I’m entertaining thoughts about not using a camp stove on the AT next year. No particular reason other than to just give it a try - I don’t think the weigh will be any different. To the experienced trekkers out there, what are your thoughts? I’m guessing with frequent resupply and town visits, I’ll still get plenty of hot meats. How about menu? I’m concerned about the same old same old every resupply.
Ankle Express
I just finished a stoveless AT thru hike, and wouldn’t do it any other way. It was simpler, safer, cheaper, faster, but you’re right, not much lighter. I tended to carry more fresh food, which was heavier but usually made for a better menu, I think.
I wrote a couple of preparation entries in Trailjournals.com about it–http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=213035
I was able to resupply at C-stores at roadway crossings and that kept me from going into quite a few towns, which saved money and time. The menu was limited sometimes to PB on hotdog buns for a day or so, but I thought the benefits outweighed those boring menu days.
I didn’t do a single mail drop for food and never had to rush into town for PO hours. I only had one or two disappointing resupplies, but always found enough. It was really nice, too, to never have to worry about finding or carrying fuel.
With the hundred of dollars saved on mail drop and town costs, I bought some excellent meals along the way. I never cringed at an $8 salad in Shenandoah, for instance. From PA to NY, I enjoyed the diner-a-day tour and carried very little food. Buying meals in at the AMC huts in the Whites (bottomless soup bowls for lunch every day) was great, too.
I met nearly a dozen other hikers doing the same thing, so it’s not unheard of. Many more said they’d love to give it a try if only they could give up the morning coffee…
Garlic
“Diner a day Tour”? That’s a new one. Is it possible to chow down at an eatery/store once a day on that stretch?
CitySlicker
“Dinner” was not really a valid concept anymore, neither was breakfast or lunch. Just find something you like to eat and eat a lot of it all the time. For me it was tortillas with cheese (especially in VT), fresh fruit and veggies as much as I could carry, bagels around NYC, deli sandwiches, etc. Cold cereal with powdered milk was always good, too, I could eat 4 cups a day, easily, and I tried to make my own with oats, raisins, and nuts.
The diner-a-day tour was a blast, for at least 10 days in there, I think. There were a few long 25+ miles days to do it, but it was worth it. Sometimes there was an ice cream stop in there, too, like at the Bellvale Creamery in NY. I never walked more than a mile off trail to do it.
garlic
My list:
Any time: Cheese sandwiches (very satisfying, a great comfort food).
Anytime: Peanut butter, honey and raisin sandwiches.
Anytime: Powdered milk (reconstituted), oatmeal, raisins, sugar.
Anytime: Powdered milk (reconstituted) and sugar, shaken into a milkshake.
Anytime: Oranges, bananas, apples, cherries.
Anytime: Green bean, pea pods, tomatoes (in sandwich); green, red or yellow peppers.
Anytime: Cookies.
Anytime: Fruit pies.
Anytime: Any other edibles I come across.
Conan
Conan
I just walked the LT stoveless last month, and wouldn’t do it any other way. I’m planning on doing the AT within the next year or two, and will probably do it the same way. (And I say this as someone who works in kitchens and who’s an avid cook at home!) My initial plan was to hike 100% raw (a la Ray Jardine), but soon realized that this would be too expensive, and that I didn’t really want to go three weeks without chocolate 
Here’s my basic method: I carried a good watertight tupperware-type container (lock-n-lock brand), I think it has about a 1.5 cup capacity. Before I left, I made my own muesli-style cereal, mostly with bulk ingredients found at a local discount food store. I don’t have a specific recipe, but ingredients are as follows: rolled oats, hemp seed protein powder (this was pretty pricey, but it’s the only protein supplement I’ve found that agrees with me), seeds (sesame, sunflower, pepitas), nuts (almonds, cashews, walnuts, hazelnuts), dried fruit (dates, figs, apricots), and shredded unsweetened coconut (for me, the coconut flavor is key!). I put this through the food processor to obtain a fairly fine consistency, somewhere between stone-ground flour and quick-oats. I’d guess my ingredient ratio was about 4:2:1 - oats:fruit/nuts:hempseed. But that’s just a guess.
In the evening, I’d put as much muesli as I thought I’d want in the morning into my tupperware, add enough water to cover, and let it soak overnight. When I woke up, instant breakfast! Most days, I’d mix up another batch after breakfast to have for supper. The single dish/single utensil method made clean-up real easy. I only washed the tupperware every couple of days, since it always had the same stuff in it. (If I left it for too long, it would start to smell pretty yogurt-y like the leftovers were starting to ferment.)
As others have mentioned, I didn’t worry too much about meals and just ate whenever I was feeling hungry (or tired or cold). I carried fresh apples and carrots with my the whole time. My thoughts on carrying fresh produce: the extra weight is WATER, which the body needs anyway, and which we’re carrying plenty of anyway. There were plenty of times when I was really glad I had my apples because they did a good job keeping me hydrated, unlike salty and/or dehydrated snacks. When I stopped for groceries, I made a point of picking up other fresh produce as well (radishes, snap peas, avocados, green beans) that I could eat within a day or two.
I always had a variety of nuts and seeds with me, usually raw almonds, cashews, and sunflower seeds. I also had some plain rolled oats for times when I was sick of muesli–all of this I usually made a point of soaking for at least a few hours.
After about a week and a half, I ditched the raw foods diet because I started inheriting food from other hikers–who can say no to hand-outs and trail magic! I ate A LOT of Clif Bars, to which I’m completely addicted (seems most people are looking for a way to get rid of em, so I readily gobbled up everyone else’s). Other standards: peanut butter, of course–on pitas or crackers or tortillas, or just by the sporkful. If I weren’t a vegetarian, I’m sure I would have brought tuna/salmon/sardines/jerky/etc. I did eat my first-ever can of sardines on the trail–that was quite an experience! One guy gave me honey packets (just like ketchup packets) and those were quite a treat. Oh, and perhaps my favorite thing of all: SEAWEED! I went through probably 3 packages of various kinds of seaweed from the coop–dulse, laver, and nori (the kind used for sushi wrappers). Salty, chewy satisfaction, plus it contains lots of minerals.
If I were hiking later in the season with nights below freezing, I might consider bringing a stove just to heat up water for tea and a hot water bottle. But remember: there are other people on the trail and if you ask nice you can probably borrow a stove for a few minutes if you’re truly desperate (just give them something in return for the fuel you use).
I heard stories of other hikers who sent their stove home and then started going crazy without it, but I was perfectly happy. Mind you, everything I was eating was more or less stuff that I would eat at home anyway. Oats and apples are pretty much my staple foods on the trail or off, fleshed out with some nuts and chocolate and other calorie-dense stuff. Plus, when I got home, making omelets and soup and french toast and grilled cheeses and pizza etc etc felt super-exciting!
Hand Me Down
I went cookless on a thru-hike of the Tahoe Rim Trail in 2003. For what it’s worth, I carried about two pounds of food, with about 3500 calories, for each day on trail. I made it through the two weeks of the hike without ever lighting up the Esbit stove I brought for emergencies, but I did have a couple of hot meals off trail along the way.
My diet was pretty basic: granola with milk, dried fruit, and cold instant coffee for breakfast, Bear Valley pemmican bars and Accelerade sports energy drink for lunch, and tortillas, salami, and cheese for dinner. I had Clif bars and fruit-nut mix for munching on during the day.
Re going cookless, the one thing I would very strongly suggest is that you test your planned diet for several days before you set out (ideally on a training hike). I know I found that once I got out on the trail, I craved some of the food items I had brought (salami!) and I just wasn’t interested in some of the others. You might as well find out what you’re not going to be interested in before you get out on the trail.
There is a boredom factor with going cookless. The next long hike I did after the Tahoe Rim Trail (which happened to be the John Muir Trail), I added some hot items back into my menu, primarily hot coffee in the morning and some soup with dinner at night, and it made a huge difference.
Snowbird
Snowbird after working for the evil empire (Starbucks) for 4 years of my life I definetly know the importance of a hot cup of coffee. However this year on my John Muir trail hike, I didn’t use the Black Elixir of Love at all, even though I had a stove. I decided to save the weight of the cup, sugar, fuel, and NesCafe by just simply taking a No Doz every morning. This got me the caffiene, but saved weight and time every day. Plus the generic Stay Awake brand is super cheap. Each pill is 200mg of caffiene, compared to 68mg in a cup of Starbucks, or 86mg in Folgers. Try it. For a bona fide caffiene junkie like me, this definetly makes sense in the hiking world, and contributes to a stoveless lifestyle.
Also. If you need the black stuff just drink your NesCafe cold. Your water will be frigid anyway.
NesCafe is the only way to go. Get the brand in the Glass Jar if possible with as much Spanish on the container as possible. I drink ALOT of coffee and find this to be the smoothest most pleasent type availible on the market.
Other favorite stoveless:
Bagels. These are awesome tons of protein and carbs. Availible everywhere, fine when smashed in the pack.
Cheese. Never needs refrigeration.
Pepsi. Free from hunters.
Payday candy bars.
Peanuts. Only taste good on a hike.
Fresh Sierra Wild Onions:cheers
Guino