Many thru-hikers use the AT as an excuse to gorge on anything light, tasty, and oh-so bad for your arteries. Lucas and I both know that we function optimally on clean, low-glycemic foods. Below is our list of healthy hiker grub.
Breakfast: Even a life of get-up-and-go needs a little routine. We plan on boiling water for coffee and oatmeal in the morning, with granola or trail mix thrown in. Warm liquid to slurp and hot food seems like a good way to get our minds ready for another day of carrying 20+ pounds through the woods.
In case we wake up in a rainstorm and want to munch on the move, we will also eat
- Bars (see list below)
- Toaster pastries
Snacks: About half our daily calories will come from snacks.
- Bear Valley Pemmican Bars
- Skout Organic Trailbars
- Nugo Organic Bars
- Variety of other whole grain/high protein bars
- Homemade trail mixes (a lot of our calorie intake relies on this!)
- Homemade dried fruit: banana chips, apples, pineapple, mango
- Almond and Peanut Butter
- Cookies
- Dark chocolate
- Beef Jerky
- Tortilla and Pita chips
Lunch: Around midday we will take a longer, hour-long rest. We’ll eat our lunch along with the snacks mentioned above.
- Almond/peanut butter with tortillas
- Bagels w/ Nutella
- Dehydrated hummus with crackers
- Dried cheese with crackers or tortillas
- Tuna in foil packets
Dinner: We plan on eating a warm, stick-to-your-ribs dinner each night. If it is raining, we might settle on “lunch” foods. For extra calories, we’ll add sporkfuls of coconut oil or olive oil.
- Instant soups (miso, black bean, chicken, or lentil)
- whole wheat angel hair pasta, Parmesan cheese, and jerky
- Mac and Cheese with tuna or jerky
- Instant mashed potatoes
- Stove Top Stuffing
- Quinoa and dehydrated beans
Drinks:
- Hot chocolate
- Tea
- Ground coffee (cowboy style)
- Apple Cider
- Gatorade
- Emergen-C
For more information on how we picked specific foods, check out Backpacking Nutrition.
