[pct-l] Dehydrated Commercially Prepared Meals (and food strategies in general) - Share your thoughts!

[Heike Carrel]

I'm not looking at a PCT Thru Hike until 2014, so I still have lots of time to plan and prepare...
 
I also realize just about everyone on here will most likley agree that this food option is probably *the most* expensive option for food, but I'd be interesting in hearing your thoughs/opinions regardless. :)
 
As far as food goes, I've kind of thought about carrying commercially dehydrated meals. That is planning to eat one of these types of meals each day (which would be approximately 120 purchased meals if you did the trail in 4 months) *in addition to* other foods for breakfast, snacks, lunch, etc. I know, I know....commercially prepared dehdrated meals are probably the most expensive meal option, but it seems like it could help ensure your at least eating one sort of balanced meal a day, though I guess a good multivitamin could help with that too. I would remove the dehydrated dinners from the original packaging and put htem in heavy duty ziplocks to reduce some of the waste/trash.
 
As far as food in general, I would most likely plan to have some food shipped to me (or personally ship a box ahead of me as I go), but also plan to buy some along the trail. And that is another reason I've thought about buying some dehydrated meals--they make a bunch of different dinners...definitely enough to offer variety. ...And since I plan to hike the trail over a year from now, I could start buying some of these meals a little at a time to spread the expense of the purchase out.
 
Assuming $10/meal (which not all cost that much, I'm just estimating on the high end) x 120 =$1200, then that'd be about $300/month in freezedried food plus the other food you'd be purchasing for other meals, snacks, etc. For my planning, I am considering town stops (i.e. restaurants) to be a separate category from "trail food" food expenses. (I'm looking to keep town stops minimal.)
 
Has anyone who's already completed a PCT thru-hike and resupplied along the way calculated how much they spent resupplying as they went? I've heard that this method can be expensive too, especially if you're in a small town or the stores are small with "gas station"-type of prices. I'm curious how this option compares, expense-wise verses dehydrated meals.

Thanks in advance for all your thoughts, opinions, and advice! It is much appreciated! :)
 
Heike 

"Goals allow you to control the direction of change in your favor."