Food, Glorious Food

I prepackaged food for my hike.  There are 2 ways to resupply on the AT.  One method is to purchase food at grocery stores, gas stations, hostels, outfitters and convenience stores along the way.  The other is to have boxes of food sent to AT maildrops.  I will be doing both.  There are 4 locations along the trail with meager provisioning.  For those, I will receive resupply packages.  For the majority of the trail, I will purchase what I need at the available sources.  Of course, there are also restaurants, hotels, and hostels which will provide much needed protein, fruits, and vegetables.

Here’s some of the staples I’ve packed:

• BREAKFAST: Oatmeal, Pop Tarts, Carnation Instant Breakfast, hot chocolate
• LUNCH: Peanut butter, Nutella, Granola, chai tea, powdered drink mix
• DINNER: Ramen noodles, Knorr side dishes, Idahoan powdered mashed potatoes, tuna, mac n’ cheese, Mountain House freeze dried meals
• SNACKS: Kind granola bars, dried apple chips, marzipan bars, Reese’s Peanut Butter cups, beef/pork jerky

I’ve repackaged most of the food to reduce weight and volume (1st picture below).  I spooned peanut butter and Nutella in snack size zip-locks for easy sqeezin’ onto tortillas.  Ramen noodles, mac n’ cheese, and Knorr sides are crushed, extra spices added, and placed 2 per quart zip-lock.  Oatmeal has coconut, raisins, dried cranberries and brown sugar added.  For most meals I will heat water, pour into zip-lock bag, wait, and then eat.  Each days worth of food is placed into a gallon zip-lock for easy shipping (2nd photo).  I calculate each bag has approximately 3500 Calories of nutrition.  Not enough to maintain weight, but enough to get me to the next all-you-can-eat (AYCE) buffet.