Food.

My journey will be a short one if I am not able to eat.  Given the importance of the topic then, I imagine this will be the first part of several.

There are several different approaches people take to making sure they have food while on trail.  One approach is to prepare and dehydrate everything you will need, and then either taking it all with you from the start, or sending part of it to a location down trail where you will retrieve it later.  Another approach is the complete opposite, where you prepare nothing in advance and simply resupply along the way with whatever you may find.  At the moment, I am leaning towards a hybrid approach.

My plan is to start with the PCT, and just a quick google tells me the average time to complete that trail is between 148 and 162 days.  From prior backpacking trips I have noticed that I typically HATE everything I have packed to eat, and I will usually eat just the trail mix and dried fruit.  So I cannot imagine spending months to prepare food for 162 days, only to hate everything.  BUT I am going to spend some quality time drying fruits.

I’ve done some trial runs so far, drying fruit.  In terms of dehydrator, I have the Cabela’s 80L commercial dehydrator Model No. 28-0301:

I bought the dehydrator second hand from my cousin, and I think I paid $25.  It was an amazingly good deal, and I am most pleased.  For the basics, I have been using this book:

I’ve been reading and reviewing many websites and books, and I think this book is a great resource.

My first attempt at recreating one of their dehydrations was tofu.  I will circle back to my rationale for doing it, but for now I can say it was a failure.  Since I have 4 more blocks of tofu in my freezer, I will need to try it again if for no other reason than to just get rid of the stuff.  But after a few days, the dried tofu developed a smell very similar to truffles.  I knew in this context that was definitely not a smell you wanted, so I threw it out.

My second attempt at recreating one of their recipes was so successful that I have already scaled it up.  I dried fruit.  I first tried frozen fruit, and that was not good.  Next I tried canned fruit and, Jackpot!  So here is what I did.  I bought canned fruit in heavy syrup and laid it out on the trays.  I ran it through the dehydrator for 11 hours at 135˚F (~57˚C).  The result was delicious!  (The peaches may need an extra hour.)  I’ve eaten it all already so I will need to run another batch and just let it hang out in my kitchen so I can get a read on the shelf life.

Back to the tofu, and let’s talk exercise physiology.  When pushing yourself physically for the length of time it takes to complete a thru hike you will of course burn through all the carbs you take it, but you will also be burning more protein.  That is why I tried dehydrating tofu.  It’s a good source of protein – I just need to work out a way to like it.  But I have also started researching dehydrated and freeze dried meats in bulk.  I’ve ordered some samples, and they should be here this week.  I will let you know about them soon.  But I like the idea of being able to order freeze dried meats because I can have it delivered to a post office down trail, and put the extra in a bump box.  Being able to get something while on my adventure is important.

And speaking of being able to get things while on an adventure, I have also tried some protein products available in my local grocery store.  The first I will not recommend at this time:

The second I can recommend, and it turned out well.

I rehydrated this with hot water (I will try a cold soak next), and added a package of taco seasoning mix.  The result was a texture that was very similar to ground beef, and a flavor that was not too different.  This is definitely something I will try again.

Renee and Tim, in the book above, also dehydrate refried beans a good bit.  I’ve found pouches of refried beans in the grocery store that I have tried, and they’re pretty good.  Plus it does not need a can opener.  So I can see me having a Mexican fiesta in the back country!

So those are my food related experiments so far.  As I said at the top, this will have to be a series, so expect updates before too long.

OH! One last thing. I mentioned in my last post that I had a return to office mandate that I needed to appeal. I am very happy to say that my appeal was approved, and I do not have to return to Atlanta.

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