PCT Planning - Food, Calories and Eating Like it's the Apocalypse

An example of food for a 3 day backpacking trip

Most of my family's questions about our plan to hike for three months have been centered on food. It makes sense; my mother, sister and brother are or have worked as professional chefs, I at one time wrote a food blog and the whole family certainly loves eating.

The big concerns on the PCT when it comes to eating are these: Eating enough. Eating enough. Eating enough. Eating enough...different stuff that you don't want to claw your eyeballs out when you see oatmeal for the literally the 100th time. And of course getting the nutrients you need.

Small people hiking upwards of 10 miles a day are going to be burning around 3000 calories, large people will be burning closer to 6,000. There are fluctuations with this depending on pack weight, how strenuous the hike is, etc. This means a lot of food. If there were fast food restaurants dotted along the PCT there wouldn't be any worries, but there aren't, so you end up battling a consistent, ravenous hunger that doesn't stop.

The trick here is carrying enough food to meet your caloric needs without weighing yourself down.

Fresh food is a luxury you can only have when you go into town. Canned food is preposterously heavy and often doesn't have much in the way of calorie pay off. Find yourself a store with a good bulk foods section. Folks in Eastern Washington, Nevada and Idaho should absolutely check out WinCo. I could almost write songs about their bulk foods. All the nuts, dried fruit, dried soups, oatmeal, etc. a hiker could want.

After that it's really about making sure you have variety and calories. Chris and I are like most hikers in that between breakfast and dinner we mostly just snack on the trail. Maybe do some sort of tortilla wrap or energy bar, but certainly we don't stop to cook.

I'll do 3 additional posts with recipes for breakfast, lunch and dinner once their finalized (we're testing everything over the next couple weeks).