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.