What to Eat, Where to get, and How much?

[Strategic]

Alilalien,

If you're really looking for good food advice, try not only the pages here, but also the Freezer Bag Cooking site. It's a fine site by Sarah (Sarbar) and her husband Kirk with a lot of good trail recipes and ideas for food and cooking it. Don't be put off by the word "recipe" either. I'm a fairly dedicated cook, but I know many who are not who have used these successfully. It's basically a combination of dehydrated and trail bought food put together for maximum enjoyment, nutrition, and ease of cooking on the trail (essentially, pouring boiling water into a freezer bag or rehydrating about covers most of the cooking involved.) Even if you decide to go without maildrops (and many do) you can still use these techniques to make what you get in towns taste better out on the trail.

Hope this helps and good hiking!

[-SEEKER-]

I've heard a lot of good things about this food source: www.trailfoods.com I'm going to give them a try this year.

[turtle fast]

MENOMONEE FALLS!!!!!! HEY NEIGHBOR....LITERALLY!!!

Food primarily will be store bought stuff. Many hikers will start with a carbohydrate base like Ramen, Mac & cheese, Lipton noodles, instant rice, instant mashed potatoes, stuffing mix, spaghetti noodles, etc.....you then jazz it up with some type of protein like tuna from foil packages, salami, vienna sausages, spam, tofu, nuts, etc....then kick in some spices, maybe some dehydrated or freeze dried vegetables and volia a one pot meal. Buying the prepackaged stuff is expensive and normally a two person meal is really for one.

Were leaving Wisconsin mid March too!!!!!!

[Lilred]

The first time I hiked the AT was the first time I had a backpack on my back. Hiked one week, mostly alone, in Nov. from Neel's to Deep Gap NC. Everything I knew about backpacking I had read on this site, along with a couple of trail journals. If I can do it, anyone can.

I eat mostly Lipton pasta, rice dishes. Peanut butter and bagels are a staple. Oatmeal, energy bars, beef jerky, ramen noodles. I try to carry one piece of fruit, apple or orange, in case I hit a dry stretch. I've been without water and miserably hot twice, once I had to tough it out, the other time I had an apple. I've never had a better tasting apple.