Trail food—resupply as you go.

This stuff can be found at most little stores along the way.

The Carbs:

Tortillas

Instant mashed potatoes

Noodles and sauce

Rice and sauce.

Mac and cheese

Ramen noodles

Bread or bagels

Cereal – Throw away the box, of course, and pack the inner bag.

“Bon Appetit” danishes – Besides carbs, fat and a load of calories per ounce, these probably don’t pack squat in nutrition but they taste good and you can pack them as tight as you want in your food bag and they don’t break apart, they just get a little flatter.

Chips—just let them get all crumbled up and eat them with a spoon.

Corn nuts

Dried fruit

Crackers

The fats:

Peanut butter—I recommend buying the 8 oz plastic jar and then re-filling it, because the 8oz size is sometimes hard to find. Peanut butter is calorie rich, requires no cooking and is good in a tortilla or just eat a spoon full.

Cheese—My personal favorite. keep it in a zip lock. It gets a little runny in the heat but it’s still good. The individually wrapped 1 oz sticks of string cheese make good pocket food.

Butter—put in in a empty, plastic, peanut butter jar. I have never carried butter but I meet a hiker that was having a problems with losing too much weight and he solved his problem by putting loads of butter on everything.

Margarine. lots of hikers carry a squeeze bottle of margarine.

Oil— You can find small plastic bottles of olive oil- but probably not at a little store.

Nuts. For some reason cashews seem to be the nut of choice for little stores; they usually also have peanuts and sometimes almonds.

Seeds—pumpkin, sunflower, etc.

The protein:

Nutritional bars— I look for ones that have substantial protein. Expensive.

Lunch meat—who would have thought. I read about bringing lunch meat in Yogi’s PCT book, She recommends buying it in small packages because they will stay fresh that way until you eat them. I tried it, and sure enough the meat stayed good for days and it’s much cheaper and more available then tuna packets.

Jerky

Powdered milk

Salami

Tuna packets

Chicken packets

Something fresh: apples, carrots, etc.
apples— If you have been on the trail for a long time, a piece of fresh fruit or a vegetable tastes wonderful. I eat the entire apple core and swallow the seeds and stem, so I don’t have to pack out anything.

Treats:

Cookies— personal favorite: Mystic mint cookies. Fig newtons are also good.

Honey bear— peanut butter and honey in a tortilla is pretty tasty. but you can also just take a swig if you have a mind to.

Hard candy

Gum.

Hot beverages: hot chocolate, tea, coffee, lemonade mix, jello mix, etc.

If they have a little deli I usually buy something pre-made for dinner that night. It’s sort of like sticking a carrot out in front of a horse; it coaxes me out of town.

Example of one day of food:

4 oz cereal or danish

2 oz powdered milk.

2 bars, Nutritional bars, granola bars, or candy bar with nuts.

4 oz of snacks- jerky, chips, nuts, dried fruit, etc. I try to pick a variety in the fat, carb, and protein category. For instance if I’m buying for 3 days I may get 4 oz of jerky, 4 oz of nuts, and 4 oz of corn nuts or chips.

2 oz hot beverage making stuff.

2 oz fat- cheese

2-3 oz protein – lunch meat, salami, tuna packet, etc.

3-4 oz carbs.—rice and sauce, instant mashed potatoes, noodles and sauce, or tortillas

4 oz something fresh- apple, carrots, etc. – only for whole days on the trail; not for the day I hike in nor the day I hike out.

3 cookies.

approximately 2 lbs (.90 kilograms) of food a day.

I usually make sure every meal has a carb, a fat, and a protein.