L.Dog's SP2 Formula

Hikers use a variety of simplified formulas to determine how much food one needs to pack for a given time or distance to meet 4500-6500 calories per day requirements, depending on age, gender, level of effort, temperature ...

NOLS developed their PPPPD (Pounds per person per day) formula for expedition planning. Their experience showed that backpackers need 1.4 to 2.0 PPPPD depending on all those variables.

Garlic08 on Whiteblaze.net figures 1 lb per 10 miles. If the next resupply point is 50 miles away, pack out 5 lbs. Whether you bang out the distance in 3 days, or stretch it out to 6 days you'd theoretically have the food to support the level of effort. Ymmv.

But that's not really what this post is about. What it's really about after the break.

MYOG - A Smaller, Lighter Cook System

My MSR Titan Tea Kettle has an 850 ml. capacity, and I never used more than a half that during my, uh, shakedown hike this spring. So I boiled water in my old 600 ml Snow Peak cup over my backpacking stove to see if the flame pattern was ok. It was.  I have one of Tinny's aluminum lids for the cup, and together it weighs about an ounce less than the MSR. Takes up less room in my pack too.  Now I needed a cozy/pouch.

I had built one for my MSR Titan Tea Kettle. It's a simple, insulated pouch with a drawstring top, that serves as both a cozy and as a bag to carry the pot with stove, lighter and misc cooking stuff inside.  It's made of a light ripstop cotton duck, and insulated on the side and bottom with Insul-Bright, a hollow polyester fiber with a metallized film backing. 

It's over-built, and I figured I could get away with a lighter material. I still wanted cotton, cause I didn't want it to melt from a hot pan.  I broke out some scraps from a Ski Patrol project, the leftover Insul-Bright, and Mary's sewing machine.

Mmmmmm... Ramps!

Sly, Bag-O-Tricks, and Bookworm are staying in the room next door. Yesterday the latter two went hunting for ramps along the AT, and came back with a nice bunch.

Ramps are a wild leek that resembles a scallion, but with broad, flat leaves. The flavor is described as being like an onion, but with a very strong garlic smell. And they are pungent. Those who eat a big meal of them tend to be shunned by others ...

For days.

Because they are one of the first greens to grow in spring, their appearance in spring is a big cultural event throughout Appalachia. Large regional ramp festivals are held annually in North Carolina and West Virginia. Lately, ramps have become the darling of chefs and foodies.

Ready ...

Saturday morning I hop a train for the first leg of a trip that will get me to the southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail on Monday morning. From there I'll start a 2184-mile hike along the spine of the Appalachian Mountains, to Mt Katahdin in northern Maine.  Along the way I'll pass thru 14 states, climb a total of 629899', make 865 summits, and bag five of the 50 states' highest peaks.

If history predicts anything, I'll be one of 1150-1700 attempting an AT thru hike this year. 28% of us will finish.

To improve my chances, I'll start slow - eight mile days with lots of breaks for the first week, and build up to an average of fourteen mile days. There'll be stretches where I bang out twenty mile days, and others where I'll be lucky to do ten.

I've spent the last year putting my pack together, often changing things to get the best performance at the lightest weight. Of course, nothing's lighter than leaving stuff behind, and I'm still working on that. As it stands, outfitted for the shoulder seasons, my pack weighs 21 lbs without food and water. That will drop to 18 when I swap gear in summer.  Food weight will vary between 6 and 14 lbs based on the number of days between resupply.  Water will vary between 2 and 4 lbs depending on water conditions.  I could be humping  as much as 40 lbs, but most of the time it'll be closer to 21-35.

I'll burn 4000-6000 calories a day and will be hard-pressed to consume anything close to that. I've chosen food with the highest calories/oz.  I'll be hiking on a diet high in carbohydrates and fat, with foods selected to assure I get complete proteins, and generally eating like a Hobbit. Most everything I eat will be rehydrated, cooked over a butane stove, and eaten out of a pot with a spork.  Yum.

I scored a sponsorship from Emergen-C and I'm packing their Joint Health Formula, which provides a mix of antioxidents, B vitamins, electrolytes and other nutrients, along with glucosamine and chondroitin.  I'll also be packing fish oil and Vitamin I (ibuprofen).

I'll generally resupply at grocery stores in towns along the way.  However, I have 10 boxes of food and supplies that Mary will mail to places along the trail.  Most of those boxes just have stuff that I'm unlikely to find along the way, plus Emergen-C, Clif Bars, meds, sections of the trail guide, batteries ... There are four that have a full food resupply that are being mailed to places where resupply is limited or non-existent.

I also have a box filled with summer-weight gear that Mary will mail to me when I get past Mount Rogers in Virginia, when the chance of snow and freezing temps is low. I'll mail the winter stuff home, and she'll mail that back when I'm heading into the White Mountains in the Fall.

There's a list of milestone dates over there in the right column. It's based on past thru-hikers average pace, and is not a schedule I feel compelled to keep. It's a yardstick by which I'll measure progress to make sure I meet my one hard schedule point - to get to Baxter State Park in Maine before they close for the season, around Oct 15. Else, I don't summit Mt Katahdin.

I'm packing a camera and a Droid, so I'll be able to post updates to this blog along the way.  Hope you follow along. If you want to be notified when I post something here, put your email addy in that "Follow by Email" block on the right-hand column.

Nom, Nom, Nom ...

The door bell rang, and there was a big ol' box on the stoop - With Clif Bar logos all over it!

Woo-hoo!

Inside were several boxes of Cliff Bar goodness.  My winnings from their 12 Days of #Clifmas contest on Twitter. All different types and flavors, chosen for their fat content!

Just in time too, as I'm getting antsy to put drop boxes together, and these will feature prominently in them.

MYOG - A Cozy for my Kettle

I like the concept of freezer bag cooking, but multiplying two baggies per day, by 170+ days equals a whole lot of plastic in landfill. I'll still use the basic concept, but I'll do it in my MSR Kettle. That means bringing food to a boil, taking it off the heat, and putting it in a cozy. I needed a cozy.

I envisioned a simple, insulated pouch, with a drawstring top, that would serve as both a cozy, and as a bag to carry the pot in.

I went to my local fabric store where I found some light rip-stop cotton duck which won't melt when I drop a hot pot in it. To keep the heat in, I found some Insul-Bright which is hollow polyester fiber with a metallized film backing. The backing resists radiant heat loss, the fiber resists conduction.

Now all I had to do was put it together ...

Manna from Heaven!

I'm on the Twitter. You can follow me @LaughingDawg. I follow Clif Bars, and they held a holiday contest/clever marketing event called the Twelve Days of #Clifmas. They posted a different task every day, and contestants tweeted their best efforts with the hashtag #Clifmas.  And all those posts went out to all their followers... Brilliant.

One contestant was selected every day to win a box of their various products. And, everyone who posted was automatically entered to win the grand prize - a one year supply of Clif Bars!

I was motivated. I managed to write such instant classics as:

"I'm dreaming of a White Macadamia Nut #Clifmas, just like the ones I used to know ..."

and,

Eating Like Hobbits

"And laugh they did, and eat, and drink, often and heartily, being fond of simple jests at all times, and of six meals a day (when they could get them)."

While this might sound like a description of thru-hikers, it was Tolkein describing Hobbits in The Fellowship of the Ring.

But long-distance hikers do eat whenever they can, and as much as they can. Hiking in the mountains with a 30 lb pack burns more calories than one can generally consume or even carry comfortably. Common estimates of caloric requirements in this environment are from 4500-6500 calories per day. Add cold temperatures and these requirements go up.

A Trail Food Find

Went to Amazon looking for dehydrated beans and found the Mexicali Rose and Santa Fe brands. Both were highly regarded by reviewers. I could get a single bag of the Mexacali Rose, whereas one has to order case lots of Santa Fe, so I ordered a bag of Mexacali Rose instant refried black beans.


A 1/3 cup of dry beans is an alleged serving, and provides:


Fat - 0g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 280mg
Carbs - 19g
Dietary fiber 7g
Sugars - 0g
Protein 6g


The directions call for bringing ~1:1 ratio of beans to water to a boil and simmering 5-8 minutes - Not ideal for the freezer bag cooking method, but maybe?


Thinking I'd like to try them as a rice and bean dish, I picked up some Minute Rice. It's added 1:1 to boiling water, removed from heat and allowed to sit for 5 mins. 1/2 cup of dry rice is a serving and provides:


Fat - 0g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 5mg
Carbs - 45g
Dietary fiber 0g
Sugars - 0g
Protein 5g


I put 2/3 cup of beans in a freezer baggy along with a cup of Minute White Rice, a tsp of cumin, 1/2 tsp of black pepper, 1/2 tsp of chili powder 1/2 tsp of cilantro. Didn't figure it needed more salt ... I covered everything with boiling water, sealed the bag and put it in a cozy for 8 mins, squishing occasionally.


They came out great. Both the rice and the beans were rehydrated and they were tasty. I'd probably add olive oil to provide some fat. That amount (two "servings") fed two of us for lunch, but would probably feed one hungry hiker.


I'd like to find a source for individual bags of the Santa Fe product ...