We've spent the last two days in RI at Grace's dad's house, putting together things that we still need and prepping our food drops. When we added the calories of the food we already have we realized that we only had somewhere around 450,000 calories worth of food. At this point, of course, we've resigned ourselves to the fact that there's simply no way we can eat enough calories to replace what we burn (that's good for me; I'm gonna lose some weight! I'm very sad faced to realize how much of that will be muscle weight :-/ ). But we still have a ton of food to buy.
It's good to sit here and go through all our food, and get to reality about what we need to get, but it's definitely a lot of work. We spent hours tonight bagging vitamins and meals together for each package, and didn't even manage to get one package put together. Granted, that's partially because we made our glorious trail mix, which took a while considering how much we made.
Sadly, I suspect that even this ridiculously huge bag of trail mix is not enough, and that we'll be buying more supplies for trail mix at Costco. I don't look forward to all the chopping and mixing I'm going to have to do again. Also, for reference, here's what's in that: walnuts, pecans, dried apricots, dried cherries, dried blueberries, peanuts, chocolate chips, dried mangoes, and raisins. Goddamn delicious is what that is.
As I look over what we have already for food, I'm also resigned to the coming monotony in our palates. There's a whole lot of Easy Mac, Lipton noodle/rice dishes, Asian noodle meals for some variety and flavor, granola bars, Nutrigrain bars, hot chocolate, Tang, and a few other things. Here are a couple pictures of our food (remember, the amount in the pictures is still inadequate).
Just a week left, but so much to do. So many calories to try to buy. So much nutrition that we won't be getting, no matter how hard we try.
So! Do you have any suggestion as to where you will most need a package of food goodies? And if there's anything specific you'd want in a package? ( :
ReplyDeleteIn terms of the specifics for where, that's not really so important. I don't think either of us has a really specific point in mind that we'd like a care package; so, wherever you feel like sending to.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of the whats, we don't have a specific thing that we'd like. But here are general guidelines that I've thought up.
Higher quality or really good tasting pre-packaged "just add water" meals
Baked goods (home baked is fabulous, but that's asking a lot, since you'd have to plan for when we would arrive somewhere, and how long it would last sitting in the mail)
Chocolate covered fruit, because it's delicious, and nutritious (this is something we'd want only in the colder months, like mid-late September in the north, or early on in the hike in the south, since they would melt otherwise)
Non-chocolate candy during the hot months (I'm thinking like gummy bears, sour patch kids, licorice)
If you find interesting powdered drinks (we'll be drinking pretty much hot cocoa, Tang, and gatorade powder mixed with water), that would be cool, as long as you only need add water.
Portable veggie snacks would be amazing, for nutritional reasons. Like, not fresh veggies, but I know I've seen dried veggie snacks or some such thing before.
That's totally all I can think of at the moment. Really, if you decide to send us a care package, whatever you decide on will be soooo awesome and we'll be incredibly thankful.
Costco has dried "Veggie Straws." They are very light and are better then potato chips. Check them out.
ReplyDeleteI will be following you, as I plan to start the thru walk next year at this time! Good luck. I will be thinking of you and watching as I do my weekly height up San Jacinto Mountain to 2,600 feet in 2 hours - (four miles up, four back) to the Tram Station above Palm Springs, CA. Rest of week on ellipticals, tread mills; weights to build back, legs, stomach and neck, also.
DesertCactus -
Thanks for the kind words! It's good to hear from other potential hikers and we wish you luck on your hike next year.
ReplyDeleteKeep it up with the training!
-Grace
I think you will eat a high calorie and very tasty meal when we see you on the trail. Looking forward to it.
ReplyDeleteSo are we!
ReplyDelete