Mine is much less scientific. It's more about what you can gain from ditching your stove on an overnighter. Look at it like this; we need to eat on the trail to survive. Not to get fat, or to pamper ourselves. To a lightweight hiker, these types of questions have answers only gained through trial and error. And no two participants will answer the same.
I just need calories delivered in a form I can ingest. Sure, there's a difference in what my mojo requires for a week-long hike than for a quick solo(warm) overnighter. For a week long hike, it's coffee and oatmeal in the mornings, GORP for lunch, and a freeze dried dinner at night. Unless companions cook differently. There's no sense in holding up a group while I make coffee if they only want a cereal-heavy GORP for breakfast. If they make Ramen for lunch, then I might as well join them. Call in conforming, or call it accommodating.
When alone, it's about my wants and needs only. And it's an ongoing experiment in what works. By looking through my collection of ziplocs in my pantry, I have deduced that I don't end up eating the oatmeal every day of the trip anyway. I invariably have 1-3 packages left each trip. I also never eat all of my snack foods. Sometimes a Mountain House meal will be leftover. But the GORP is always eaten and the coffee is always gone as well.
What could be gleaned from this very un-scientific analysis? I eat GORP and drink coffee. Hmmm. I can live without the coffee. Could a man live on GORP alone? Yes. It has been proven. By a guy with 2 thumbs. This guy!
I admit to stealing the idea from my good friend Scopa. He is fond of grazing GORP all day long. He usually eats a hot dinner, but why not steal the idea that struck me? By playing with the recipes, you can make it carb laden in the morning and at lunch and pack it with protein for dinner. It worked, but left me feeling like I was fasting a bit. So I needed a better idea for a no-cook dinner.....
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Why not? A sandwich(even a big one) will still weigh less than many cook systems. But let's get around to why I really wanted to pursue a stove-less menu in the first place. Time. I haven't enough of it. In my case, days off are split apart. Which leaves me little time to do what I want. So I can leave work at 3:00 P.M. on a Saturday and drive straight to a trailhead. But where? Where can I get my hike in. Trailheads require a bit of driving for me. Sometimes shuttling as well. But if I can use an additional 20-30 minutes per meal actually hiking, then my range of destinations opens up completely. Not to mention that I can save weight sometimes. It's not the most comforting of hiking trips, but it's more comforting than staying home and sleeping in. I still get outside.
There's other options as well. The GORP for lunch can be replaced with a MetRx Meal Replacement Bar. Fresh fruit for breakfast. Anything that a hiker would actually eat. We won't die of starvation in 24 hours. Just take a good look at what you need, and what you've just convinced yourself that you need. I think you'll find that you've been sold a bill of goods by the gear manufacturers. Keep in mind, this is for 3 season weather in the Mid-South. I'm not burning calories keeping my body temperature up. I'm not melting snow for drinking water. Just figuring out how efficiency gets me and keeps me in the woods. Please let me know your angle on this discussion. We need to share our ideas.
You make a some good points, Jake - didn't even think of solo vs. group trips. If more than one, then things get mixed up and need to be re-considered. Much of my hiking this year has been in a group, and the group insisted on hot lunchs - hence I ate warm meals at lunch as well.
ReplyDeleteI also like your thinking by checking what has been eaten and what came back home. I always eat my breakfast müsli (which also can be consumed cold, though I prefer it warm) but often has leftovers in the lunch (ramen/ pasta), snacks (GORP and bars) and dinner segments. Going by your reasoning, I should just eat müsli all day - for 24 h no problem, but after that it would get hard.
Such a sandwich as the one in the photo also looks a great treat for dinner or lunch (or both!). On an overnighter/ weekend no problem, anything longer and it probably will not stay fresh (unless one is able to refill on sandwiches every two to three days).
Anyway, good thinking - I'll set a link to yours asap!
Thanks for the encouragement Hendrik. My stove less adventures have been for 24 hours or less thus far. But you could greatly reduce the number of stoves on a trip if your companions were willing to move towards a no-cook menu. And let's face it, less stoves means less weight. I must admit that I still prefer a hot meal every evening. I'm just saying that I keep my options open.
ReplyDeleteI sometimes cheat when going on a short overnighter. Since there is no real need save weight, I take a thermos bottle with hot water for the morning coffee as well as a sandwhich. Technically stoveless...
ReplyDeleteAnyway, this discussion (Hendrik's and yours) is interesting. I'm not sure if you get any valid data from an overnighter, though. I think you need a few days out with hard work before you start to notice any effects of the food you bring. E.g. I find that oatmeal porridge for breakfast is fine for three days, but then I would like a change.
Funny story - I met a guy a few years ago when hiking the Long Trail in Vermont who had a huge bag of Cheerios and Peanut M&M's. That's all he carried on his 272 mile end-to-end hike. He said he did it because it was so easy to re-supply, but it would have driven me nuts after a few days. Oatmeal for breakfast gets very tedious after 3 days in a row, so I like to mix things up with pound cake (which smushes quite compact) and bread/honey and other non-traditional backpacking foods. These are also much easier to resupply with on long hikes that pass close to small towns. But like you, I also go stoveless on shorter overnight trips, just because I can and I can live without hot water for breakfast.
ReplyDeleteYeti, I like the thermos idea. Maybe going stove-less isn't just about reducing weight. Saving valuable time! Oatmeal isn't that great anyway. My Grandfather claims to have eaten cornmeal mush every day for breakfast until he left his parents' house. What we like and what we need are two different things. So I keep that in mind.
ReplyDeletePhilip, I actually sell Hostess for a living. Maybe I need to look into the snack cakes idea. I'm not sure where I heard or read it, but someone was on a very long AT hike and carried nothing but Snickers bars. What seems impossible to one person seems completely sane to another.
On one overnight hike I organized (which started after lunch on Saturday to allow those who worked on Saturday mornings to come), one person simple purchased a hot meat pie from the Bakery which they wrapped up and had cold for dinner that night.
ReplyDeleteMaybe not lightweight, but certainly looked nice compared to some of the things I have “cooked” for dinner on the track :)
Add chocolate covered coffee beans to your GORP mix (in cooler months) and that will cover your coffee/caffeine needs. :)
ReplyDeleteWhat about just making your food in Freezer Bag Cooking style. Then you can have whatever food you want... you just have to wait a little longer. The food I made for my Appalachian Trail hike was like this. From breakfast, lunches, dinners, and with all kinds of accessories. You could just use them in conjunction with a cozy. This would be stoveless as well.
ReplyDeleteWazza, that's more like it! Maybe I'll just take some cold pizza.
ReplyDeleteDnhaydock, I had some Jolt brand coffee bean candy from an MRE and it was great, but I can't find a source.
Jeepingetowah, I don't get it. Doesn't freezer bag cooking require hot water? I'm looking into it now, but just for more cheap menu choices.
I've done up to 11 day Sierra solos with no stove in the prime hiking seasons. Main reason: I don't want to fiddle with stove, pot, eating utensils, cleaning, putting away when I could be walking. It takes too much time and annoying effort. I get up at first light of dawn and start walking within 15 minutes, often after adding water to a zip bag of muesli and dried fruit so it can hydrate for eating a couple of hours later. No need for heavy warm clothes in the freezing morning cold like when sitting around waiting for water to boil. Start moving ASAP and warm up from that wearing just wind wear. It's a better way! I've had no problem not having coffee or tea. I go "cold turkey" on trail. Don't miss it when I don't have it. It's just a habit. I like to take a long Subway veggie sandwich for the first day and fresh fruit for the first few days, and not too many nuts. Suggest trying a crazy variety of non cook foods to see just what will appeal on trail. I was amazed at what I found I liked, but have to be on trail to discover this! Taste changes radically with altitude and exercise.
ReplyDeleteTodd F.
Todd, I don't mind playing with my menu a bit, but these descriptions of muesli have me scratching my head. I remember eating a cereal named that when I was a kid, but can't find it in a store around here. Is this homemade, or is there a certain brand I should be looking for?
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