[pct-l] Food issues

[Brian Lewis]

Bill said that the reuseable squeeze tubes worked well for him on the
JMT.  I suspect that those doing a longer distance trip (I'll avoid
the term "thru-hiker" just for now ...) wouldn't be as happy with
them.  While a few years old, my memory is of these being a PITA to
get really clean.   Perhaps your plan would be to mail them home and
get someone at home to clean and refill them, or ... ?

My suggestion is to buy peanut butter at smaller stores, gas station
convenience store type of places rather than at a grocery store,
because these places tend to sell smaller jars, whereas often at
grocery stores you just find 18 oz jars.

W.r.t. vacuum sealing meals or other food, I did this too, and like
Scott my experience was that for meals the contained sharp pasta or
the like, I was more comfortable (confident) pouring my boiling water
into an unused quart ziplock bag rather than using the vacuum bag,
despite the fact that these are indeed useable for boiling water.
Related, pasta etc decreased the odds that I would receive the food
still vacuum sealed; per suggestion from Sarbar I think
(www.freezerbagcooking.com) I lined the vacuum bag for these meals
with paper towel.     I vacuum sealed a few other things too, dried
fruit, for example.  And my wife sometimes included some vacuum sealed
chocolate chip cookies, which was very nice.

If I were doing it again, however, I wouldn't bother with the vacuum
sealer. It was kind of fun and interesting, and I ate most of the
meals, but there are easier solutions unless you have particular
dietary constraints/desires.
Well, I should add as a caveat that now that I own a vacuum sealer and
have some experience with it, I might "bother" for a few trail stops
where the store options are particularly limited, but knowing what I
know now I wouldn't buy a vacuum sealer just for backpacking trips.


Brian Lewis / Gadget '08
http://postholer.com/brianle