Quitting?

Hmmm...

Lately Elliott, Marit and I have been talking about reasons why people quit the AT before they finish….

Here are a few of our thoughts 

1. Rash decision to hike the trail.
2. Did not plan ahead financially.
3. Romanticized view of hiking meets physical pain = quitting.
4. Carrying too much weight.
5. Lack of determination.
6. Mental break downs.
7. Missing comforts of “civilized” life.

Hoping we don’t fall to any of these…

Can you think of other reasons why someone might quit the AT?

Dehydrated Food Photo

In the photo you see
- Pre-dehydrated peppers on the dehydrator trays.
- Dehydrated apples and pears in the plastic bag on the left
- Dehydrated green onions in the next bag
- Dehydrates spaghetti sauce in the tray on the table

Yummy!

What are you going to eat?

Many people have been asking what we are going to do about food on the AT. There will be towns every 5 to 7 days along most of the trail so we will only have to carry about a weeks worth of food with us at a time, but the follow will tell you more information about food while backpacking. 
 

There are two main thoughts of food preparation while on long backpacking trips; preplanned and pantry style. Preplanned is a meal that has been planned in advance so that all ingredients are in your pack ready for boiling water. Months before the trip you will find yourself measuring ingredients and bagging each meal with cooking instructions written on the bag. It is also recommended to test your recipes before committing to eating them in the woods with no other resources. After a long tiring day of hiking this method can really pay off because usually all the hikers have to do it boil the water, throw in some food and shabam spaghetti dinner with meat sauce. On the other hand this method does not allow much creativity when cooking and can become boring to the hiker. Pantry style on the other hand allows variety and creativity while cooking. The hiker will pack bulk dehydrated foods and decide at each meal what to prepare. For example; hummus, dehydrated green peppers, tortillas and some cheese make a great dinner wrap, but you could also use the hummus, dehydrated eggs, cheese and a tortilla for a filling breakfast. This method is great because the hiker gets to pick which ingredients they are craving on a daily biases, but at times hikers find themselves with bulk items that they rarely use which equals extra weight. Elliott and I are going to use a mixture of the two methods. We will have a few preplanned meals and a few bulk items in our pack. This will allow us the luxury of “just adding water” when we are exhausted and the freedom of throwing in extra ingredients for variety. We have been dehydrating fruits and vegetables to add to various meals along the trail and are starting on preplanned meals. Last weekend our friend Sam Crowley came over to let us try his dehydrated spaghetti with meat sauce and give us a few pointers. Check out photos of some of the kayaking adventures Sam has go on at www.seakayakspecialists.com.