Appalachian Trail Food

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.

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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.

One thought on “Appalachian Trail Food

  1. so, i’m planning on a thru hike next year (2016), and i’m curious about a few things. i just found your blog, so i may answer some of my question(s) as i explore your site. How long did it take you ? I’m assuming you hiked last year (2014). i noticed you thanked sponsors on this site, can you really get sponsors for doing a thru-hike ? North or South bound ? Estimate on how much it cost you to hike the trail.

    look forward to exploring your site.

    thanks.

    Scott

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