PCT with Purpose: Packing for a resupply - thru hike food planning

Many of you have had questions on how we get supplies out for a resupply. It sounds complicated at first and it does take some planning. We have to estimate when we think Zach will arrive at each resupply point and then figure out how many days of food we need to include in each package. Of course we wanted to focus on the following: good tasting food, things that don't spoil easily, making something nutritious that is LIGHTWEIGHT and make sure he doesn't have too MUCH or too LITTLE food.
Another thing to strongly consider is that we wanted him to have variety. He wanted to cool hydrate his lunch. It made sense. He wouldn't have to stop for lunch, get out his stove, his pot, and the dehydrated meal, soak it 5 minutes, bring it to a boil, eat it, let everything cool and then restore it back in his pack. With the help of a cookbook by Linda Yaffe, I was able to come up with a LOT of varieties of hummus and bean salads that I thought were good to try.

Making red pepper hummus.

What does 400 meals look like in a refrigerator?

We took out all the shelves in a refrigerator we had in our basement and it was stuffed from the top to the bottom. The sheer volume of the number of meals we were making didn't actually allow me to TRY everything to see how it hydrated so Zach was going to have to figure it out on the run.

Refrigerator full of vacuumed meals

I used my own recipes and two trail cookbooks that were invaluable to make the meals. Linda Yaffe's Backpack Gourmet and Chef Glenn's Recipes for Adventure. I purchased other books, but these two are the best. Chef Glenn offered invaluable tips on storage were spot on. Linda's years of experience made sure that her recipes were tested and delicious. If you especially want to use less protein, her meals are wonderful. The only FAIL recipe was my own sweet potato bars that I made - they spoiled because I didn't dehydrate them. Zach is tossing them out if he gets one in a resupply.

For the cool hyrdrate, I made bean salads, black bean salsa, fruit salads, oatmeal type of muesli, hummus and peanut butter powder that I put in small zip bags. These were great because you can add the water into the zip bag and massage the bag until the hummus and peanut butter are the right consistency. When ready, just squeeze it out. We made all kinds of hummus - red pepper, lemon, white bean, etc. you get the idea. He could add some Italian dressing or olive oil to them for extra calories.

Made in Nature donation.

Since we were running out of time on dehydrating things, we turned to already prepared freeze dried and dried fruit. I ordered a case of freeze dried fruit mixtures from http://Foodstorage.com/ and purchased large quantities of nuts, and dried fruits. After Zach had left for the trail, one of the companies that I had purchased a lot of their products: Made in Nature found about Zach's hike for the Colon Cancer Alliance and they sent a box of additional meals and dried fruits for us to add to his stash. It was wonderful. The Made in Nature snack packs they sent were light enough that I didn't have to repackage them. The meal pouches were smaller than conventional dried food packages which made them easy to fit into the bear canister.

For the tropical salads, muesli, and berry salads, I added different fruits, raisins, shredded coconut, dehydrated milk, cranberries, nuts, other kinds of dehydrated berries we found and honey powder - what a wonderful thing I didn't even know existed! Check out your local Asian grocery store to find this - it is fantastic.

How to keep them from spoiling?

450 meals and bars WHEW!

First you have to make things with as little fat as possible. Oxygen and light are what make the foods that are dehydrated spoil so as I was preparing and dehydrating, I put everything into Foodsaver vacuum bags. Foodsaver makes a few things that were so handy. Chef Glenn had recommended getting a Foodsaver Jar sealer- I ordered it directly from Foodsaver along with cases of their bags because I knew I needed a lot of them. The person I spoke with on the phone suggested sending in a letter about Zach's adventure. I did and they sent a donation of bags for us. Wonderful! I want to thank FoodSaver for that. We used a huge quantity of their products. The portion packs were great for smaller things and they have these new gallon and quart bags that are reusable. Both Linda and Chef Glenn offer advice on making sure your food stays sealed. Depending on how long you need to store the food you can also use a mylar bag with an oxygen absorber. If you are going on a regular backpacking trip the foodsaver way is convenient and easy. If you are doing a thru hike you may want to consider using a combination of the vacuum and mylar method.

How did you pack the meals?

Each meal or snack was in its own small 3mil zip bag. I put each day's meals and snacks together with a couple of paper towels and either vacuum sealed that day's food or put it in a mylar bag with the oxygen absorber. Then we numbered the bag so we could keep up with it and make sure he had some variety. Now when it is time to send out a package, I go to the refrigerator and pull out the number of days he needs, add other things like wipes, maps, shoes, etc. and it is on its way to his resupply spot. Because of his homecooked meal stash, Zach's trail name is "Dr. Fresh" a take on the home delivery "Hello Fresh" and that he is also applying to medical school while he is on the trail.