Just wanting to see what others have packed, in order to figure out what I really need and don’t need. Thanks for any help.
Raven
Food Supply Lists
system
#3
add to the list above:
instant potatoes, tuna in oil, olive oil, tortillas, snickers, cheese, hummus, bagels, peanut butter, pop-tarts, cereal bars, spaghetti, tea, etc…
my favorite on the trail is burritos. one example:
instant refried black beans and lipton smoked choptle rice. sharp cheddar cheese or pepper jack and taco bell hot sauce all in a tortilla.
jerm
system
#4
My favorites:
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Oatmeal, raisins, honey.
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Bread, peanut butter, raisins, honey.
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Bread, cheese, tomato.
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Egg noodles, olive oil, garlic, paremesan cheese.
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Coffee, Coffee, Coffee.
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An occasional dehydrated meal for 4.
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Milkshakes: dry milk, sugar, water, shaken not stirred. Drunk two quarts at a time.
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At a road crossing, an entire pie with a quart of milk.
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Tuna, salmon, chicken.
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Scrambled eggs with ketchup.
Sincerely–Conan.
Conan
system
#5
Raven. I’m a summer section hiker. I do not carry a stove, fuel, etc. My favorite energy bars are Clif bars. Every three or four days I will cross some type of trail town with a place to buy food or go to a restaurant, for a cheap meal. This is what I bring with me.
Breakfast: Granola cereal & powder milk, Clif bar or pop tart.
Snacks: Homemade GORP or Clif bar.
Lunch: Bagel with peanutbutter. I make this first thing in the morning before taking off, saves time at lunch.
Snacks: Gorp or Clif bar.
Dinner: Pouches: Salmon or Tuna.
Hard block of cheese (different types)
Salami
Tortillia wraps: Sun Dried, Spinich etc.
Fill wraps with cheese, salami, tuna,
peanutbutter, etc. small packets of condiments
from fast food restaurants.
Powder drink mix, M&Ms for dessert.
Bilko
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#7
Dear Al,
Vitamin and mineral supplements are a must.
With the high reliance on fatty, salty, denatured food, which in real life would tend to denature all of us, we need all the water and supplements we can get.
Jabber
Jabber
system
#9
We did all of the above. One of my favorites was instant pudding. I put it in a ziplock with the powdered milk added water, pressed all of the air out, then squeezed the bag several times to get it mixed good. Then I set it aside until I fixed and ate my dinner. I bit off one of the bottom corners and squeezed out the pudding. When I was through, I just put the empty ziplock in my trash bag. Nothing to clean up! If you want to share the pudding, let someone bite off the other corner.
TVP We learned this one from “Model T”. We added TVP to all of our dinner meals if we had no meat for protein. Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP) is made from soybeans. It is very light weight and doesn’t change the flavor of the meal you add it to. We would add about a table spoon for each of us for that added protein we needed. We put it in our maildrops but found it in lots of larger stores along the trail. A ziplock half full would last use for 3 or 4 weeks.
Papa Smurf
system
#10
If you can carry tuna in a can you can also try chicken, ham, turkey, lobster, crab, and clams. I carry all of them on every backpack trip I take.
Also you can try the no-bake dessert section in the groceryt store. They can be alittle heavy so eat them the first night or two out of town. The only ingredient you have to add is powdered milk. I also use a squeeze bottle of butter for the crust. The butter can also be added to many other things to add fat to your diet.
I recommend getting a food dehydrator. You can carry many fruits and veggies and they weigh only ounces after you dry them. You can also dry soups, spaghetti sauce, salads and other things to vary your menu.
For snacks and sweets, just about anything goes. Contrary to popular belief, SNICKERS are not a necessity. Take what YOU like. For round crackers, carry them in a pringles can.
Eggs can be cracked and put into an airtight container or Nalgene bottle. In cool weather, the eggs will stay fresh for at least 2 days, possibly longer.
Sprouts can be carried also if you have a container.
Fresh meat can also be taken on a long hike, but it must be packed well in an airtight container and it must be eaten the first night out of town unless you have someway to keep it cool. I’ve done this with hamburger, steak, pollock, fish, and chicken. Or if you can, before you get back on the trail, cook it first, but still pack it well.
different socks
system
#11
One thing I forgot to mention: I never carry ramen unless it is a quick overnight or it’s the only thing I can afford and the onlt thing the store has. There is almost always something better to eat.
I tried macncheese once on the Long Trail and once on the AT. Never tried them again and never will. If I can afford macncheese I can afford Lipton dinners instead.
different socks
system
#12
Raven,
On our thru hike we got our food down to about 2lbs per day for the two of us. And about 4,000 to 6,000 calories each.
That two pounds included all meals and snacks for a day.
Occasionaly we would get into a town and hard boil a dozen eggs and eat them in two days or buy banana, fresh veggies but we ate it or cooked it within the first 5 to 10 miles after leaving town. We only carried two cans in six months. Both of them were vienna sausage. We would try to get tuna or chicken in a foil pack when we could because they were not packed in a lot of fluids (added weight). Also, we had to remember we were carrying out the trash and the weight of that trash was important.
A lot of week and weekend hikers would try to burn their trash which only made a mess in the fire rings. It was not unsual to carry a trash bag of items people would try to burn, from tuna cans, plastic coke bottles, soda cans to MRE foil packs.
Just a suggestion, when you select your food, think about repackaging your food. Even the dinners, put them in zip locks and just cut out the small directions and put it in the zip bag.
We take 10 highschoolers on the AT (Damascus to Troutdale VA) every June since our thru hike. We put them through one day of orientation before we leave on our hike. We prepare to below 30 degrees (we’ve had snow in June on Mt Rodgers). Their packs weight only 28 to 35 lbs with 6 days of food. They carry everything they need. The food was the biggest problem we had in the beginning. They wanted to carry everything they could find they were use to eating. The first trip they carried out over half the food they started with. Now they have learned to shop wisely and are able to hike with about 1 lb to 1.5 lbs per day.
They all learned to cook on a tuna can stove and select food that will cook in 10 minutes or less.
Try reading as many journals as you can and make a list of what other thru hikers are eating. I’m not saying thru hikers are that smart but when you carry a pack for 5 to 6 months and sleep on the ground you learn how important weight and food are. You have to get the most for the less weight.
One other thing eat what you will pack at home for about a week and see if you like it. Our diet changed very little because we experimented before we left for our thru hike. Flame and I had done about 500 miles of the AT in sections two years before we did our hike in '02 and had our menu down pat.
Raven, hope this helps. Have a great hike!
Papa Smurf
system
#13
thanks everyone for your help with this subject =) has gave me alot of insight, :boy
Raven
system
#14
If you haven’t seen my cooking site, it never hurts to take a look 
I have quite a few recipes/ideas/tips, etc, blahblahblah up on it.
Sarah
sarbar