Fuel is essential for a thru-hiker, The average daily calorie intake for a man is 2500 per day. Factor in 20 miles hiking a day over undulating terrain in all weather conditions carrying up to 25 kgs on my back and that number goes up, a lot. My current estimate based on reading other people's blogs is that I'll be burning up to 7000 calories per day. There is no way I can enough food to sustain this sort of calorie intake, so whenever I'm off the trail eating is going to be a big priority. A 7000 calorie a day diet means a big shift towards fatty foods, the principal reason for that is energy density. 1 teaspoon of sugar weighs about 5 grams and contains approximately 20 calories,an equivalent mass of butter contains upward of 45 calories. Even with a slant toward energy dense foods all this is going to weigh a lot, my current estimate is about 1-1.2 kilos per day, so given I plan to go around 5-7 days between resuppply I should be carrying at a maximum about 7-8 kilos of food at the beginning of any section. Other than that the only other requirement for food is that I have to be able to prepare it with minimal effort, and it has to stay edible for the 5-7 days I might be between resupply towns. My strategy is therefore to break my meals into 2 main meals, breakfast and dinner, with one long continuous lunch in between. Menu ideas are below :
Breakfast
Cereal - preferably whole grain to encourage release of energy throughout the day
Porridge
Powdered milk
Pop tarts
Pop tarts
Continuous lunch
Trail mix - nuts and dried fruit
Crackers, biscuits, etc
Cheese
Dried/cured meats - jerky, salami, etc
Chocolate bars - snickers, etc
Nutella
Peanut butter
Peanut butter
Flat Breads - Tortillas, etc
Dinner
Mashed potatoes
Noodles
Pasta
Dried Vegetables
Added fats - butter, olive oil, lard, etc
Vitamins and Minerals
Calorific density of food
Below is a table on the calorific density of certain foods (see : http://thru-hiker.com/articles/). I will be using this as a basis for planning my meals past my basic menu above.
Mashed potatoes
Noodles
Pasta
Dried Vegetables
Added fats - butter, olive oil, lard, etc
Vitamins and Minerals
The human body generally has enough vitamins and minerals to sustain itself for a camping trip over a few days, 5 months on the PCT is a different matter. Ensuring I get all the vitamins and minerals I need will help in the long term avoid injuries and help my body keep going, but getting it all from food is probably not going to be feasible, so I'll be taking a multi vitamin and mineral supplement to make sure I'm getting everything I need. I have never taken supplements of any kind before and am general wary of them, but I think for my purposes they are justified as my diet will be far from perfect over the next few months;
Calorific density of food
Below is a table on the calorific density of certain foods (see : http://thru-hiker.com/articles/). I will be using this as a basis for planning my meals past my basic menu above.
| FOOD | % Water | Caloric density (Cal/g) |
|---|---|---|
| VEGETABLE / OLIVE OIL | 0 | 8.6 |
| BREADS, CRACKERS & CEREALS | ||
| Pringles potato chips | 2 | 6.1 |
| Tortilla chips | 2 | 5.1 |
| Cheese crackers | 4 | 5.0 |
| Stoneground crackers | no info | 5.0 |
| Trail mix | 9 | 4.7 |
| Choc. chip granola bar | 5 | 4.6 |
| Granola (Nat. Valley) | 4 | 4.5 |
| Quaker 100% Natural | 2 | 4.5 |
| Saltines (Premium) | 3 | 4.3 |
| Triscuits | no info | 4.3 |
| PopTart | 27 | 4.1 |
| Pretzels | 3 | 3.9 |
| Cheerios | 5 | 3.9 |
| Cracklin Oat Bran | 4 | 3.9 |
| Bagel, dried | 10 | 3.6 |
| Bagel, fresh | 29 | 3.0 |
| Pita | 31 | 2.8 |
| Whole wheat bread | 37 | 2.5 |
| English muffin | 42 | 2.4 |
| COOKIES & CANDY | ||
| Reeses peanut butter cups | 8 | 5.5 |
| Oreo, dbl-stuffed | no info | 5.0 |
| M&M peanuts | 2 | 4.9 |
| M&M plain | 1 | 4.8 |
| Oatmeal cookies | 3 | 4.8 |
| Chocolate chips | 1 | 4.8 |
| Choc. Chip cookies | 3 | 4.6 |
| Snickers | 6 | 4.5 |
| Graham crackers | 3 | 4.4 |
| Gingersnaps | 3 | 4.2 |
| Brownie (baked) | 16 | 4.1 |
| Hard candy | 1 | 3.8 |
| Fig bar | 12 | 3.8 |
| FRUITS & VEGETABLES (dried*) | ||
| Banana Chips (crispy) | 4 | 5.3 |
| Onions (dehyrdrated) | 4 | 3.2 |
| Raisins (seedless) | 15 | 3.0 |
| Figs | 29 | 2.6 |
| Apples* | 32 | 2.4 |
| Apricots* | 31 | 2.4 |
| Prunes | 32 | 2.4 |
| DAIRY, MEAT & NUTS | ||
| Margarine | 14 | 6.8 |
| Eggs (dried) | 2 | 6.2 |
| Peanuts (honey roasted) | 1 | 6.2 |
| Peanuts (dry roasted) | 1 | 5.9 |
| Peanut butter (chunky) | 2 | 5.9 |
| Cashews | 4 | 5.8 |
| CoffeeMate Creamer | 5 | 5.0 |
| Parmesan (grated) | 18 | 4.6 |
| Cheddar cheese | 37 | 4.1 |
| Dried buttermilk | 3 | 3.6 |
| Instant breakfast | 3 | 3.6 |
| Powdered skim milk | 4 | 3.5 |
| Jerky | 25 | 3.4 |
| Chicken McNuggets | 60 | 2.0 |
| Tuna in water | 74 | 1.2 |
| GRAINS | ||
| Chow Mein Noodles | 1 | 5.3 |
| Ramen Noodles (approx.) | 1 | 4.5 |
| Spaghetti, uncooked | 10 | 3.7 |
| White flour | 12 | 3.5 |
| Couscous (approx.) | 8 | 3.5 |
| Oatmeal, instant | 6 | 3.4 |
| Minute Rice (approx.) | 8 | no info |
Don't forget dates - California is a big date grower - Lawrence & Thesiger must have lived on them.
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