Over the weekend, Robb and I worked through the list of shelters along the way to plan out our daily mileage, resupply points and overnight camp grounds. It was surreal going down the list of shelters and imagining what it will feel like to sleep in a new place every night for 6 months.
We've collected most of the gear we need for the trail, now it's time to buy the food. This weekend we'll be taking a trip to Sam's Club to buy outrageously large quantities of freeze-dried food and power bars. I feel like one of those "Doomsday Preppers" from the National Geographic Channel--you'd be surprised by the overlap on our shopping lists.
In order to thru-hike the Appalachian trail, it is suggested that you need to double if not triple your normal calorie intake. That is a TON of food to carry. Even if you resupply every few days, it's tough to keep your pack weight down. That is why calorie-dense food options are so crucial. We'll be eating mostly dehydrated foods, nuts, seeds, granola and GORP.
Fun fact: GORP is actually an acronym for "Good Old Raisins and Peanuts"; Any trail mix that has Raisins and Peanuts in it qualifies as GORP.
About a year ago, I purchased a dehydrator with the lofty goal of dehydrating most of our meals myself. I did not take into account that my tiny dehydrator would only hold a small amount of food at any given time and that each batch would take hours if not days to dry. When I finally had the time to start the process, it was too close to our departure date to dehydrate enough food. Now we'll be primarily purchasing our supplies, with just a few homemade dehydrated fruits and veggies.
What we purchase this weekend will be packed into boxes for our family and friends to send to resupply points along the trail. We will not be picking up mail drops at every resupply point as Post Offices and other businesses can sometimes be quite far off trail and difficult to get to during business hours. Instead, we will alternate between mail drops and buying goods along the way.
This time next month we will be 3 nights into our thru-hike. I imagine we'll look something like Samwise and Frodo when they first set off on their journey to Mordor-- fairly inept and quite frightened of the world outside of the Shire. Now if only we could get our hands on some lembas bread, we could seriously reduce our pack weight...
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| If we don't complete our thru-hike, atleast we'll be prepared for the Zombie Apocalypse |
In order to thru-hike the Appalachian trail, it is suggested that you need to double if not triple your normal calorie intake. That is a TON of food to carry. Even if you resupply every few days, it's tough to keep your pack weight down. That is why calorie-dense food options are so crucial. We'll be eating mostly dehydrated foods, nuts, seeds, granola and GORP.
Fun fact: GORP is actually an acronym for "Good Old Raisins and Peanuts"; Any trail mix that has Raisins and Peanuts in it qualifies as GORP.
About a year ago, I purchased a dehydrator with the lofty goal of dehydrating most of our meals myself. I did not take into account that my tiny dehydrator would only hold a small amount of food at any given time and that each batch would take hours if not days to dry. When I finally had the time to start the process, it was too close to our departure date to dehydrate enough food. Now we'll be primarily purchasing our supplies, with just a few homemade dehydrated fruits and veggies.
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| Accurate representation of Robb and I during our first few days of the trail |
This time next month we will be 3 nights into our thru-hike. I imagine we'll look something like Samwise and Frodo when they first set off on their journey to Mordor-- fairly inept and quite frightened of the world outside of the Shire. Now if only we could get our hands on some lembas bread, we could seriously reduce our pack weight...
a.) You get to eat three times your caloric intake. Jealous.
ReplyDeleteb.) GORP! This sounds like onomatopoeia.