High Sierra Topix

I seem to be.... sorry, duplicate post.

On a short backpacking trip, I tend to get too tired to eat a lot. However, once the trip duration exceeds 5-6 days, I will have lost a little weight. Then my appetite turns around and I begin to gain it back.

I'm not a very good eater on trips (in stark contrast with when I'm at home). It's better than it was - my first backpacking trip, eating primarily trail mix, Clif bars, and commercial dehydrated meals, I think I managed only 1200 cal/day over two weeks. These days I still struggle but can put away ~2000 cal/day.

Some of the improvement is probably just experimentation and figuring out what foods can break through my lack of hunger and appetite, but I think it also helps that I've mostly moved away from prepackaged dehydrated meals. I cook a lot at home, so I wonder if the process of preparing food (rather than just adding water to a pouch) more effectively cues my brain that it's time to eat: the physical acts of cutting up ingredients and stirring a pot, the sounds and smells of food cooking, etc. It involves some sacrifices in the pack weight department, fresh broccoli being notoriously heavier than the freeze-dried variety, but so far the increased energy (and mental boost!) I get from running a smaller calorie deficit makes up for it.

Additionally, I make sure that I carry some food that is my favorite, and I like it so much that I can eat it under any conditions, even low appetite, bad weather, too tired, etc. Often it takes that first snack to get my system running so that I can eat more.

bobby49 wrote:

I make sure that I carry some food that is my favorite, and I like it so much that I can eat it under any conditions, even low appetite, bad weather, too tired, etc...

And this secret food is ...... ???? Don't tell us for a few days so we can all make our best guesses as to bobby's favorite trail food. I will start with Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, with lime flavored chips and salsa. Cheers, Ian

No offense intended, but beer is not weight-effective. I'll drink a cold beer after I finish the trail. While out on the trail, sometimes I will have a tiny plastic bottle of high-proof rum, and some flavored drink packets.

Over the past week, I had Quinoa Cookies. They were full of protein, fat, and carbohydrate, so they kind of covered the bases. String cheese is another good one.

I also fall into the camp of people with less appetite but am eating more now as I continue to learn which foods work and which don't. Sometimes it changes from trip to trip. Like Bobby, I also have favorites that I can snack on just before a meal to get my appetite going. For me, they are Fritos and peanut M&Ms. In fact, after reading about Harlen's fasting experiment, I considered going out with only Fritos and peanut M&Ms. However, I decided against it because if I got tired of them, I wouldn't have anything else to fall back on.

An old standby has to be Logan Bread. I've used a recipe for about forty years now. If you like the basic recipe, you can also alter it to make it suit your own tastes better. I've done multi-day trips where Logan Bread made up over 50% of all of my calories. Of course, the pluses are that it is DIY, so cheap. It doesn't spoil. I've eaten Logan Bread that was six months old, and did not have a hint of mold or staleness. You can smear a bit of jam on it and call it breakfast, or you can smear a bit of mustard on it and call it dinner. You can bake it to be moist, or you can bake it to be drier so that it lasts longer.

In my youth before I learned how to control my AMS (Acute Mtn Sickness), I would have little appetite the first couple of days until enough elevation adaptation had occurred and my appetite would return. Further selective loss of appetite was fully correlated to certain lousy tasting foods my Dad would bring.

Since then I only bring food I dig and I know how to avoid AMS, so my appetite is just as strong in the High Sierra as at home.

Rockyroad writes:

after reading about Harlen's fasting experiment, I considered going out with only Fritos and peanut M&Ms. However, I decided against it because if I got tired of them, I wouldn't have anything else to fall back on.

Regarding "nothing else to fall back on"- why not very small pieces of one's own flesh? I read somewhere that cannibalizing oneself when starving doesn't really work well because one burns as many calories healing the wound as you gain from the piece of yourself. I wonder how well studied this technique really is though? The lack of of data leaves the question open, at least it does to me ..... perhaps the NOLS could do further experiments- WD? For instance, what if after taking a bite out of your shoulder or biceps you immediately cauterize the wound, pop a pain pill, and just keep on truckin' down the Rockyroad? An extreme version of the "self-sufficient" trip.

Rocky, do you hike with a partner, if so, another option presents itself.... Alexander Pearce anyone???

Well I have heard, and then read a lot about obscure Alexander Pearce, and his grisly backcountry traveling methods. Mainly because my friend Shaun Pearce- the mild looking Tasmanian school teacher pictured below, likes to think he's related, and calls him "Uncle Alex." If nothing else, Alexander Pearce was a survivor.