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Wow!  That looks like a lot of food!  It is a lot but all my calculations and shakedown hikes say that it is what I need for 6 days on the trail.  About 3500 calories per day.

So, to figure this out I started with my normal calorie intake, 2500 per day,  then added what I think I need for carrying a pack uphill all day.  Also during all my training hikes and bicycling I have always needed about 200 calories per hour while moving. Easy on the RAGBRAI but not so easy in the middle of nowhere. Anyway, the result is 3000 to 4000 calories per day depending on mileage and terrain. I was shocked when I set it all out, do I really need all this food, and worse, do I really need to carry all this food? There is a rule of thumb backpackers use, 1.5 lbs to 2 lbs of food per day. My load works out to 1.9 lbs per day, so, spot on.

Much of the food would not be called healthy by current standard, high fat, high calorie, and lots of sodium.  That is actually what backpackers need, working out, sweating, day after day. Am I’m going on this trip just as an excuse to eat goodies, um, no.  So here is a “general” idea of the kind of stuff I’ll be eating every day.

Breakfast

Pretty much everyday will be oatmeal.  Two packets of oatmeal with some dried milk, nuts, and cranberries.  That will be my goto breakfast.  I’ll mix it up from time to time with a bagel and peanut butter, maybe some grits. Oh, I’ll also have a veggie powder drink and some coffee or tea, gotta have some caffeine to get going.

Lunch

Lunch will almost always be something in a tortilla. Pepperoni and cheese, tuna and Fritos, peanut butter and honey. I’ll also mix it up with some meal bars.

Dinner

Dinner will be the big meal, shooting for at least 1000 calories here. Freeze dried meals are usually good and I will alternate them with something called a Ramen Bomb. Ramen noodles, potatoes, and some kind of meat. I did try this and it is very tasty and satisfying. Perfect after a long day. In addition to the main course there will be some kind of desert, Oreo’s, Payday, whatever… yum!

Snacks

That was the meals, but I mentioned before I’ll need around 200 calories per hour while on my feet which means, lots of snacks! Cliff Bars, Larabars, cookies, jerky, dried fruit, trail mix, and chips. Whatever I feel like eating. They say that altitude suppresses your appetite, I have experienced that, so bring foods you want to eat, tasty goodness. And lastly I sweat a lot so I’m bringing a bunch of electrolyte mixes to add to my water.

So thats it, my food plan. They also say your taste may dramatically change after a few weeks on trail. We’ll see can’t imagine I’ll ever refuse an Oreo or TimTam!