Updates and Food

A lot has happened in the last three weeks. The vehicle-dependent plan is back on! I'm still hopeful that I'll be able to complete all of the side-to-side trails as the entire hike will likely only take 19 days to complete. This will leave me with nearly a week and a half to get to the side trails I won't be able to finish prior to my start date. I suppose that I failed to mention that Florida is on my overall summer itinerary now. So this means that there will be about 6 phases at this point: Florida, Vermont, Michigan, Colorado, and Portland/Seattle. Needless to say, I'm incredibly excited about the events that will follow my Master's Thesis Defense that is now only 7 days away!

One of the primary reasons for this post is to share the gourmet menu I plan on consuming over the course of my trip. Since this trip is only going to last 19 days, I will ship most of my food to resupply points in order to minimize the amount of time I'll need to spend off of the trail. That said, there is a fair amount of room in my planning for additions from food purchased along the trail. I expect a lot of this to be items such as summer sausage, fresh fruit, candy bars, etc. So, without further ado, here is what I plan on  consuming during the trip:

One will note that I'm planning on about 3000 calories a day. This number is based partially on recommendations I've received from hiking gurus and friends, but mostly on my own past experiences in the back country. Luckily, I will have plenty of options to supplement my food intake if this number is on the low side. Oh, and the recipes for the Cereal Mix, GORP, both Cous Cous dishes, Backcountry Thanksgiving, and Wasabi Potatoes with Salmon can be found under the Recipes tab at the top of this blog. The remaining dinner dishes are all made by Backpacker's Pantry. 

Ramius' diet will be much simpler than mine. I plan on giving him as much Science Diet® High Energy dry dog food that he wants in a given day. The recommended amount for a 20ish pound dog per day is 1-1.33 cups, so I plan on always carrying twice that just to be sure he has enough food to continue on. The food is actually quite impressive in terms of its ingredients: in addition to the normal vitamins and minerals found in Science Diet's dog food, this one includes Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids to regulate metabolism as well as glucosamine and chondroitin for healthy joints. I'm hopeful that he'll be quite happy with this his food, but will certainly supplement his diet with summer sausage and other goodies from time to time.