The Food

More critical than having the right gear is getting sufficient amounts of food to fuel me though my journey. This is one of the challenges of thru-hiking that there are many remote towns that don't always have a wide variety of food to choose from. I will rely on grocery stores and convenience store along the way. For the towns that don't have large enough a grocery store I will mail food ahead myself as I am on the trail. This will prevent me from having to decide what I will be craving when I'm out on my hike and can allow me to be a lot more flexible with my food choices. However you need to eat a lot and never know exactly what you may find at grocery stores along the way.

Here is a list of some of my staples that I have found work great for me on backpacking trips:

Breakfast/Snack/Lunch

• Oatmeal (although I don't think I can ever eat the maple brown sugar type any more)
• Granola
• Trail Mix
• Power Bars
• Dried Fruit
• Powdered Milk
• Crackers
• Tortillas
• Cheese
• Beef Jerky
• Nuts
• Summer Sausage
• Pop Tarts
• Peppers
• Various Fruit
• Avacados (as long as you eat them in the first days on trail)
• Peanut Butter & Jelly
• Nutella
• Salami
• Candy

Dinner

• Any of the Lipton Side Dish Dinner Packages with rice, noodles, etc
• Instant Mashed Potatoes
• Mac & Cheese
• Beans
• Stuffing
• Ramen
• Soups

This is just a short list and if you have any other ideas please add a comment to this page. Basically breakfast, trail snacks and lunch all kinda get combined into one continuous meal throughout the daily hike then come dinner time I will actually bust out the stove and do a little cooking. I also love getting new ideas from other hikers along the way, usually in the form of great snacks that you normally wouldn't crave. You would be surprised how tasty a can of frosting can be out on the trail.

Then for when I get sick of trail food there will be many stops at restaurants along the way to get some real food. If you've ever eaten a burger after a week on the trail you know what I'm talking about. Regardless while I may tire of some of this food by the end of my trek I know I can depend on it to get me through.