Desert food choices

imported
#1

anyone care to share thoughts on food in the desert?

Kwijibo

#2

I was hoping this was going to be a misspelled “dessert” thread. Oh well.

It was in the desert on my PCT hike that I started toying with stoveless hiking. I haven’t carried a stove since. My menu is at http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=213108. One really good reason it worked well for me is that it takes less water to cook and clean up, so dry camps are more fun.

Garlic

#3

Ditto what Garlic says. I only hike stoveless these days.

bowlegs

#4

…(and thanks, garlic, for that menu link…we like “muesli”, too!)…however, having a meal to cook in the middle of the day (which is when paw and i would search out a bit of shade and “hole up” out of that blazing desert sun for a while) makes for a nice break and a full tummy to nap on! :>) …we used our dehydrated homemade meals…and then suppers were lighter, store-bought stuff…homemade gingerbread bars (like cookies) have become a well-loved staple for me…put everything nutritious in there you can (sweet potatoes, molasses, whole wheat, amaranth, walnuts, etc) and cut them to fit sandwich baggies…they keep FOREVER, are sturdy, and i never got tired of the flavor (though i did make some chocolate ones, too, that i interchanged occasionally)…i thought desert hiking would make me less hungry because of the heat…uh…no!..

maw-ee

#5

For me, it was the same as the food everywhere else on the trail…there’s no particular reason to change.

The same needs apply in the desert in mid May as in northern Washington in mid September:

  • Adequate nutrition / nutrients / protein
  • adequate calories / energy content
  • high energy density in terms of volume and weight in the pack (equals light to carry and small volume)
  • high energy density per unit volume when ready to consume (equals you can actually eat the volume of food needed to obtain the above adequate nutrition and calories)
  • and possibly most importantly it must be appetizing to you at the time.

Token Civilian

#6

Thanks guys, I was wondering about specific changes you made for the desert as well - I love snickers, seems like a bad idea in the desert.

Thanks

#7

If you hiked the AT in summer, you have much the same food concerns as the PCT in spring. Chocolate melts, cheese goes oily, water gets lukewarm, etc. A lot depends on your tastes. When I’m hiking in hot weather, no matter the place or season, I’ll replace my five days of cheese with two of cheese and three of peanut butter, for instance. I prefer cheese to peanut butter, but cheese and hot weather don’t mix well (unappetizing, not necessarily dangerous). I don’t carry meat, eggs, or chocolate, so those aren’t a concern for me.

My wife would smear her melted Snickers on a tortilla and enjoy it that way, so Token Civilian has a point, too. It’s not necessarily a bad idea.

In hot weather, I increase my salt intake. I’ll carry extra crackers or pretzels.

Garlic

#8

I carried oranges on pct despite the wgt …thy were fantastc ! I don’t care how hot it is I don’t go anywhere without chocolate :slight_smile:

yappy