Packing for another trip

I'm planning to hike the Appalachian Trail through New Jersey in a few weeks.  It's a beautiful area.  When I thruhiked in 2010, I knew I wanted to come back and spend more time.  And now I finally will.

The first thing I do when I'm planning a trip is try to figure out how far I'll walk every day, where I'll stop to camp, and where the water supplies are.  Once I have that laid out, I look at my resupply opportunities.  In this case, they aren't good.  There's a small general store (Horler's, in Unionville NY) several days in, and that's about it.  Take into consideration my gluten sensitivity and dairy intolerance, suddenly food is a real issue.  I won't be able to eat a lot of what I find in most stores.  So today I went to the grocery store to try to get enough backpacking food for the whole 8-9 day trip.

On a trip of that length, I have multiple considerations.  Primary is weight.  I will be able to buy some snacks at Horler's, and Joe To Go might have drinks or chips I can buy.  But mostly I'll need to carry my food.  After weight I'm concerned with variety.  Being hungry AND carrying extra weight in food you can no longer stand to eat (and I'm talking gagging when you try to swallow, here) are crazy-making.  So I know that I need variety.    I also need things to pack small enough that I can fit them in my backpack and still carry enough other gear to stay safe. 

Because my food will take up a lot of room and weight on this trip, I'll be carrying smaller and lighter versions of some of my other gear.  I'm still taking my 15 degree sleeping bag.  I can't compromise on warmth in camp.  But I'll take my little tyvek rain jacket instead of my big old Marmot Precip.  I might take my little antigravity gear stove rather than my larger and heavier Jetboil.  And I'll probably take my little Zpacks tent rather than my larger tarptent or LightHeart tent.

Last year I absolutely loved Packit Gourmet's breakfast smoothies.  They taste fantastic, and they're super high in protein.  400+ calories and 35 grams of protein is hard to beat, especially considering that each weighs less than 4 ounces.  The problem is that they're dairy based.  I decided to try making my own, and it turned out pretty well if I do say so myself.  I've found two different gluten free vegan smoothie powders - one chocolate, one vanilla.  To those I've added either strawberries, peaches, or pineapple and coconut, as well as stevia and dried whole goat milk.  I got the fruit freeze dried from my local grocery store (with the exception of the coconut, which I already had in powdered form.)  I used a mortar and pestle to crush the fruit to a powder and add it to the mix.  I've tried peach vanilla at home and it was DANG good.  I'll have that, plus chocolate strawberry and vanilla coconut pineapple.  I'm considering a vanilla apple cinnamon too.  That sounds like it would be good cold or hot.

I didn't make all my breakfasts up to be smoothies, though.  Again, variety is key for me.  So I threw in two different flavors of oatmeal, one Jamaican Peanut Porridge, and a couple different flavors of gluten free breakfast bars.  Every day I also get to have a serving of instant coffee with powdered goat milk and a little sweetener.  I used to bring dunk bags of coffee, but then I'd have to pack out the wet coffee bags.  Instant is good enough.

I mixed it up less in my daytime snacks, but they all taste pretty great so I don't need to.  This has been my standard snack bag for several years:  Welch's fruit snacks, a handful of nuts, a little box of raisins or four prunes, a couple pieces of hard candy, and several fun size candy bars or one full size one.  I can't have most trail bars now, but I like Kind bars quite a lot so now I pack a variety of those.  Most days I'll also throw in an energy gel.  They're good for that late in the day push up a mountain, when you realize you aren't as close to the shelter as you thought you were.

Every day I have a salty snack of some kind.  Doritos, Popchips, cheesy poofs (which, shockingly, can be bought gluten free), gluten free pretzels, and most varieties of potato chips are still good options for me.  The saltier and more flavorful, the better.  I also have one (or two, in hot weather) packets of Crystal Light every day - the varieties with the electrolytes in them.

Because I snack often, I don't always eat a real lunch.  If I do, it's minimal.  Maybe some Nut Thins (which have bonus protein since they're made from nuts) with sheep cheese or peanut butter on them. 

By the end of the day I'm usually tired (go figure) and uninterested in making a production out of dinner.  These little noodle soups have been my go-to easy dinner for years.  Luckily they're made with rice noodles so I can still eat them now.  I also like to carry out a retort packaged Indian dish for the first night, like Kashmir Spinach.  Neither the soups nor the Tasty Bite dinners are high calorie.  They're just something warm to put in my belly at the end of the day.  I don't usually do a big meat dinner.  Instead I bring pepperoni, bacon, sausage, and packaged chicken or tuna that I can eat a little bit of at lunch or dinner if I'm in the mood.  I get a lot of protein from my smoothies and nuts.  If I feel that protein is an issue I'll put a package of beef jerky in my snack bag for the day.

I have a few other favorites that often find their way into my food bag.  Crystallized ginger tastes fantastic and settles the stomach.  Fake gluten free oreos make for a nice rest break.  Hot chocolate is delightful for breakfast or dinner.  Werther's candies have been a staple for over a decade.  Dried mango is the shiznit.  And if I can get them, homemade Rice Krispy treats (with gluten free rice krispies, now..) really float my boat. 

So I purchased all this stuff and brought it home and packed it up.  It was REALLY HARD to pack it and not eat it.  I did do a little taste test to make sure the fake oreos were edible.  (They are!) But I persevered and packed for not only my New Jersey trip, but my next trip with DeLee.  Now I just need for it to be time to go.

Dairy and Gluten Free Backpacking

I wish I didn't have to bother with this, but clearly I do.  I'm still figuring out gluten and dairy free eating at home.  And I'm still figuring out what works for me on the trail.  Googling "gluten free backpacking" does lead to some information.  I'm blogging here what is working for me so far mostly as a record for me to check back on.

First and foremost, the most important detail is READING LABELS.  Because gluten is hiding in the most unlikely places.

Gluten free eating has surprisingly helped me in one place - protein levels.  I substitute nut based foods for many formerly grain based foods.  So now my snacks are higher in protein and fats than they used to be, and they stick with me much better than high carbohydrate snacks.  I feel less hunger and have more energy than previously.  And my blood sugar levels are less wobbly.

When I first discovered that gluten was my problem, I tried out many gluten free items from the store.  And they were mostly snack foods.  It was so nice to eat without getting sick!  It wasn't so nice to gain a ton of weight.  Eventually I got over it and stopped eating just because I could.  I still like the gluten free cookies and pretzels, but I eat them infrequently, just as before I got sick I infrequently ate cookies or pretzels.

Most of the gluten free food I am eating now is naturally gluten free, not created with gluten substitutes.  Vegetables, fruits, plain meats, oats (oats not being a problem for me, unlike the extremely sensitive folks), potatoes, rice, corn.  I can and sometimes do eat less traditional starchy/grainy items such as amaranth or quinoa.  But they weren't a big part of my diet before, and they haven't become a big part of my diet now.  They just aren't that common.

Dairy free is much easier.  Everybody is used to the idea of non-dairy.  Alternative non-bovine dairy such as sheep or goat products are a little more out there, but they're available.  There is a huge section of alternative milk at my grocery store. I can recall boxes of soy, rice, flax, hemp, almond, and coconut milks.  I've probably forgotten a few.  My favorite so far is Almond Breeze plain unsweetened almond milk.  It's low calorie and not aggressively sweet as many of the "milk" products are.  I don't know why they sweeten the stuff but I find it gross when they do.

For long distance backpacking, I have to consider what I can buy at gas stations and the Dollar General stores I am most likely to shop at.  Not every town stop has a great Publix or Giant or Kroger.  Not even most town stops have a real grocery store handy to the hostel or motel I'll be staying at.  I can and will mail myself some things, but mostly I'll have to make do with what I find.

Gosh I'm long-winded.  You've probably given up and quit reading by now.  Too bad, because I'm just about to start listing actual useful products.  Remember that you must read the labels!  Sometimes they include wheat in weird places.

Breakfast: 
Oatmeal, instant or regular Quaker Oats
Kind bars
Dried or freeze dried fruit
Coffee
Sugar, or stevia packets if I'm mailing from home
Dried honey crystals if mailing from home
Glutino breakfast bars if mailing from home
Smoothies, if mailing from home (Arbonne vanilla protein powder, freeze dried fruit)

Lunch:
Tuna packets
Spam packets
Manchego (sheep) cheese if mailing from home
Nut thins, any variety
Dried fruit
Scharr gluten free bread alternatives, if available
Peanut butter
Individually packaged jellies, if mailing from home
Individually packaged pickles
Celery from town
Glutino pretzels if mailing from home
Hard boiled eggs


Dinner:
Rice noodles
Instant Rice
Corn pasta (so far the spirals seem to cook the best)
Mashed potatoes - beware the additions in flavored packets
Spam Packets
Sausage (check the label!)
Gluten free individual soy or tamari packets if mailing from home
Frank's Red Hot
Any freeze dried, dried, or fresh vegetables I can find
Hot chocolate
Scotch, rum, tequila, schnapps, wine, cider packed in
Parmesan cheese seems to go down okay
Manchego cheese
Home-dehydrated spinach
Home-dehydrated spaghetti sauce
Pepperoni
Retort packaged Indian or Thai meals

Snacks:
Kind bars
Pro bars
Lara bars
Dried fruit, especially raisins, mango, apples
Some stores have freeze dried apples or pears individually packaged
Most chocolate / candy - M&Ms, gummy bears, jelly beans,
Individual packs of almonds
Individually packaged prunes
Gorp
Crystal Lite pure drink mix (contains electrolytes)
Nut thins
Corn based chips - Fritos, some Doritos, tortilla chips
Salsa
Potato based chips - Popchips, most potato chips
Some beef or turkey jerky - read the label!  Plain is safest
Hard candies
Power gels

And anything else I can find in the store that is gluten and dairy free and I think I can keep down. 

Hiker items that I need to NOT pick up out of habit:
Ramen noodles
Capellini noodles
Breakfast bars
Nido dry whole milk
Pretzels
Power bars
Luna bars
Cheese sticks, mozzarella or cheddar
Pringles
Cookies
Hostess products
Frozen pizzas in town

In town foods that I need to NOT eat out of habit:
Pizza
Burgers with buns or cheese
Any kind of sandwich
Most soups
Fried chicken
Chicken tenders / wings
French fries at most places
Ice cream
Soy sauce, and the associated sushi with fake crab / roe in it.
Most Chinese food
Pancakes, eggs at places that add stuff to make their eggs fluffy, waffles, french toast
Beer (oh god, the beer)
Any baked goods

Honestly in town will be tougher than on the trail.  It's really, really hard to ignore fresh, hot food when you have hiker hunger.  I'm remembering meals I've eaten in the past in town and I don't think any of them were both dairy or gluten free.  Sigh.  At least if there is cell signal in a town I can try googling the various eating establishments before I go there to see if there are some safe options for me.

I better make myself a list of safe town foods.  To wit:
Fruit
Plain veggies
Plain burgers
Salads, oil and vinegar (but not malt vinegar)
French fries at some places
Plain chicken or turkey - maybe fried if I pull the skin off?
Go to a store and look for non-dairy ice creams, popsicles
Eggs, veggie omelets
Chinese buffets might have some stuff you can have, like spring rolls with rice paper wrappers, plain white rice, some sushi, fried plantain.  If you luck into Mongolian you can make it safely.
Steak
Chipotle is safe
rice & beans
Sigh.

Followup: we did not in fact die in a storm

I guess I kind of left you with a cliffhanger, there.  Superstorm Sandy did not bother us much.  In fact our power didn't do out at all, though it did flicker.  And it occurs to me that I have something like 30 pounds of ice in the freezer that I need purpose for.

Work ended up being a little exciting.  I went in on last Monday and shut everything down, so that if the power went out things wouldn't cook and then crash.  Everybody said we'd lose power.  The power companies were autodialing all their customers to say as much.  It seemed like a done deal.

And the power didn't go out after all, so Tuesday morning I went in to power everything up, and we lost a little bit more hardware / filesystems this time than I was expecting.  But that wasn't the exciting part.  The exciting part was where somebody at NOAA decided that we were essential and raised a ruckus that we had shut our machines down in the face of a major storm.  Apparently it seemed less major to people in Colorado, who weren't having people die / roads and buildings swept away.

Now, I've been working there since 1994, and we've shut our machines down many times for many reasons.  Generally speaking, nobody cared.  We alerted folks that we would be down, if there was time.  And then we shut down the computers.  Or if they shut themselves down (i.e., crashed due to power failure such as during the derecho this summer) we turned everything off at the power switches so that we could bring them back up in an organized fashion.

All that has apparently changed.  And so now we are working on a continuity of operations plan for our mission.  Our mission which is well past its expiration date.  I find this mildly humorous.

So that was last week, although the COOP thing continues.

This week I'm planning for a backpacking trip this weekend.  I hope.  I started coughing and sneezing and having a sore throat at work today.  I told myself that it's just allergies and I'll be fine tomorrow.  I sincerely hope that's the truth.  Because if it's not, I'm going to have to cancel my trip.  I happen to know that going on a backpacking trip in cold weather when you have a cold is an excellent way to get bronchitis.  And even if it's an excellent way, it's not something I want to do.

Chewing is overrated

Inspired by friends who have been juicing (in the sense of extracting juice from fruits and vegetables) for health reasons, I purchased a juicer recently.  And I'm kind of in love.  The fresh fruit juices are insanely good, and the fresh veggie juices are surprisingly tasty.  At least I was surprised.  Also, both are far more filling than I expected.

So I've been making the occasional juice.  My friends went whole hog on it, but I'm doing closer to one a day.  I've also been drinking Bolthouse Farms protein drinks, which are also surprisingly good.

Basically, I haven't been chewing as much recently.

I'm not sure how my innards feel about this.  They've been hitting me with some pretty sharp pains.  I think it might be girly stuff, though.  I think one of my ovaries might be trying to secede.  Which is all right.  One ovary is on my list of non-essential items, just like my appendix and gall bladder.  I wouldn't want to give up both ovaries, but one is okay.  When my life calms down on approximately Wednesday, I'll call and make an appointment to see my girly doctor to have her check out the situation.

I was less interested in calling that doctor until I talked to my chiropractor about it (she being my effective primary care physician) and she said that I needed to not be hiking two months from the last time I got the severe pain.  Because if it were my ovary, that would be the next time it would go into action.  Offensive action.  I did the math and realized I'd be somewhere in the White Mountains right around then, which does not count as "near medical care" in anybody's book.  Best to get checked out before then.

In the meantime, that general area continues to be pissy in the non-urinary sense.  It was breathtakingly painful during the one walk I got in this week.  And it's poked me a few times this weekend.  Stupid body parts.

Hopefully whatever it is doesn't get all severe this weekend, either.  It's my last backpacking trip prior to this summer's big trip to New England.  Ah, New England.  Home of epic scenery and even more epic biting flies.

This weekend I'll be trekking out to Shenandoah to do a tough hike in the southern section.  It's far enough away that I think I'll drive out Friday night and stay in Charlottesville.  DeLee had a conflict this weekend so she's not going - and she wouldn't have been up for this hike anyway.  I can't think of anybody in driving distance who would want to go so I guess I'll be listening to some podcasts while walking, this weekend.  I deliberately chose one of the toughest loops in the park so I can get in some training for New England.  We'll see if taking the stairs two at a time has made any difference.

I probably looked like I was doing a funny walk

So what's the difference between regular backpacking and long distance backpacking?  Town stops.  You don't just have to carry more food and more fuel, you have to carry the things you'll need in town.  Clothes to wear while you wash everything else.  Cords to recharge your gadgets.  Phone cards.  Shampoo.  That sort of thing.

You think by now it'd be second nature to me.  I've done enough long distance hikes by now.  But I don't do them so very often, and I forget.  Also my gear is scattered around the house (inevitably.)  I suppose that I will spend the next few weeks corralling my sarong and my chargers and my this and that.  Like, maps for Vermont and New Hampshire.  I know they're around here somewhere.  Right?

I had to go up and down the stairs at work today.  I had to do that quite a lot.  So I took advantage of the situation.  I went up two at a time to work myself on something a little bit like going up a mountain.  And then I went down two at a time for something like going down a mountain.  That part is much trickier.  Anybody can take a big step up.  Taking a big step down just feels wrong.  I held onto both handrails and still felt unsafe.

Betcha I hurt tomorrow.

I need to pack up a backpack to wear on this weekend's hike with DeLee - both to train for the weight, and to slow me down.  She appreciates it.

I need some rocks to climb on.

I feel like I'm kind of winding down on this blogging thing.  Maybe it's just because there's a new season of Eureka on tv.

I'm gearing up for this year's "long hike", although to me it won't feel that long.  I'm taking off two weeks to hike north on the AT from Woodstock, VT, to wherever I get.  And then a couple of months after that I plan to thruhike Shenandoah.  I should really count it, it'll be nearly two weeks, but it'll be on known territory.  I've lost track of how many times I've hiked some of those pieces of trail.

So, pretty much focusing on the New England hike.  I need to start doing some specific training for it.  In addition to regular walks, weekend hikes, my PT which I'm now doing at my gym, yoga, and horse back riding (whew), I need something to get my big step / climbing muscles engaged.  Not sure what, entirely.  A few trips to the Billy Goat trail will help, but something I can do more regularly would be good too.  Maybe finding a stadium and going up two steps at a time?  Or going up and down the stairs at home two at a time?  I don't know.  I'll figure something out.  Or I'll just suffer a lot on the trail.  Maybe both!

As usual I'm focused on lightening my pack as much as possible.  It's probably futile, as looking at the guidebooks I think I'll have to carry a lot of food once I get past Hanover.  That, or I'm going to be hitching into tiny little towns to get myself some grub.

Actually I'm not sure where, if anywhere, I'm going to take a zero day.  Which means I'll need to wash clothes on the trail and figure out a place to charge my electronics.

planning a hike = happy

I'm feeling pretty high energy tonight.  Pretty happy, pretty excited. That may be the chocolate talking.  I took our excess chocolate in to work to get it out of the house, but that meant it was there at work with me.  I put the bag down at the coffee mess and it was soon emptied, but several other coworkers ALSO brought in their excess candy, and they put it much closer to me.

So, yeah, a lot of chocolate flowing through the old veins tonight.  I was not very tempted by the Skittles, the Starbursts, or anything nutty.  Tiny Peppermint Patties?  Crack in a shiny silver wrapper.

I'm also excited because I'm ramping up for a short hiking trip.  The prospect of getting out overnight makes me way more bouncy than is really called for.  Because 36 hours outside is really not that much.  Nevertheless, I am making plans and being smiley.  We're planning a sub-7-mile first day, which I hope puts us at a shelter in plenty of time to gather some wood and make a fire.  I'm bringing s'mores makings on the theory that we will have fire.  Mmmm, melty marshmallows.

I also have a new pot and stove to play with, which makes me absurdly happy.  I don't even like to cook!  All I'm going to do is boil water!  And yet, here I am, happy as a clam.  A clam with a new pot.

I'm even excited to revisit places where I've been before and didn't have a good time!  I'm sure it will be nicer now - less hot, fewer yahoos.  Last time we went through this particular area, we moved off the trail to watch a long line (at least 10?) of young men carrying gear in for their camp.  This included large coolers, tents STILL IN BOXES, and many items dangling off of backpacks.  Made me wonder what was inside the backpacks.  And how hungover they were going to be in the morning.

Which reminds me!  I should pack some booze in that fancy booze-packing thing I got last year.  What goes with s'mores?

Ideas for low carb backpacking, which I shall try out soon

So I've been eating mildly low carb for the last few months, at the behest of my naturopath.  I am a bread/pasta/sweets lover from way back.  It was a big change for me.  I am planning a backpacking trip in a couple of weeks, and I realized I needed to really think about what I was going to carry with me.  I already talked to the doc and she was not okay with me doing my traditional high carb menu for backpacking.

I went to the grocery store to look around this evening and I have some ideas.

In no real order:

hard boiled eggs
baby carrots
beef jerky
trail mix made with seeds, nuts, and dried fruit - I grabbed a premade bag from the organic section at Giant
fantastic foods hummus or black bean mix
freeze dried bacon and egg mix for breakfast, from REI or online  Eggs and bacon at REI
peanut butter - either super wholesome but not individually packaged, individually packaged Jif, or those natural Justin's nut butter packets from REI  http://www.justinsnutbutter.com/
cheese
quinoa
dehydrated chicken from online
foil packs of tuna, chicken, spam
individual packs of cream cheese
low carb wraps - I got some of these at Giant to try: http://www.latortillafactory.com/
dried fruit - raisins, prunes, dried apples, dried mango, dried apricots

The organic section at Giant had a big selection of bars.  I got a variety of Lara bars to try.  The ingredient lists are impressively minimal and meet my nutritional requirements.  Will be interesting to see what they taste like.  http://www.larabar.com/

If you haven't seen True Orange, True Lime, and True Lemon, you might want to look at them.  They're zero calorie additives to flavor water.  They are sweetened with stevia and cane juice, so there is a minute amount of sugar in them - probably like half a gram.  Not enough to show up on the nutritional information.  I tried True Orange in my water tonight and I like it.  http://www.truelemon.com/

So, what I'm planning to carry on this next trip is:

Breakfast:  either oatmeal, one of my alpine air granolas, or eggs / bacon - not sure yet
Snacks:  Lara bars (if they don't suck), dried fruit, nut/seed/fruit trailmix, maybe some additional almonds, jerky
Lunch:  baby carrots, wraps, cream cheese or string cheese, a hard boiled egg (in need of another sandwichy ingredient - chicken?  craisins?  walnuts?)
Dinner:  quinoa, spam if I can find it, if not spicy tuna, probably some spices to add to it
Other:  nido, olive oil, pero, crystal light, true orange or true lemon, truvia, maybe some herb tea, some dark chocolate for dessert

Whew!  That was exhausting.  Planning from scratch wears me out.