This last trip was my longest yet, and there were no real re-supply stops planned. (We did pass through the Walasi-yi / Mountain Crossing Store at Neels Gap, and I did buy Combos and Fig newtons — two things I had wanted to buy before we started, but Target didn’t have them.) So we had to carry 4.5 days worth of food with us. That is both bulky and weighs a lot!

The 1st and 2nd day, I kept thinking I had way too much food, but by the end of the trip, there was not that much left over, even though we came out in 4 days instead of 4.5…. So I didn’t have as much extra as I thought.

Breakfast:

• 8 packs of instant oatmeal (I need 2 for breakfast!)
• 2 packs of pop tarts (pop tarts are snacks too)

Lunch:

• 4 individual tuna/cracker kits

Snacks (to go with lunch or dinner, or as a real in-between meal snack)

• small packs of pringles (I love these things and ate them at just about every lunch and dinner, and ran out. Next time I should just bring full size cans)
• small packs of chips ahoy cookies — a desert after dinner, lunch
• combos — I still love these
• fig newtons — yummy
• cheese – ate with lunch and dinner
• chocolate covered espresso beans — great lift around 2 or 3 in the afternoon, when we were hitting 13 or 14 miles on the day
• trail mix — I had two bags and only ate about 1/2 of one of them. I noticed they were 10 oz each! That is a lot of weight to carry and not eat!

Dinner

• 4 dehydrated meals from Mary Jane — these are very good vegetarian meals!

Drinks

• water at the springs/streams (filtered with MSR pump filter)
• heed — I had two zip lock bags, and used it all by the end of the 3rd day
• coffee for breakfast — don’t leave home without it! 🙂

Supplements

• energy bars — I had a few more of these than I ate, though I still ate 2 each day
• tissue rejuvenator – has glucosamine, chondroitin, msm, as well as natural anti-inflammatory herbs such as ginger, tumeric, etc.
• ibuprofen – started as preventative but I needed it by the end!

What to try/do different next time:

• perpetuem instead of heed (? – this has a little protein mixed in, where as heed is just carbs and electrolytes)
• more heed, since I ran out
• big cans of pringles instead of the snack packs
• more variety for lunch — maybe peanut butter, honey, crackers, etc.
• keep a better before and after inventory so I know exactly how much extra I had!