food bags in Glacier park, hung to keep the bears away

Below is a list of what I eat most days. I dried a lot of my own food before leaving home and then packed it in boxes and sent it to myself at various places along the trail.

• 1.5 cups high-calorie granola with dehydrated orange juice in it
• At least one package of organic vitamin-C-enriched gummy bunnies
• At least one granola bar
• Two other energy bars, such as a Clif bar and a Lara bar
• Some cookies
• 1/8 pound of crackers
• Peanut butter, almond butter, or a foil package of tuna, sometimes supplemented with a few ounces of cheese or some jerky
• One of the following meals:

Spaghetti

⅓ pound precooked organic whole wheat spaghetti, which I then mix with either (1) cheese, garlic, dried veggies, and some dried egg, or (2) tomato sauce, garlic, and eggplant Parmesan. Dried, it weighs 5 ounces. I boil water, put it in, turn off the heat, and let it soak 10 minutes or so. I made a cozy out of foil-backed bubble wrap for my pot that keeps it warm for half an hour.

Potatoes

Dried potatoes mixed with dried egg and veggies, garlic, cheese, and dried meat.

• 2-ounce Nature’s Bakery fig bar, either raspberry or blueberry flavored
• Chocolate protein powder mixed with a pint of water.
• Some electrolyte or vitamin C drink mix
• Candied ginger, especially at high altitude
• A few handfuls of nuts and dried fruit
• A cup of soothing nighttime tea

This is seldom enough to really fill me up. They say you can only digest 4,000 calories a day, which is why you need some down days stuffing the calories. In town I could eat a whole large pizza, a half gallon of ice cream, a half gallon of fruit juice, and almost a whole chicken. I’ve sat at a store and eaten a few thousand calories in one go. I also go for fresh fruit and veggies when available. And with all of this, I usually lose weight. Some way to diet, huh?