I have had a number of people ask me what I ate and how I handled the logistics of food on this trip. As a lactose intolerant vegetarian I figured my resupply options were slim and planned to carry the majority of my food. This meant that my bag started off quite heavy but I’m glad I did it this way. I think that resupplies would’ve made things significantly more complicated and in some cases may not of worked. When I went through downtown St. John’s I stopped at the outfitters, I wanted to treat myself to a dehydrated meal and they actually did not have any in stock. There are also times I walked past stores that were closed. The logistics of doing planned resupplies just would’ve been more complicated than I wanted. It was more worth it for me to carry the extra weight at the beginning and know I would always have food.
Since I know somebody is going to read this and realize that I am consuming some things that have dairy, my lactose intolerance is not severe. However, I cannot have dairy every meal or heavily based dairy meals. Small amounts, like in Nutella or the odd chocolate bar don’t have severe effects. Also some of the effects they do have on me I don’t care so much about when I am out on a trail alone.
Breakfast
Large flaked quick oats
Chia seeds
Raisins
Dehydrated strawberries
Calories: 323
Protein: 10.6g
Lunch
Wrap
Nutella
Calories: 390
Protein: 7g
Dinner
Rice noodles
Dehydrated vegetables
TVP
Calories: 240
Protein: 20g
Snacks
- Clif bars
Calories: 250
Protein: 10g
- Clif builder bars
Calories: 290
Protein: 20g
- Macro bars
Calories: 290 Protein: 11g - Endless Trail Mix
I just mixed a whole bunch of stuff together and kept adding to it.
I brought 12 servings of what would be breakfast because I really wanted to have more nutrients than a prepackaged oatmeal. I brought wraps and Nutella for my lunches and assumed originally that I’d have to buy more wraps or buy some peanut butter. I really thought I would be eating two of these a day but I didn’t. Most days I ate at least three protein bars. As I said in a previous post, I had a really hard time eating on the trail. I didn’t really find I got hungry and had to make myself eat a large portion of the time.
A friend has a dehydrator so I use that to help get my food ready. I dehydrated a whole pint of strawberries for my oatmeal and then added raisins to just to get a little bit more. I was also able to add blueberries to my oatmeal almost every day on the trail.
The veggies for my dinner consisted of six bell peppers, two onions, two carrots, two zucchini and 2 full dehydrators of greens. I mixed all this with vegetable broth and Sriracha powder. Essentially I made my own Ramen noodles but with more nutrients. Calorie wise it was pretty similar to a pack of Mr. noodles but had more vegetables and protein.
I was probably averaging about 2000 calories intake a day, not including the days I walked past convenience stores. If I walked past the convenience store, I would usually buy a sandwich, bag of chips, chocolate bar or ice cream. And I would eat it for the rest of my road walk so that I could have a garbage can to put everything in not have to carry the extra weight. I would also buy ramen or sidekicks for that night so I wouldn’t have the extra weight for very long.
I think that this really wasn’t enough calories but my food was high in nutrients. I’m really not sure how I could’ve comfortably ate more. I’ve wondered if this had something to with why I was so cold the second week but don’t think it is. I have always had problems with generating and retaining warmth and the temperature also dropped significantly the second week.
If I do another long hike, I do think I would do some food things differently. I really enjoyed the oatmeal and I thought it was very filling so I wouldn’t change that. The dinner was satisfying enough and flavorful, I didn’t want to eat it every single night but I went by enough convenience stores that I could get something to shake things up.
I do think I need to figure out something different for snacking and maybe lunch. The Nutella wrap really became just another snack and I didn’t have a set lunch per se. I know a lot of people while hiking will have a Mr. noodles or mashed potatoes or some kind of instant food for lunch. But I didn’t really have the hunger to sit down and pull out my stove and make something larger. I’m not entirely sure how to increase my snack intake easily. More protein bars isn’t really the answer but trail mix was harder to eat while hiking. If you have any favourite, easy, long lasting hiking snacks please comment below!
I had told myself that if I walked by restaurants or chip trucks that I would definitely stop and grab things. However, once I really got into the flow of hiking I had a hard time stopping. Most of the time if I saw a restaurant I would just be like no I don’t feel like stopping and taking my bag off and sitting down for a while. And I would often worry that it would make me late to my campsite. I did really enjoy stopping at convenience stores and just buying whatever I felt like eating at that moment.
Anybody else have a hard time eating while they are hiking?