[pct-l] Food preps/advice for newcomer

[Barry Teschlog]

Scott wrote:

I'm trying to hike the pct from southern border of California to Washington and would appreciate any meal plans/recommendations.
Any extra pointers for a newbie to the trail would be great too. 


Reply:
For lunches, what worked for me was to make bagel sandwiches with dry Italian Salami and cheese (1 ounce each per sandwich).  The salami and a medium or sharp cheddar cheese (or a harder cheese, like Parmesan) would hold up fine in the pack for 4-6 days in desert heat, although they'll do better if wrapped in a jacket in the cool of the morning before going into the pack.  Sure, they'd "sweat" a bit of grease, but both are too low in moisture and high in salt to get any growth.  Consider adding some mustard packets for extra flavor.  Bagels hold up better than typical loaf bread to the abuse in the pack.  Get a major brand (e.g. with preservatives) as they seem to hold up better - the fluffy organic brands seem to spoil more quickly when in the pack.


Powered milk, preferably the Nido brand (full fat, non fat is fine, just lower calorie content), is a great way to add calories to a breakfast of oatmeal without adding bulk.  Its also another great source for calcium and complete protein.

For the coffee drinkers - add a envelope of hot chocolate mix to make a "field expedient" Mocha, and make your coffee loaded with ~150 calories, instead of practically nothing.


Consider doing the 5 "main" meal a day plan, plus snacks.  Once I started doing this, I was finally able to physically eat enough food to get the calories I needed.  I'd tried doing larger B-Fast, lunch and dinners to get more calories, but couldn't physically eat all the food.  


Have a 2nd Breakfast and 2nd Lunch at your first break in the morning and early afternoon (for me, that was about 1 1/2 hours after leaving camp, or the same after lunch break).  This was plenty of time for either breakfast or lunch to have digested, making room for the "2nd" meal.  I used a combination of power bars (yeah, yuck, but they worked for me - find what works for you) and either a fruit pie or a Hostess type snack cake (Zingers, Cupcake, Ho Ho's etc) for the "2nd" meals - a power bar is about 250 calories and the fruit pies are about 450, so that's a 700 calorie "meal" that (mostly) tastes good and can be slammed down in a few minutes with no prep.  If you need more calories, then throw in a hand full of nuts (peanuts, pistachios, cashews, etc) at about 140 calories an ounce and you're well over 800 calories per "2nd" meal.

YMMV.  IMO.  HYOH.