3 weeks from now, Lucas and I will be camped somewhere along the trail! I look forward to the end of the planning process–I can’t wait until we stand atop Springer Mountain, prepared and ready for 5 months in the woods. It’s kind of stressful balancing calories per gram…and my checking account.

As of now, we plan on resupplying from 18-20 mail-drops (and buying the rest from grocery stores). There are plenty of outfitters, hostels, and post offices along the Appalachian Trail that will hold our packages until we make it to town. We have chosen to mail food to ourselves when resupply stores are inconvenient. Also, we want to eat clean food during our thru-hike, and buying ahead of time has allowed us to stock-up for cheap from Sam’s Club and Trader Joe’s (amazing deals for organic/natural options).

Below are pics of our current food endeavor: preparing homemade trail mix! 

Right now, Lucas is rationing out 3-5 days worth for each pick-up.

Walnuts, pecans, dark chocolate chunks, cranberries, goji berries, coconut flakes, and dried mango.

Sesame sticks, walnuts, almonds, dried mango, cranberries, and sunflower seeds.

Walnuts, pecans, almonds, chocolate chips, sunflower seeds, golden raisins, cranberries, dried cherries and blueberries.

(Not the prettiest, but super tasty!) Oriental rice crackers, seaweed, sesame sticks, wasabi peas, and raw sunflower seeds

Walnuts, almonds, dried mango, wasabi peas, and chow mein noodles.

Almonds, cashews, dried pineapple, cranberries, golden raisins, cherries, and blueberries.

There are three easy steps to making simple, semi-raw mixes.

Step 1: 

Buy nuts, dried fruits, and whatever looks delicious/high in calories. Chow Mein noodles are a surprisingly good touch to trail mix. And dark chocolate is always a good idea.

Step 2: 

Get a brown paper bag, pour the above into the bag, and then shake it. If you want, you can measure out each ingredient to the right amount, or just eyeball it like I did (I added nuts and what not until the mix looked like the stuff you’d see at a store).

Step 3: 

Measure out servings and then package it in ziplocks or vaccum seal bags.

Lucas will have approximately 3/4 to 1 cup of trail mix a day and I’ll have 1/2 to 3/4 cup. We’re not sure how many calories are in each serving, however, most of the ingredients are 5+ calories per gram…so that’s about 750-950 calories a cup. 

EASY PEASY and cheaper than buying premade mixes!