a few ounces. It's all the water in the canned food that weighs you down. I think you'll find it very difficult to carry multiple days of hydrated food.

[Dirty_Wabbit]

: / better thatI know now than find out later... thankies

[ga2me97]

I ate just about all of the foods the previous posters mentioned. After hiking for weeks on end you will learn what you need and how much. You will get hungry and you will lose weight. Just don't get to carried away with planning, especially food drops. Foods you like in GA/NC will be very unappealing the farther north you get. There would be nothing worse then spending hundreds and hundreds of dollars on food you may not want to eat. Many of my fellow thru-hikers in 97 ended up throwing half if not all of their food drops in hiker boxes along the way because they got sick of the same food. In 1997 I just about had no trouble resupplying anywhere along the trail. Six plus years later it should be even easier. Oh well just my thoughts, hike your hike and good luck.

First time posting, great site.

[Dirty_Wabbit]

You know. I think Ill take that advice. I plan on having enough money to buy what I need mostly. So I think I will research some foods I can have dropped in case I need to carry non perishables.

[MadAussieInLondon]

a wee dram of that single malk speyside... mmmm... i see you can get lightweight plastic hipflasks.. what do you carry your whisky in Virginian?? mmm a Sigg fuel bottle loaded with whisky.. now that would be a treat on the West Highland Way in october!!

[Companion]

I suggest GHEE, clarified butter. It wont go rancid. Its semi solid and so there wont be any leakage like oil. And hey! butter isnt exactly lo cal.

[MOWGLI]

My friend Uncle (PA-ME 2000) told me (while pickin' blueberries on the flanks of Mt Everett) "Little Bear, there isn't a single thing in this world that isn't made better by adding a little olive oil."

Gotta agree with him.

[UberPest]

don't forget about dehydrating your foods for mail drops. If your Mom really wants to make food to send in, this is the way to go.

a 10 oz can of chicken is now about 2 ounces, 6 oz of tuna is now 1.5. I did up about 5lbs of roma tomatoes yesterday and they're down to about 3 oz and fit in a sandwich baggie. You can vacuum pack these for longer shelf (or pack) life, if you want to.

Pick up or borrow a copy of "Lipsmackin' Backpackin'" by Tim and Christine Connors. It's got some great calorie-loaded recipes (some I'd never have thought of on my own-- I'm more a "ramen and mixed veggies" type of gal).

[Rain Man]

Originally posted by Dirty_Wabbit
I know this may sound wierd but, do you guys know of those little food things that suck the air out of food? Well if you do...I am wondering...if say I bought some can food...speghetti o's let say an didnt heat them just stuck em in one of those bags an sucked the air out of them...shouldnt they be good to go same as in the can?...

"Food Savers" don't work with wet foods, only dry. The liquid would get sucked out with the air... and ruin the Food Saver.

Now,.. if you froze the wet food.....

Rain Man

[gravityman]

Canning works by heating up all the food to kill the badies, then sealing it in that state. If you open up a can, or whatever, and then reseal it, you are allowing bacteria and other things access to the food. Since vacuum sealing it doesn't kill that bacteria, you could be exposing yourself to some pretty nasty stuff. One baterium can make many bacteria given time...

Gravity Man

[UberPest]

my plan for resupplying (and this discussion can go elsewhere in another thread, should the need arise) is to make up a half dozen or so drops of foods that I know I like and have those shipped in. My "at home" person will play it by ear from there-- I'm leaving some money at home for just that reason. This way I can taylor my tastes along the way, or have it mailed in with fresher (though still dried) foods. I'm also buying "too heavy to mail" foods (peanut butter) and perishables (tortillas) along the way

Another good luck thing that I have on my side is that our peach trees gave a bumper crop this year, and a relative works at a large fruit market. I'm getting as many apples, pears, tomatoes, etc. as possible from her for making into snacks and dinners.

I have a big list of recipes to package up. If I DID decide to premake all my dinners I'd eat each one no more than twice all summer. This would work out well if I decide I don't like something, I don't have weeks and weeks of the same thing to look at.

I also just graduated, so I'm pretty used to the steady diet of noodles and sauce (except at my last apartment-- a mouse got into all my Lipton dinners--- I hope you're peeing lemonade you little *&@#$^%!

[gravityman]

I have to say, that's the best plan. It's a lot of work, which is why I would shy away from it, but it seems like you are happy to do it, so more power to you. I think you will be very happy with it. As long as the stuff you are drying turns out good, you will be happy you have it.

Anything extra from a maildrop can be bounced ahead. Keep that in mind...

Also check out Jack's resupply advice, as that will let you plan out things a bit more in detail. Just look for places that don't have a good resupply point, like Fontana Dam : http://ubmail.ubalt.edu/~dhaynes/bal...ckarticle.html

Gravity Man

[chris]

Home drying your meals works very, very well indeed. If you can come up with 7 or 10 different meals, that might be enough variety. I would still plan a few places to buy in towns. Keeps things fresh and different.

A bag of dried vegetables helps a lot with Liptons, Ramen, Mac and Cheese, etc. Onions, peppers, celery, carrots, zuccini, etc, work really well. Potatoes absolutely, positively, do not work well. It takes a while, but dry up a gallon zip lock bag. Take out about a pint at a time, putting the rest into a bounce box. Replenish as needed. This adds a minute amount of calories, but a lot of flavor, texture, and fiber.

[gravityman]

Our personal food drying was not a good experience. We need more practice, and maybe a better drier. Also, not being in florida might help. Oranges didn't work either. We tended to burn our stuff. We had someone ship us dried veggies from Whole Foods where you can buy it in bulk. A lot easier.

We did have an AMAZING dried indian dinner. Most of the others were terrible.

That's what so good about uberpest's way. If you don't like it, you didn't invest too much money or time. But it is enough to keep your diet varied.

Gravity Man

[Mudchaos]

Tracey

Have you checked out "Just Tomatoes, etc..." their premade veggie mix has bell peppers but they also sell many different veggies (and tofu) seperately. If looking for mail drop items this may be an option, buying a bunch of different types that you like and making your own mix.

Just Tomatoes, etc... link: http://tinyurl.com/n2u8

Rich T

[gravityman]

It was a homemade indian dinner (yes, indian, not Native American. I did my undergrad at Umass amherst. The culture there is VERY sensitive to that Some kind of lamb curry if I remember right...

I'm sure we wrote about it in our journals. I'll have to look. I remember where we ate it : Wesser Bald Shelter. We're working on our album (just started after over 2 years. It took us that long to be ready to really think about it again. Too much tough memories about having to leave the trail. Sigh....)

Gravity Man

[stickman]

Dirty Wabbit, I used a vacuum sealer for the first time this summer on a week-long section hike. I cooked bacon and sealed it up and it was perfectly good 10 days later, with no spoiled smell or taste. It also seemed to protect tuna fish (immediately from the can to the bag, so as to not pick up contamination in my kitchen, even air-borne microbes, etc). I can't vouch for more than that, but it seemed to work fine for at least the 10 days between preparation and the end of my hike.

I'd love to know if anyone has more experience with one of these, recipes, techniques, etc.

[UberPest]

Originally posted by gravityman
Our personal food drying was not a good experience. We need more practice, and maybe a better drier. Also, not being in florida might help. Oranges didn't work either. We tended to burn our stuff. We had someone ship us dried veggies from Whole Foods where you can buy it in bulk. A lot easier.

Citrus foods in general tend to not work so well since they're mostly water. The best fruits are high in pectin (apples, pears, bananas, peaches, etc).

For some reason the peaches aren't doing well as anything but leathers this year. Well then, I guess I'm eating a lot of peach (or peach blend) leathers next year. The jerkys, meats, and veggies are doing well at least.

I was lucky to have older brothers in Boy Scouts. Mom learned to dry foods in the early 80s for the boys' scouting trips. If I have any questions I can always ask her.

That's what so good about uberpest's way. If you don't like it, you didn't invest too much money or time. But it is enough to keep your diet varied.

Gravity Man

Thanks.

FWIW, potatoes and onions aren't worth doing at home for how cheap they are at the store. Apricots and peaches aren't going to turn out as nice as what you can get at the store, either. I'd stay away from drying eggs at home (though there are a few books that do say it's okay). So far I've had good experience with canned fish and chicken in addition to normal stuff like jerky, veggies, and fruit. Rice and pasta can be cooked at home, dried, and then reconstituted on the trail by cooking for half the original time (sometimes you only need to let them soak in water to rehydrate). Refried beans look like grapenuts when dried, but rehyderate perfectly for burritos and such (just remember to NOT season at home and to keep them as far from anything with spice in it... or you might end up with apple-cinnamon flavored beans, something I learned the hard way).