[pct-l] Protein supplement of the gods: Perpetuem

[dnlcyclone at aol.com]

My name is David Liechty and my wife and I will be thru-hiking the PCT in 2011 with our 13-18 month old child.  In 2009, we thru-hiked the Pacific Northwest Trail...which is a beautiful trail when it's a trail.  A lot of the time it's built-in bushwhacking, and not cross country through meadows and gradual rises.  If you like taking eight hours to go two crow-flown miles up the side of a charred mountainside in Idaho, it might be your cup of tea.  During days like that and many others, what really helped keep my body going was a product made by Hammer Nutrition called Perpetuem.  I don't work for Hammer, but I was a competitive marathoner and Ironman triathlete for years and worked in specialty running stores that sold many products, and Hammer is the only company that I would unequivocally stand by for all their products.  Perpetuem is an all-natural vegetarian/non-dairy powder that replenishes proteins and lipids (fats) that your body loses and then craves when exerting yourself for over three hours a day.  Although thru-hiking is nowhere near the cardiovascular workout that triathlons and marathons are, you're on your feet from 6-12 hours a day, depending on your mileage.   You mix Perpetuem in water, shake it up, and that's it.  Obviously, the more powder you put in your bottle of water, the more pasty and gelatinous it will be.  I like it to go down as an easily downed liquid, with a thicker consistency than that of Gatorade.  Nalgene sells foldable/durable plastic canteen bags that are excellent containers for Perpetuem or any other powder you might be carrying.  The nice thing about the canteen bags is that with the powder inside, it can contour to whatever you have in your pack.  I had it in my pack so that it was next to my back, and it was completely comfortable.  The nice thing about Perpetuem, is that you can take as little or as much as you want, but when you're in a pinch (running low on solid food), Perpetuem can fill in as a dependable chunk of your diet.  In fact, there were days when all I did was drink water and drink Perpetuem...and those days were some of my best.  I'm not saying that you should substitute it for food completely, but at least try it.

David Liechty