Following the Blue Blaze

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Its about 10 days out from the beginning of my SHT hiking trip and I've been busy spending lots of money purchasing food ingredients and last minute gear upgrades. I have prepared much of the dried food and am reviewing my gear list. I am also making preparations for the canoe trip that will interrupt my hike for four days and preparing food packages and other items for the people that will be helping resupply me. There are plenty of details and many little tasks to accomplish, so I'm glad I started early.

Like I stated in my previous post, I got much of the food ideas from www.theyummylife.com and have tested a few dinner and breakfast recipes. After a few trips to the local grocery store and whole foods co-op, I began making meals this past weekend. It was a much more involved process than I anticipated. For the breakfasts, I made a variety of oatmeal blends. I used to take the instant oatmeal packages you buy at the grocery store but those are rather boring and don't provide necessary calories and have too much sugar. The recipes I used included more natural ingredients and are much heartier and healthier.

The dinner recipes used quick cooking rice, couscous and egg noodles as their base. Other common ingredients include chia seeds, textured soy protein (TSP), and freeze dried vegetables. The recipes include vegetable cous cous, fiesta rice, alfredo pasta, couscous apricot and nut, curry rice cashew and Thai peanut noodle. I made slight variations in these recipes so that they should all taste somewhat different. All of these recipes are made so they can be prepared by adding boiling water and letting them sit and cook for about 12 minutes. I will most likely use a small pot and simmer them for a couple of minutes before letting them sit for 10 minutes.

For snacks and lunches, I will be taking various high calorie bars such as Cliff Bars, Kind Bars and Pro Bars. I will also bring dried fruits, sausage, cheese, crackers, bread, peanut butter, jelly and mixed nuts. I will be fueling numerous time a day and only eating bigger meals in the morning before breaking camp and in the evening after setting up camp.

I will be cooking my meals on a small isobutane/propane stove in a titanium pot. With one large fuel canister, the stove, pot, bowl eating utensils and windscreen weigh just over a pound. The carrying bag will double as a thermal insulator if I decide to cook the meals in a bag.

I will attempt to do at least one more post before I leave listing some of the gear I will be carrying.

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