8 Days Of Food

Preparing to fuel my upcoming section hike

I leave tomorrow afternoon for Glasgow VA. I spent all day yesterday packing up my food, and late last night I sat down to write this post….and at that moment our power went out. It seems like a weekly event in our neighborhood- a squirrel farts, and the power goes out.

The power is back on, and my food is packed. I’ll be carrying lunch and dinner for day 1 in my front pocket, but here is everything else for 8 days packed into my SWD Lunch Box.

This is the large model sized for their 35-50L packs, and its estimated volume is 11-12L. What’s inside you ask?

Breakfasts (8): Snack-sized ziplocs containing 2 packets of Carnation Essentials with the appropriate amount of milk powder (some Nature’s Cream, some Milkman) plus a granola bar for each morning.

Snacks: Late morning and afternoon snacks for either side of lunch, which will consist of 1 Snickers per day and a 3 oz. baggie of either Fritos, Combos or Chex Mix.

Lunches (8): Each day I’m going to cold soak a commercial meal from Food For The Sole to have for lunch. Two of their meals are actually designed to be cold soaked, but I’m going to see how the others go too. I have a Dutchware Bowl Bag for my soaking container. A mere 0.6 oz. Suck on that, Talenti jar.

Dinners (7): Some more of my own creations. Even accounting for 3 tubes of Amore tomato paste, 5 small onions, a big head of garlic and a nub of ginger root, the average weight for each meal is around 14 oz.

Medicinals: The UL flask of Four Roses is hidden away. It’s MINE.

Total food weight for the 8 days is 14.5 lbs. Plus I’m eating one dinner in Daleville- Pancho’s better be ready. My total pack weight will be 27 lbs. at departure.

The weather report right now is showing rain for the first 4 days of my trip, because AT. In fact, it’s supposed to rain A LOT during the first 2 days. Therefore, I’m thinking about adding a set of lightweight baselayers to change into in camp. I don’t really want to stay wet for 96 straight hours. Fungi might sprout from my body.

After reviewing the elevation profile I was surprised to learn that this section in fact is NOT the infamous Roller Coaster. Man, that section must really suck then, because the one I’m doing looks crazy enough as it is. I should probably just go ahead and schedule an appointment with my orthopedist for when I get back.

See y’all back here on the 17th.