<html><div style='background-color:'><P>On the PCT, I used the soaking method for about a week. I learned about it from Scott Williamson, who soaks minute rice and black bean flakes every night. (THere is a website, but I can't remember it) You can buy a 16 oz. Gatorade container with a screw on lid and it works perfectly. A lot of the foods you eat on the trail can be "done" after about an hour of soaking. Add some water about 1 hour before you stop hiking for the day and throw it back in the pack. It ended up saving me about 1 lb of pack weight, when you include the weight of fuel.</P>
<P>Some things that work good are:</P>
<P>Minute rice, Somen noodles, Ramen noodles, Angel hair pasta, Pre-cooked and dehydrated noodles, dried potatoes and soups (obviously), dehydrated spaghetti sauce, dehydrated salsa, cooked and dehydrated extra lean ground turkey, dried canned chicken, almost any dried vegetable.</P>
<P>Why only for a week you ask? I just like my hot meals. I like using the powdered sauce packets and flavored pastas (Lipton, etc) and I had a hard time getting the powder to mix with the cold water. It just floats on top!</P>
<P>--Treehugger<BR><BR></P><BR><BR><BR>
<DIV>
<P><FONT face="Garamond, Times, Serif" size=2><EM>A perfect day is any day that ends with a new way of looking at the world. This generally takes a lot of physical effort in the mountains.</EM></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman, Times, Serif" size=1>- Will Gadd</FONT></P></DIV>
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<HR color=#a0c6e5 SIZE=1>
From: <I>cdt-l-request@backcountry.net</I><BR>Reply-To: <I>cdt-l@backcountry.net</I><BR>To: <I>cdt-l@backcountry.net</I><BR>Subject: <I>cdt-l Digest, Vol 39, Issue 7</I><BR>Date: <I>Thu, 04 Jan 2007 16:59:28 -0600</I><BR>>Send cdt-l mailing list submissions to<BR>> cdt-l@backcountry.net<BR>><BR>>To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit<BR>> http://mailman.hack.net/mailman/listinfo/cdt-l<BR>>or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to<BR>> cdt-l-request@backcountry.net<BR>><BR>>You can reach the person managing the list at<BR>> cdt-l-owner@backcountry.net<BR>><BR>>When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific<BR>>than "Re: Contents of cdt-l digest..."<BR>><BR>><BR>>Today's Topics:<BR>><BR>> 1. Soaking Food Instead of Cooking (Francis Tapon)<BR>> 2. Re: Northbound or Southbound
(Alistair and Gail Des Moulins)<BR>> 3. Re: Soaking Food Instead of Cooking (Marcia)<BR>><BR>><BR>>----------------------------------------------------------------------<BR>><BR>>Message: 1<BR>>Date: Thu, 4 Jan 2007 13:17:01 -0800<BR>>From: "Francis Tapon" <ft@francistapon.com><BR>>Subject: [cdt-l] Soaking Food Instead of Cooking<BR>>To: <cdt-l@backcountry.net><BR>>Message-ID:<BR>> <016901c73045$ae2efc60$6901a8c0@redmond.corp.microsoft.com><BR>>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"<BR>><BR>>Heidrun: Thanks for the reply!<BR>><BR>><BR>><BR>>How long would you need to soak food?<BR>><BR>><BR>><BR>>On the PCT, I accidentally bought pasta that needed 15 minutes of cooking.<BR>>Before going to bed, I put it in the pot, filled with cold water, and let it<BR>>soak overnight. The next morning I
could just eat it without any cooking. It<BR>>was just like eating leftover pasta out of the fridge without heating it. I<BR>>usually used an Esbit to warm it up and added mixes to spice it up. However,<BR>>that got me thinking that if you don't mind that the pasta is not warm, you<BR>>could eat it cold.<BR>><BR>><BR>><BR>>That got me thinking about a multitude of overnight soaking options. If I<BR>>can make pasta that takes 15 minutes to cook edible with just overnight<BR>>soaking, it seems that there is a world of possibilities (provided you don't<BR>>mind cold food). Also, the overnight soaking depends on temps above<BR>>freezing! :-)<BR>><BR>><BR>><BR>>Have you found any website that discusses soaking ideas?<BR>><BR>><BR>><BR>>Happy trails,<BR>><BR>><BR>><BR>>Francis Tapon<BR>><BR>>Check out this 2 minute
video: http://tinyurl.com/yyzdbo<BR>><BR>>Learn about my book, Hike Your Own Hike: 7 Life Lessons from Backpacking<BR>>Across America, at: http://www.FrancisTapon.com/book<BR>><BR>> _____<BR>><BR>>From: Heidrun Kessler [mailto:Xkanuck@hotmail.com]<BR>>Sent: Tuesday, January 02, 2007 11:42 PM<BR>>To: cdt-l@backcountry.net<BR>>Subject: Re: [cdt-l] Esbits<BR>><BR>><BR>><BR>>Francis Tapon asked if anyone had soaked food cold and left cooking stuff<BR>>behind? Yup, on the PCT at Crater Lake I sent my cooking stuff home and<BR>>from there to Manning, I ate cold couscous day in and day out~ got a little<BR>>boring but it sure saved weight, time and eliminated the "what to eat"<BR>>decision. Ziplocks worked great as for soaking & serving. And no pots to<BR>>wash! Probably would do it again if the pepsi can
died..<BR>><BR>>Heidrun<BR>><BR>><BR>><BR>><BR>><BR>><BR>><BR>>-------------- next part --------------<BR>>An HTML attachment was scrubbed...<BR>>URL: http://mailman.hack.net/pipermail/cdt-l/attachments/20070104/c5e8c1be/attachment-0001.html<BR>><BR>>------------------------------<BR>><BR>>Message: 2<BR>>Date: Thu, 4 Jan 2007 15:30:33 -0700<BR>>From: "Alistair and Gail Des Moulins" <aandg@telusplanet.net><BR>>Subject: Re: [cdt-l] Northbound or Southbound<BR>>To: <cdt-l@backcountry.net><BR>>Message-ID: <00a701c7304f$f2b64690$528dba89@your4f1261a8e5><BR>>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"<BR>><BR>>In 2006, we originally planned to hike northbound starting in mid April. Due to the extremely dry winter 05-06 in New Mexico we opted to go southbound to avoid potential problems with earlier
than usual fire closures and water issues. So we started south on June 12th. It rained, snowed or hailed for much of the first 5 days and that is typical for that area in the first half of June. After that the weather was generally fine and sunny.<BR>>In Wyoming we had glorious warm weather in the Winds then rain, snow and cold easterly and south easterly winds in the Great Basin (mid September). This was unpleasant but on the plus side our water consumption was a lot lower than it would have been in 90 degrees.<BR>>New Mexico was generally warm (during the day) and sunny but the shorter days (10.5 hours daylight by mid November) started getting to me a bit. We'd have to get up in the dark to make reasonable mileage. With a northbound hike you'd finish 2 months earlier and have less of the short days. So my vote might be for NB on that issue.<BR>>One gets snow either way. With
new snow, it's probably better to be going northbound as there's likely to be less on south facing slopes. But on old snow, it's probably better to be going southbound as the snow will stay firmer for longer in the day on the north facing slopes one would be going up.<BR>>I liked Ginny's comment "Whichever way you go - there are more positives than negatives.".<BR>>That really somes up the enjoyment of doing the trail and if you don't think that way maybe it's best to stay home!<BR>><BR>>Alistair<BR>>-------------- next part --------------<BR>>An HTML attachment was scrubbed...<BR>>URL: http://mailman.hack.net/pipermail/cdt-l/attachments/20070104/e35e8197/attachment-0001.html<BR>><BR>>------------------------------<BR>><BR>>Message: 3<BR>>Date: Thu, 4 Jan 2007 15:09:12 -0800<BR>>From: "Marcia" <gottawalk@pacbell.net><BR>>Subject: Re:
[cdt-l] Soaking Food Instead of Cooking<BR>>To: <cdt-l@backcountry.net><BR>>Message-ID: <002201c73055$5a190110$6501a8c0@Desktop2006><BR>>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"<BR>><BR>>I agree that there are many soak-and-eat meals: cous cous, dehydrated black beans, soups. But pasta that is soaked and eaten cold, to me, has a raw flour taste (cous cous and many other grains have been pre cooked). On our northbound CDT in NM we didn't cook and the soaked raw pasta was so awful that I skipped eating dinner rather than eat it. Also, hot chocolate made with cold water does not mix well. The powder becomes lumpy and floats on the water...unless someone has found a brand that reconstitutes well in cold water?<BR>><BR>>YMMV<BR>>Marcia<BR>>----- Original Message -----<BR>>From: Francis Tapon<BR>>To: cdt-l@backcountry.net<BR>>Sent:
Thursday, January 04, 2007 1:17 PM<BR>>Subject: [cdt-l] Soaking Food Instead of Cooking<BR>><BR>><BR>>Heidrun: Thanks for the reply!<BR>><BR>><BR>><BR>>How long would you need to soak food?<BR>><BR>><BR>><BR>>On the PCT, I accidentally bought pasta that needed 15 minutes of cooking. Before going to bed, I put it in the pot, filled with cold water, and let it soak overnight. The next morning I could just eat it without any cooking. It was just like eating leftover pasta out of the fridge without heating it. I usually used an Esbit to warm it up and added mixes to spice it up. However, that got me thinking that if you don't mind that the pasta is not warm, you could eat it cold.<BR>><BR>><BR>><BR>>That got me thinking about a multitude of overnight soaking options. If I can make pasta that takes 15 minutes to cook edible with just overnight
soaking, it seems that there is a world of possibilities (provided you don't mind cold food). Also, the overnight soaking depends on temps above freezing! J<BR>><BR>><BR>><BR>>Have you found any website that discusses soaking ideas?<BR>><BR>><BR>><BR>>Happy trails,<BR>><BR>><BR>><BR>>Francis Tapon<BR>><BR>>Check out this 2 minute video: http://tinyurl.com/yyzdbo<BR>><BR>>Learn about my book, Hike Your Own Hike: 7 Life Lessons from Backpacking Across America, at: http://www.FrancisTapon.com/book<BR>><BR>><BR>>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------<BR>><BR>>From: Heidrun Kessler [mailto:Xkanuck@hotmail.com]<BR>>Sent: Tuesday, January 02, 2007 11:42 PM<BR>>To: cdt-l@backcountry.net<BR>>Subject: Re: [cdt-l] Esbits<BR>><BR>><BR>><BR>>Francis Tapon asked if anyone had
soaked food cold and left cooking stuff behind? Yup, on the PCT at Crater Lake I sent my cooking stuff home and from there to Manning, I ate cold couscous day in and day out~ got a little boring but it sure saved weight, time and eliminated the "what to eat" decision. Ziplocks worked great as for soaking & serving. And no pots to wash! Probably would do it again if the pepsi can died..<BR>><BR>>Heidrun<BR>><BR>><BR>><BR>><BR>><BR>><BR>><BR>><BR>><BR>>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------<BR>><BR>><BR>>_______________________________________________<BR>>cdt-l mailing list<BR>>cdt-l@backcountry.net<BR>>http://mailman.hack.net/mailman/listinfo/cdt-l<BR>>-------------- next part --------------<BR>>An HTML attachment was scrubbed...<BR>>URL:
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