I start my first long backpack sunday

“My friend Matt and I are planning to start the Northville-Placid trail

http://home.nycap.rr.com/josephp/map.jpg

of the Adirondacks on sunday. We are both 18. It is 120 miles through foothills. We plan on taking 11 days to reach Lake Placid, NY. The thing is I have just began planning and buying food we will need. I have 3 days in which to buy and dehydrate the food. The trail passes through places to resupply twice so we only need to carry about 4 days of food. However I have to dehydrate it and mail it to the PO soon.

Right now I have the stuff for beef jerky but I cant decide on a recipe.
I am thinking we bring a lot of rice, beans, ramen, jerky, dried fruit, dried vegetables.”

“Lucky you...I haven't been out for more than 2 days and 3 nights. :o(”

“You'll never forget this trip!

Happy trails.”

“Sounds like you need to get your butt in gear.

bad pun intended.

Have Fun”

“JP, sounds like a great adventure! I'll be up in the 'Dacks tomorrow to do some hiking (Dix Range and others). Your food menu sounds good, nice mix of carbs and proteins. Hope you enjoy your trip!”

“Given that it takes about 12 hours to dry a tray of vegetables, you probably won't be able to do much in the way of dehydrating food before you go. No matter. You can either buy some packets of dried vegetables at your local outdoor store, or do without, or just pick up some fresh stuff (onions and carrots) to eat the first night out at each of your stops. There is a lot of dried fruit easily available too -- just beware - some people can't tolerate a lot of it without really upsetting their systems -- and it can get heavy. You say you want to do beans and rice -- that is a cheap possibility, but they take a long time to cook, which you probably won't want to do at the end of a long day of hiking. Much easier are Liptons dinners or Rice a Roni meals. You can add some sausage or spam -- though in this heat, I find it hard to tolerate either. Cheese usually carries well, even in heat though. Ramen is cheap and light, but some can't stand the taste of it. I will sometimes add some Ramen to a Liptons to bulk it up, without the 'flavor' packet. Angel hair pasta cooks really fast (4 minutes) and you can add dried sauces or cheese for an easy meal. Since you will be able to resupply as you go, you will probably be able to take care of any boredom with meals by what you pick up along the way. We usually do cold cereal and dried milk for breakfast, with dried fruit, granola bars and/or pop tarts for morning snack, bread and cheese and cookies for lunch, chocolate for mid-afternoon snack, and soup, pasta and hot chocolate for dinner with cookies. Sugar free koolaid tastes good this time of year, or one of the teas. You have several considerations - weight, price, cooking time, ease of cooking (when you're tired, you won't want to get fancy), portability (oreos and fig newtons don't break up the way some cookies do - also, will the chocolate melt or the sausage turn bad?), and personal tastes. i.e. I like nuts but my husband can't tolerate them. So peanut butter and gorp are out, though they are really good for summer hiking.”

“Ginny - good to see you over here - its a whole different environment however than the other forums but I think it great - just don't feed the trolls (smile)

As for meals - I usually do Liptons plus a pouch of meat (tuna, salmon, chicken, etc.) for dinner and oatmeal/grits for breakfast - generally snacks only for lunch like the Little Debbie / Sunshine Bakery line of 25 cent "granola" bars - cheap and a couple of these are probably just as good as a more expensive Clif bar.”

“Have Fun!!”

“They sound good but don't they require milk and/or butter?”

“not all of the Liptons meals need milk and for butter I just substitute a good shot of corn oil - works just as well - for those Liptons that need milk I'll sometimes use powdered milk but most of the time I make sure that the meal I pick does not require any milk.”

“1 more week for me and I'll be out there for 10 days too
I can't wait to get out there. I hope it cools down a little bit. If it doesn't I may trade a day of travel to go much further north.”

“Ahh back home again. 125 miles / 10 days. I have never been in the woods longer than 5 days before. All went well. Developed a blister on the 18.6 mile day and it only got worse but a little tylenol kept that off my mind.

Full trip report/photos to come!”

“Congrats JoePits! Bet that was a great trip! Look forward to seeing the pics.”

“good job!”

“How did the food situation work out?”

“we ate mac & cheese, liptons, ramen, gorp.

Enough to keep my stomach from rumbling but I think I lost a few pounds.”

“I have to say that is great did you get food transported to you on the way? I started a hike of 88 miles earlier this month and I only made 22 miles of that when My co-hiker got sick.. plan on trying that one again. Can't wait to see the photos... rox”

“nice job! that sure is some pretty country. i miss it sometimes.”

“is your pack a Gearskin? It looks something like it in this pic : Smooth Joe

If so how did you like it?”

“No its Lowe Alpine Contour IV”

“Wow Joe, you are the spitting image of my youngest brother.

Are you sure your name isn't Tommy?

lol....j/k”

“Where did your trip take place? 10 days/ 125 miles is a great trip.”

“they were in the adirondaks. northville to lake placid”

“Great pictures! Looks like you had a great trip. I'm envious, it's been too long since I got to do a hike longer than a week.”