Day 60: what do I eat? Garbage mostly

Miles: 6
Water: 1

I'm literally on top of a mountain, looking at a cell tower, and I have no service.

I was looking at Vermont in the book this morning and it looks pretty grim. Mass has been full of towns and easy resupply. Which I haven't really needed. Now that my food bag is starting to get low Vermont looks pretty rustic with no real towns in sight. I think I'm going to take a short day today stopping at a shelter on other side of greylock, so I can dip down into the last good town in mass tomorrow and resupply.

Now that I'm here at the shelter I'm feeling bored. I got here at a little before two, took a nap. Now it's three, so I have three hours to kill before I eat dinner. This shelter seems to be in an awkward spot just three miles after greylock, so I might actually try to sleep in the shelter instead of tenting today.

So what do you eat on the trail. I don't think I have answered that one yet. The main goal for eating is to get enough calories in you to keep up with your bodies needs. Hiking every day puts you into a kind of caloric overdrive. I think this is more true for younger people than myself. I am hungry a lot, but I haven't reached the levels of epic consumption I have seen others at.

In addition to calories you also want your food bag to be light. Food and water being two of the heaviest things you carry. So calorie dense foods are king.

Currently in my food bag I have:

Two packages of root beer pop tarts
About half a bag of protein granola

Those two are my typical breakfast. I usually have some kind of oaty cereal for the fiber.

A package of flour tortillas
A jar of almond butter
A jar of honey
A ziploc package of salmon

Lunch is often just nut butter and honey on a tortilla. But sometimes I mix it up and do tuna pack on a tortilla. Sometimes the tuna pack goes in with dinner instead.

A package of ramen noodles
A ziploc bag of cous cous
A package of beans and rice

Dinner is usually a hot meal, other favorites are pasta sides and instant mashed potato. I had some bad mashed potato meals early on so I have been avoiding them. It might be time to try them again. I like the couscous best because you don't need hot water for it. I've seen a number of people who go without stoves at all.  It's something I'd consider, just one les thing to fuss with.

Two Ziploc s of honey roasted cashews
The last few remnants of mike and ikes mixed with sour patch kids. (My new favorite candy experience)
Two cliff bars
One fruit bar, like a fruit roll up really
A bag of semi dried apricots

Snacks and random things round out the main meals. String cheese is good here too, I usually have cheezits or goldfish. Snickers bars are crazy calorie efficient. I miss that bar of dark chocolate I had. Nut mixes are very good calorie wise too. Some people really like jerky but I'm not a big fan. I don't crave meat protein too much, the fish packs seem to work fine. I guess that is some carry over from three or four years being  vegetarian.

Oh I also am carrying a spice kit. It is pared down now to pepper, powdered onion and oregano. The powdered onion is amazing. You can get some nice onion flavor in just about anything you make. I sprinkle it right on tuna, and it goes in many of the boil in bag meals. Just be sure it's powdered onion, and not onion salt. All the dehydrated foods tend to have more than enough salt in them.

Tomorrow I'm heading to a store to resupply. It's a bit early but I don't see any stores coming up in the next few days. So I will probably eat a bunch of food tonight to make as much room as I can.