PCT SECTION FOOD= 10 days 20 lbs.

MY BAD!!!

And here I thought I was going to see a photo of food ;-) Nice tent though!

Jay,

My wife and I brought the following food for a planned 5-day, 4-night Rae Lakes Loop, then we did the loop in 2.5 days. Except for the food we ate the first day, I was able to fit all of it in a single BearVault.

breakfast:
oatmeal premixed with powdered milk, brown sugar, 25 raisins, and salt

lunch:
flatbread with peanut butter/jam and Ovaltine premixed with powdered milk

dinner:
chili mac (pasta, vegi chili mix, refried bean mix, olive oil, salt, Tabasco)

snacks:
peanut M&M's, honey sesame sticks, Good & Plenty, pepperoni sticks, & Gatorade

According to my food spreadsheet this would provide 2626 calories per day and weigh 1.4 pounds per person per day. The actual weight was closer to 1.7 pounds per day; I guess the nutritional information on the food packaging isn't that accurate.

Casey, what type of flatbread is that and where did you get it?

14 lbs 8 oz. More to go

14 lbs 8 oz.

I really need a computer coach!! Anyways there it is-so far! I am at 14 lbs 8 oz. and I am on the hunt for good cereal, jerky, torrtilas, bagels, candies and magical crunchy, salty, cheezey, crackers!! Can I actually do just 2 lbs aday? I hope?-one good way to loose weight.

Ummmm Jay, that looks like alot of food already. How many days are you guys going out????

Jay,

Recommended 1.5 – 2 lbs of food per day. YMMV. Find foods that have high calorie, low weight ratio. Get a scale, read labels, measure and calculate.

Check out this resource:

http://www.newmarque.com/backpacking/introduction.htm

Since we are sharing prehike food prep photos, here is my food collection for a 7 day JMT section H of the PCT in 3 weeks.

My basic PCT section menu:

Breakfast:

A variety of muesli with honey, powdered milk, nuts, dried fruits, or coconut.
Cocoa powder or Spiced Apple drink

Lunch:

A base of humus with black bean flakes, dehydrated tomatoes, green veggie powder, or dehydrated salsa.
Cut the corner of the zip lock bag and squeeze onto two halves of a Trader Joes
pita bread (fits flat in a canister) or dip with dehydrated persimmon or zucchini chips, Rye Crackers.
String cheese

3 course dinners:

1. Soup: Black bean or green pea flakes, or miso

2. Entree: A base of organic potato flakes with dehydrated salsa, refried beans, green veggie mixture, chicken or tuna. Add spices, hot sauce, or olive oil to increase taste factor/calories.

3: Dessert: Vanilla pudding with powdered milk, ground up nuts, chocolate chips, or coconut.

1 oz of dark chocolate

Snacks

Nuts
Dates
Dried bananas
Homemade “Lara Bars”
Pro Bars

Electrolytes
Various Emergen-C and Trader Joe flavors

It all fits into a Bearikade Weekender (660 cu in) :) The secret: As Casey’s photo shows: repackage each item and label with instructions. why carry the extra air volume?

I follow Sarah’s freezer bag technique: individually bag each meal in a ziplock, add water and rehydrate.

On my JMT trip I am going “no stove cooking”, and will use modified cooking techniques such as delayed rehydration and “body heat”. See previous BPL thread:

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/xdpy/forum_thread/7987/index.html

It all boils down to: “ When the weight goes down, the fun goes up”. (Warner Springs Monty – PCT hiker)

Ken,

It's Middle Eastern Flatbread from Trader Joe's.

Hey Ken, We will be at out ten days. I need another 5 to 6 lbs of food.
My base weight is at 16 lbs. w/ 20 lbs of food I will be at 36 lbs- sorry w/a full platypus and I will closer to a even 40 lbs on day one. I am sure I will eat threw the weight very quickly. We are hoping to catch some trout to get our protein requirements.

I will bring:
MaryJanesFarms EcoPouches
Mounatain House Pro-Paks
Tuna & Salmon Packets
pro bars
cliff bars
hammer bars
snickers bars
butterfingers
ritter sports bars
sport beans
GU's
GU20's
Gatorade packets
organic wheat grass packets
carnation instant breakfast packets
milkman instant dry milk
Hit cookies
Ritz cracker
cashews
almonds
macadamiums
java juice
hot coco
skippy pb packets
honey
Need: tortillas,bagels kornchip, pringles,jerky,cereal
Single-malt scotch!
ANY SUGGESTIONS???:

too bad I am not hiking with you guys, I could have done a re-fill for single malt scotch for free at Sonora Pass-I sell wine and spirits. Jay, bagels might be a bit much in the size side of things. I would stick with flatbread, pitas or tortilla's.

Sorry Jay, not trying to hijack your post.

Thanks Casey, I will check those out!

Jay,

Just curious as to which PCT section you are doing? If you don't need to protect your food with a bear canister than the amount of food you carry is a personal preference. HYOH.

Hey Paul, Yes- I do need a canister I have a 900ci Bearakade. We are starting in Tuolumne Meadows heading JULY 11th north to Ebbitts Pass. 110 miles of pure JOY. I also think I will bring:
dried mangos,cherries, blueberries,raisins and tomatoes,
pumpkin and sunflower seeds, sesame stix and peanut m&m
All in 3 oz portions

Hi Jay

That's an awful lot of packaging there on the table. I bulk bag stuff like muesli, powdered milk, and so on, and only use the sealed packages on a few commercial items. Save a lot of weight that way.

Daily food allowance if you are serious about weight – 700 g or 25 oz.

Cheers

"Daily food allowance if you are serious about weight – 700 g or 25 oz."
Or even less if you're really serious, say 580 g, or ~21 oz, if you're willing to bulk up beforehand and "live off the fat of the land" by carrying about 50% of that 21 oz as carbs. I can't vouch for this approach on trips over 11 days(my personal limit so far using this approach).

Hey Thanks for the feed back. I am 12 days out and will REFINE and REPACKAGE the day before the hike. I will put all freeze dried in smaller zip lock bags ETC, ETC,. I should save alot of weight just on packageing alone. I personaly need alot of food to hike 110 miles. This is a hike with no resuply-straight thru.I would rather have a little food left over VS. none-hungry. I am praying for some great Sierra Trout.

Daily weight would depend on what you are carrying and how dense the food is. With careful rationing and adding in fat heavy things like coconut cream powder to meals (and less packaging) you could be carrying 1 1/2 lbs a day with no issues.

> Or even less if you're really serious,
Well, yes, true.
I know one (Australian) guy who carries about 300 g of food per day – mainly salami sausage (50% fat!) and blocks of cheese. When challenged, he admitted that he normally lost about 500 g of body fat per day!

I don't think I would last very long that way. :-)

Cheers

Paul, just saying thanks for some great healthy food ideas.
-Rick

>> > Or even less if you're really serious,
Well, yes, true.
I know one (Australian) guy who carries about 300 g of food per day – mainly salami sausage (50% fat!) and blocks of cheese. When challenged, he admitted that he normally lost about 500 g of body fat per day!

In Ukraine/Russia the mountaineering standard is about 500-600 grams of food per day, with about 2500-3000 calories. Lots of fatty foods such as pig lard.

Deleted by Greg – redundant, after reading from the top…

Hi Jay,

It's official, I can't join your trip. Let me know if your up for an Arroyo Seco adventure this year (leave Bay Area Friday after work, back Sunday night).

However, for your food consideration, when I went from Sonora Pass to Tuolumne Meadows in 2.5 days in August of 2006 I brought the following food.

Calories, Ounces, Unit, Item
360, 3.4, 1 packet, Milkman powdered milk
440, 4.1, 1 packet, Milkman plus 4 tablespoons Ovaltine
140, 1.3, 1 bar, Trader Joe's (TJ's) Blueberry
140, 1.2, 1 bar, TJ's Chocolate Chip Granola
280, 2.1, 1 bar, Snickers
400, 2.5, 1.5 cups, Frito Lay Corn Chips
130, 1.4, 2 tablespoons, Good and Plenty Candy
220, 1.5, 0.25 cups, Peanut M&M's
170, 1.0, 0.25 cups, TJ's Roasted and Salted Almonds

2280, 18.4; total calories and ounces per my food spreadsheet.

However when I actually weighed all of the items the total was 20.5 ounces per day, including the packaging you see in the photo. Some, but not all, of the extra weight can be attributed to using "heaping" 1/4 cups of M&M's and almonds.