Food for long Tramps

and watch the expiry dates on those South City curries! Marmite and chip sammies...yummy. Have you tried tortillas with pesto/cheese or tuna with cheese/tomato/red peppers? Avocado is a good ingredient too. Of course too heavy for the long trips tho' I did come back from a long trip with one that was too green to eat the whole trip. I'd accidentally packed it! I use a spud peeler for slivers of cheese. Cheaper than presliced cheese and the peeler is lighter than a knife.

I can't see how you would make up the needed calories on such a slim regiment of food. The longest I usually go for is about 5 days, the weight has never been a problem, even on solo trips. I get super cranky if I am hungry, and I'm no fun to be around. So to me it seems like a catch 22; bare the burden of weight but get the calories you need, or go as svelte as possible and go hungry. I can see how the weight would start to become a burden on long 8-10 day trips though. Nonetheless, I still can't see how you would get the energy you require. I suppose Honora that you have found a way that suits you. I've been really considering purchasing a dehydrator.

Actually 600 gms p/day sounds about right to me. Im just looking at my pile of food that Im taking with me in two days to do the Rees Dart. My dinner is a single serve of continental pasta at 80gms plus some dehy peas & corn and my brekkie is probably 50gms. With snacks and lunch and even emergency food I dont think it would be over 600gms a day. However that said I find exercise suppresses my appetite so I only seem to graze while Im tramping but eat like a horse for a week after!

That does imply horses eat alot or you'll eat your dinner for a week after with your head in a chaff bag? Just kidding

Yep, pretty much! :D

I'd also agree with 600g - with maybe 1 or 2 heavier days out of 10. I'm a big fan of carb shots and protein bars on long trips to up the calorie intake without raising the weight too much. I carry a few boil in bags on a longer trip because it's a nice change after 4 days on freeze dried. This is probably where inexperienced trampers make a mistake - they think it will be nice to have fancy food at the end of the day, and aren't used to carrying the resulting heavy load. I'd rather have slightly more boring food but an easier walk!

I came up with the 600g figure after talking to a couple who used that as their guideline on their trips. It works OK for me. Doing all that exercise helps me manage to have a good appetite for the BCC! I very carefully weighed my food for a 4 day trip recently but came out a day early due to flooded rivers so took the leftovers on a 2 day tramp. I do have a dehydrator but seldom use it as the commercial stuff is so light.

I'm fine for a few days on short rations - exercise also suppresses my appetite and I once did a 72 hour walk with the army on one small meal of a couple of potatoes. But when we did a trip of 8 days, we found our stamina the last few days was well down - we were knackered - I'm sure it was mainly due to the cumulative effect from a lack of calories.

'bare (sic) the burden of weight but get the calories you need, or go as svelte as possible and go hungry. One way round this is to take lots of fat e.g. oil, pesto, fatty cheese, mealmates, shortbread, nuts, fish in oil. Another way is to bulk buy commercially dried dehy.

I'm very intrigued by what was mentioned early on in this thread about sending food ahead on the Karamea trek. Does that mean mailing a box to a spot accessible from the track, or is there some kind of courier service to a hut along the way? On a couple of 200 mile hikes I've done in the Sierra Nevada here, that was the trick: mail a box of goodies ahead to a spot about midway that you can get to without too huge of a diversion from the trail. On the John Muir Trail, there's a "trail ranch" that actually stores plastic tubs of your food that can be hauled in by mules -- very handy. I really want to walk the Karamea trek, and shudder to think of putting 10+ days of food in a pack that already holds fly reels, a camera, and other heavy junk . . .