Food for long trips?

“My friend and I are planning to hike the Northville-Placid trail in the adirondacks of NY. The trail is 133 miles long, and we figure on it taking us 2-3 weeks.
My question is? What kind of food will last us that long besides ramen. Are we expected to carry the 3 weeks of food on our backs or are there towns along the way to take a detour to and refuel. I have only gone on trips up to 1 week long and fresh food has been sufficient.”

“joepits,
you can get some good ideas from the lightweight food forum.

Good luck; that sounds pretty ambitious.”

“Three weeks is a long time for most food not to mention the sheer weight of your load.. (~40 lbs of food) The PCT hikers may be able to help you on the subject as it wanders through more remote areas then any other trail im aware of and some do carry upwards of 20 food supplies

considering the area im sure you can find a resupply point midway (grocery store or PO to mail stuff to).”

“Trips this long take planning. I have never taken one this long, but I am a meticulous planner.

Four or five days is a long time between resupply. More than that and the fun goes away.

Prepare your own caches in advance. Select locations along your route near folks who can store and/or deliver your supplies. Include enough food in your caches to make it to the next resupply along with some other essentials like clean clothes, towels, soap, fuel, batteries, beer, etc. Don't forget the luxury items either.”

“I'm wanting to thru-hike the Cenntenial Trail next year. It's 110 miles. I'm thinking about cacheing my bear canister about the half way point so I won't have to get off the trail for food.”

“Caching used to be a fairly common way of resupplying along the AT, before civilization got so close to it.

It's a good thing that it's not anymore. Most cachers simply reburied the canisters they used to cache the food. Can you imagine what the AT corridor would be like now?”

“WD, I am sorry you don't have any friends who will help you.

Just kidding. I have hidden caches for myself.

I don't have any friends, but I have hidden caches.”

“bacpac
If I found one of your food caches, I'd bury it.”

“Bury it? Yo skinny @ss would chow down. ...and be wishin you had friends like me.”

“If you need me to set up a cache for you, just say the word.

Or just say the worm, cause that is what U B eatin when U get to the cache!!!”

“HAHAHA!!

My brother (Packrat) & I are talking about heading to Arkansas for a 4 day trip. Any suggestions. Don't recon we'll be needing a cache though.
Got any suggestions on a place. Want to hook up with us? It'll be July 11 - 14.”

“Joe a few points:

1) 1 1/2 pounds of food per day is a minimum and even with very high calorie food you are likely to lose weight on that.

2) The N-P does have a fair amount of road access (I did some planning/fantasizing about this trail... never did do it though).

3)In addition to leaving a food cache, you can thumb a ride into town to resupply and/or leave your car somewhere along the route. An alternative to leaving a cache is leaving your car at a trail head in the middle of the trail.

4) I'm not sure how fast you hike, but if you aren't overburdened it should be possible to do the trail in two weeks or less. The trail journal I saved a url for(http://asuaf.org/~mpatrick/outdoor/nptrail.htm) describes finishing the trail on the 8th day.

5) I've done 11 days without a food resupply. I started out eating more perishable food (cheese, crackers, sausage...)and kept the moral durable stuff (macaroni, dried things... see gearjunkie's link for more info).

6) I suggest asking for specific trail info here and on some local (i.e. Adirondack oriented) sites on a thread entitled "Northville-Placid Trail." Ask for info about good places to buy a meal, re-supply, hitch-hike into town etc.”

“Lots of food will last 3 weeks. Long before refrigerators people packed food. I am going to do a little research on it though and find out exactly how long certain foods will keep.

If I remember right, MP posted a weight/day that most people eat. That was very helpful. I wish she would post that again.”

“Hey, walkindude. Stratdewd's an Arkie, maybe he can help ya.”

“I read a scientific study on how cavemen preserved their meat... they submerged it in glacial water weighted with rocks..the researcher said that after six monthes it tasted funny but didnt harbor any harmful bacteria”

“I've carried 10 days of food. Repackaged everything to save weight. I eat about 1 lb/day. Freeze dried dinners, with hot chocolate and soup.
Lunches were either tuna in a pouch w/crackers, p-nut butter & cheeze crackers, powdered hummus with crackers
Breakfast is oatmeal or grits, coffee and bacon.
Snacks were Luna bars, Balance Gold bars, trail mix, candy.
Cytomax and lemonade (powdered)
Was out 30 days, lost 8 lbs and was craving fats after 20 days. Our resupply was at day 22, and they brought us all kinds of extra goodies. (bread, cookies, hardboiled eggs, beef sticks and cheese, fresh tabouli, donuts.......)”

“What the #&%!$ is tabouli?”

“and what did ya eat the other 12 days?

carried 10
resupply 22”

“Resupply along the route - I'd think. I did the Dacks at Christmas, and was kinda surprised at how not-so-remote they are.

I would think you could resupply every four or five days. "Yellow blazing" may be required, tho...

There are prolly dozens of trail angels in that area with whom you could prearrange food drops, shuttles, etc. Search for local hiking clubs.”

“Got resupplies along the way, carried 10 days max (day 11-21). One of the guys brought fresh tabouli, ground basil/celery/tomato type veggie dish. Whatever was in it was good! After the resupply we carried 8 days of food. We ate the same food for 30 days. I think after a few weeks you have to add more fats.”

“Got resupplies along the way, carried 10 days max (day 11-21). One of the guys brought fresh tabouli, ground basil/celery/tomato type veggie dish. Whatever was in it was good! After the resupply we carried 8 days of food. We ate the same food for 30 days. I think after a few weeks you have to add more fats.”