High Sierra Topix

East Side Hiker wrote:I am trying to do the mtns without cooking at all. My coffee is cold. I'm eating stuff thats not cooked. I'm not carrying a stove. I don't know if there's a trade off, weight wise, between not carrying a stove and gas, and taking seeds and dried fruit. I seem to have enough energy.

Any thoughts?

Are you using instant coffee added to cold water? I like a lot of hot, strong cuban roast coffee in the morning. It is my one must have luxuries. I use a french press that fits into a Nalgene bottle. It's great. You steep the coffee, press, screw the lid on, then hike to a great spot and sip coffee, with camera at hand, as the sunrises.

If I wanted to gourmet cook I'd stay home. I brought a lot of lipton side dishes. Easy, good, one pot meals.

So, how did the through-hike go with the no-cook meal plan?

I have heard that the trouble with packing resupply boxes in advance is that you can't predict what foods you are going to want to eat after several weeks on the trail.

I am curious as to how well the no cook meals worked out. I enjoy a hot meal after a day of hiking, so I have a difficult time imagining being able to eat cold food day after day by plan.

Here's a good one pot recipe:
add one teaspoon olive oil, one crushed/minced garlic clove, one crushed/minced shallot clove, a 1/4 cup diced salami.
Saute briefly--don't burn.
Add 3 cups water, two cubes bouillon and a pinch of black pepper, begin boiling.
Add shredded dried tomato, one tablespoon dried thyme, 1/3 cup one minute rice and a small packet of ketchup.
Bring to boil, then let stand covered for a few minutes.
A delicious thick soup!

My Sierra backpacking routine was to buy a variety of Trader Joe's dried cup-o-soups, the kind where you add boiling water and wait 2-3 min. I would repackage them in plastic bags with whatever other quick cooking additives I liked (dehydrated beans, parboiled rice, thin rice noodles, angel hair pasta, herbs, spices...). At dinner time I would add the remaining half of a vacuum-packed package of sliced meat (ham, turkey beef, salami...) having eaten the first half for lunch. Good flavor and variety.

Another favorite was polenta (roughly 1 part cornmeal to 3 parts boiling water) with a wide variety of additives, salami being my favorite.