My Food Philosophy

Meal planning is a daunting task, and I've successfully procrastinated well enough to avoid it for a month. Now it's unavoidable and must be addressed. When I'm in the comfort of my own home I love to take my time and slowly create great meals. However, in the back country, expediency is paramount because I'm usually ravenous and tired. Most of my previous trips have been short enough to make name brand dehydrated meals a reasonable solution. However, eating those every night on the PCT would break the budget quickly, so they're out of the question. I would love to dehydrate and package my own custom meals and ship them out, but I simply don't have the time to do that considering how late I chose to hike the trail.

Stove type is another factor that affects food choice. Canister stoves generally have better temperature control and allow for simmering, which some foods require. However, canisters are sometimes hard to come by in PCT trail towns, especially because there are multiple types of fuel under the canister category. Technically, they're illegal to ship in resupply packages too. Alcohol stoves are great for boiling water quickly but often cannot provide a simmering option. Alcohol is much easier to resupply though. Each stove is built for a certain type of cooking and each has its caveats.

I own a canister stove that has been great, but I don't feel like creating a diet around this stove when fuel availability may be an issue. Therefor, I shall deem my technique an "almost no cook" approach. I intend to create satisfying, calorie dense, relatively healthy recipes that require no cooking. I will allow for the occasional cooked meal just to expand my options, but they will be infrequent.

This method has myriad benefits. Back country meal preparation should be as simple as possible and minimizing stove use is a big push in the right direction. Inclement weather can adversely affect stove function, and with the almost no cook method my enjoyment of a meal is less dependent on the weather. Cooking and cleaning take time away from hiking, and I expect to log more miles instead.

So, my course of action - I'm going to test and approve as many no cook meals as possible before I go. I will send out materials in resupply boxes and attempt to account for about 2/3 of my food in that manner. I will leave the other 1/3 for trail town purchases. My tastes will inevitably change and I will surely be envious of other hiker's ideas. I'll be updating recipes and ideas over the coming weeks.