What To Eat on a PCT Thru Hike
To cook or cold soak, that is the question.
OVERVIEW
It took me 146 days to complete my PCT thru hike and around 90 days to really dial in what I wanted to eat for each meal. Doing some simple math you’ll notice that I was well over halfway into my hike before I had my meals dialed in.
The never-ending battle with food on a thru hike is deciding how much weight (in food) you are willing to carry on your back versus how much food you think you will need to get you to the next town happy and healthy. (ie. without having lost too much weight) It’s a delicate balance. Pack too much and you’re carrying needless weight for 100+ miles. Pack too little and you may run out of food, be constantly hungry, or not have enough calories to keep your body fueled properly.
Calories versus weight is the name of the game. You want calorie dense food that is lightweight. Unfortunately the high calorie foods at the market are typically the ones that are not the healthiest. The good news is that it doesn’t much matter. You’ll be burning so many calories everyday that it will be a struggle to keep weight on.
I lost 30 pounds on the trail.
Also – check out my PCT Thru Hike Gear List to see what gear I loved, what I ditched (spoiler all my cooking gear!), what I lost, and what gear failed me.
STRATEGIES FOR FOOD SUPPLY
There are various strategies for supplying yourself with food on a thru hike. You could pack boxes ahead of time and have someone ship them to all of your resupply points, resupply solely from stores/gas stations on the trail, or a mix and match where you supply from stores on the trail when available and mail food to towns ahead when not available.
I would NOT recommend packing and mailing your boxes ahead of time simply because your palate WILL change and you will get very tired of the food you thought you would love. I don’t care if it is your favorite food for your entire life. Eating is everyday will get old and you will want something different. Just trust me on this one.
My strategy was to resupply only from town and mail boxes ahead only when needed. Even when I mailed boxes ahead I filled and mailed those boxes from a town I was in at the time not from months ago at home. That (almost) guaranteed I the food I received a couple hundred miles away would be something that I wanted.
I will say that you can do some sort of resupply from almost every town on the trail. There are very few exceptions. The places I would absolutely mail a box include Sierra City (Northern CA), Mazama Village (OR), Stevens Pass (WA), and Stehekin (WA), all due to very little selection at the very small stores at these sites.
EXPERIMENTATION
During my first 90 days I experimented a lot of different types of meals. I knew from the beginning that I didn’t want to cook for breakfast or lunch so I planned cold meals for both of those. I initially cooked hot meals for dinner however around the 90 day mark I decided to give cold soaking a go and from then on I cold soaked both lunch and dinner for the remainder of the trail.
Some folks on the trail made really extravagant and tasty meals. Personally I wanted to save my physical and mental energy for walking big miles every day and as such I mostly ate the same thing for every meal. As mentioned I did experiment with different meals during each stretch of trail but on each particular stretch I would eat almost the same thing for every meal.
Grocery shopping in town was a big stressor for me, especially after the simplicity of living in the woods. I wanted to be in and out as quick as possible and keeping my menu simple and repetitive made that possible.
I will say this strategy is not for everyone. Eating the same thing for every meal of every day gets very repetitive and boring. On the other hand, it makes resupplying easier and less stressful and meal preparation quick and easy. In addition, simpler meals also tend to be lighter.
It goes without saying that everyone’s caloric burn and tastes are going to be different. I came up with the below list while actually thru hiking so I had a lot of trial and error. My suggestion to you would be to do some practice hikes to see what you like and start with that. As mentioned above, don’t send yourself a bunch of food ahead as your tastes and caloric needs WILL change.
WHAT I ATE ON MY PCT THRU HIKE
BREAKFAST
I am NOT a morning person so in the morning I like to just get up and get moving quickly. I was typically able to wake up, pack up, and be hiking within 15 minutes. As such, I didn’t cook or eat a traditional breakfast. I ate my breakfast and morning snacks while walking.
3-4 Nature Valley bars. Typically at least one of these would be the protein variety. I generally did not start eating right away and I would space my bars out hourly. Sometimes I was perfectly satiated and didn’t think about it, other times I was watching the clock until my next bar. These are easy to come by in towns/gas stations etc.
1 extra snack. Peanut butter filled pretzels were my go to where I could find them. Or those peanut butter and granola balls. I would snack on these in between bars or during short rest breaks. Again, pretty easy to find.
1 water bottle filled with orange Emergen-C. The amount of water I carried would vary but I always would prep one bottle the night before with Emergen-C so that I would have some flavor and get vitamins and electrolytes.
LUNCH
As mentioned above, I started out with the plan to eat cold lunches but not necessarily cold soaking. I figured when lunch rolled around I would be ready to eat immediately and would not want to waste time cooking. I was right.
During my first 90 days my lunches varied but were all pretty much a take on a burrito of some sort and some snacks. As with dinner, it’s nice to have something to look forward to at lunch. My snacks were mostly a candy bar (Snickers or Payday) and a pack of peanut butter crackers.
My burritos typically consisted of a sliced meat, preferably dry salami, mixed with a sliced cheese. One time in an effort to reduce food weight I tried eating just peanut butter wraps for a section. As much as I love peanut butter, I can’t actually recommend this.
After 90 days I thought I would give cold soaking a try. I liked it so much that I switched to this strategy for the remainder of the trail.
After I switched, I would cold soak a Knorr Rice side to eat everyday for lunch. I would mix up the flavors depending on what was available. There are a ton of flavors and they are easy to come by. My personal favorite is Spanish rice.
In order to cold soak a Knorr Rice side to be ready in time for lunch you have to do some quick prep work the night before and in the morning. The night before I would open my Knorr Rice side and empty the contents into a Telanti Jar. Then in the morning I would fill the Telanti Jar with water, just enough to cover all of the rice. Screw the lid on tight and throw it in your pack. By the time lunch rolls around, your rice will be hydrated and ready to eat!
Since the Knorr Rice sides don’t have any protein in them I would bring along some beef sticks generally to eat with my rice and snacks.
DINNER
For the first 90 days of the hike I was cooking dinner but I still at the same thing every night which was a ramen noodle pack. If you choose to eat ramens on the trail, do yourself a favor and get the chili flavor. It is the best, it’s not debatable.
I made two important discoveries along the way in regards to dinner. One was that I don’t mind eating a cold dinner (ie. cold soaking) and the other was the Ramen Bomb.
As with lunch, cold soaking dinner requires a little prep. After finishing my Knorr Rice side for lunch, I would rinse out my Telanti Jar and then refill it with a Chili Ramen (with the flavor pack) and again fill it up with enough water to cover the noodles. For best results break up the noodles a bit while they are still in the bag but be careful not to burst the bag. Seal the lid and again throw it back in your pack. When it’s time for dinner your noodles will be nice and hydrated.
Now you could just enjoy your ramen noodles this way, but I highly recommend going a step further and turning them into a Ramen Bomb.
A Ramen Bomb is created by using instant mash potatoes (about half a pack) to soak up the remaining liquid left over in your ramen noodles. I typically had to eat a couple bites of ramen first, but then was able to start mixing in the potatoes. You can even add a little more water if you need. It will take some practice to get it just the way you want it but it’s absolutely worth the little bit of extra effort. It makes a ramen meal much more filling and since you only need a half pack of potatoes per meal, it isn’t much more to carry. This became my go to dinner for the last 50 or so days of trail and is absolutely what I would eat again if I did another long hike.
In addition to my ramen/ramen bomb and the same as lunch, I again supplemented with a beef stick of some sort to get some protein, a candy bar, and a peanut butter cracker pack. Also I always found that I craved something sweet/tart at night so I would eat some jolly ranchers or sour patch kids after my meal as a treat.
Sometimes if I was feeling good, I would pack a coke or two out from town to drink with dinner. It was always a nice surprise to look in my pack and remember I had a nice surgery carbonated drink at the end of a long day. Not too many though because they are heavy!
IN REVIEW
BREAKFAST
3-4 Nature Valley bars
Peanut butter pretzels or granola balls
LUNCH
Knorr Rice side (cold soaked)
1 candy bar (Snickers/Payday)
1 pack of peanut butter crackers
1 beef stick
DINNER
Ramen Bomb (1 pack or Ramen Noodles, cold soaked, mixed with 1/2 pack instant mashed potatoes)
1 candy bar (Snickers/Payday)
1 pack of peanut butter crackers
1 beef stick
Handful of something sweet/sour (jolly ranchers/sour skittles etc.)
Occasionally I would pick up a random item in the store that looked good to me and that I would usually eat on the first day out of town like a bag of salt and vinegar chips, a few cokes, etc. The above however were my staples for every meal of every day.
