PCT Day 40 – Food

Zero in Tehachapi – no hiking

This post suggestion came from an awesome reader, Dharma. Thanks for reading and commenting! A lot of our zero days are very boring to write about since we mostly sit around all day, run errands, nap, and snack. So I’m always down to write about what y’all are interested in as it makes great zero day material.

Like I said, Dharma was curious as to what I’ve been eating on the trail so I’m going to walk you through a normal day of food and point out what’s been working for me and where I vary from the conventional wisdom. It’s also worth noting that I eat a gluten free diet which influences what I can eat and how easy it is to do my grocery shopping. This also means that I spend way more on food than Keith, since there is often only one type of bread or cookies that I can eat.

Breakfast –

I hate oatmeal, I really do, I also cannot eat normal pop tarts so that cuts out two of the more common hiker breakfasts. This means I’ve had to get a little creative when it comes to breakfast. When I started the trail I was eating cheesey grits and dried jalapenos with a cup of coffee. However, having to cook breakfast every day before you hit the trail really slows down your morning. Then I tried Nutella on a GF hotdog bun, which was ok except it’s really sweet and the buns turn into crumbles after two days and you’re left eating bread crumbs and Nutella four days. Now I’m mostly eating cereal/granola and dried milk with a cup of instant coffee. Which I’m sure my parents find hilarious since that was the last thing I would ever eat for breakfast as a kid.

Lunch –

Some hikers don’t believe in lunch. Not in the way people don’t believe in unicorns but rather in the way that they don’t believe it’s worth it, preferring to snack all day between camps. However, I don’t like bars that much and I really don’t want to die choking on a Snickers as I attempt to walk and eat at the same time. Plus, I’ve found there’s a huge morale boost in having a real meal to look forward to in the middle of the day. Since the beginning of the trail I’ve been eating nearly the same thing for lunch and I haven’t gotten sick of it. A GF bagel with salami, cheese, and mayo, with a side of chips and a candy bar if I’m still hungry. Hard meats like summer sausage, salami, and pepperoni will keep for at least a week without refrigeration and the same goes for hard cheese like cheddar. And you can almost always snag a handful of mayo packets from the deli counter. This sandwich makes me very happy. Very happy indeed.

Dinner –

(I don’t have any pictures of dinner because hunger)

Dinner represents the biggest variety in our meals, and the only meal we plan out each day ahead of time. You don’t want to find out you didn’t pack enough dinners.

When we resupply from a grocery store things look a little different than when we pick up a box we’ve mailed ourselves. On the first day out of town we’ll pack out something a little heavier, and that won’t keep for multiple days. Often this is sausage and potatoes, or beanie weenies (a favorite of Keith’s). The rest of the meals are some combination of dried starch and a protein. Mac and cheese and tuna, ramen and salmon, instant mashed potatoes and summer sausage, or an instant soup mix. You’re probably catching on to a bit of a theme here around tuna. It’s one of the very few protein sources you can get on the trail which isn’t a powder.

Now when we get a resupply box, dinners are a lot more exciting. Before the trail we ordered bulk dried veggies and meats and packaged them into individual meals such as beef ramen with buckwheat and yam noodles, spaghetti Bolognese, Thai peanut noodles with chicken, and been, beef and cheese burritos. All told we made 10 recipes six times each for a total of 60 dinners between 11 resupply boxes. Again, this is where we diverged from conventional wisdom which says to make your boxes on the trail and send them ahead as needed. But we knew we’d be able to make better meals ourselves and so took the risk.

Putting together a Resupply –

I’m not a fan of resuppling, it’s always laced with unnecessary stress and I worry that I’ll miss something important and only discover what I’m missing once I’m on the trail and it’s too late to fix it. For this reason I always make a shopping list! I really encourage everyone to do this, if nothing else it speeds up the shopping process greatly – otherwise you’ll spend an hour wandering blankly around and not buy anything.

After shopping I typically explode my purchases out, bag what needs to be baged and throw out any extra packaging. I’m not a person who portions out what I plan on eating each day, preferring to eat what looks good in moment and generally remember that I can’t eat everything at once or else I won’t have enough for the section. So far this method is working out.

Aaaand that’s about it. Let me know if you folks have questions.