The Food Issue

I know there are people who don't cook when they backpack or bikecamp, and that approach makes sense if there are sources of food during the day. If you travel lightly, then you can go faster, further and make it to the next watering hole more easily. This year in New Mexico I went to the other extreme, but even carrying food, cooking gear, fuel, and water I still lost almost a pound per day.

I really liked the slower pace, because I stopped to look at everything, to talk to people, and to take a gazillon pictures. I think I saw more wildlife too. For future reference I looked for springs in New Mexico even if I did not need water. If I had room for the Waypoints on my GPS I would probably load Geocache Waypoints too, and stop to hunt for them. Everyday was a new adventure and that took some of the hard grind of the trip. I knew that I had to average 40 miles per day to make the whole GDMBR in the time frame that I had available, but when I could not keep that pace day after day in the conditions I encountered, I was willing to redefine my goals.

In Mimbres I sold some of my food to another member of the group, because I needed to reduce my load for the climbing we were about to encounter in the Gila N.F. I tried to always have one extra day's supply in case of an injury or a major mechanical problems. By Cuba I fine tuned the load even more, and I ran out of food the night before I got to Abiquiu. I calculated the calories correctly, but even freeze dried food weight adds up to a significant load. I used far less propane/butane with the MSR Pocket Rocket stove and 1 L Primus ETAPower pot than I did last winter. One 220 g can lasted three weeks. I had projected using two 220 g cans per week based on the cold, windy conditions using the big Primus ETAPower pot and stove.

Last night I finally repacked and inventoried my freeze dried food supply for the trip. If there is an emergency, then I am ready to eat well for a couple of months. I will use some of it backpacking and bikecamping over the course of the next year, but the question remains as to whether I will go through the extraordinary amount of hassle to to prepare post office drop boxes for the rest of the GDMBR next year?



Another year of training and preparation are not going to hurt. I have completed about a quarter of the GDMBR, and it was not the easiest section in terms of logistics. So, I will think about my strategies for next year. Right now I definitely want to reduce the load and improve my climbing speed, but I am not sure that the food is the right place to address that issue.

On a positive note, I was never disappointed with the Mountain House freeze dried food. It always tasted good. I do wonder whether it had the advertised calories, but I was burning so many calories day and night that I my digestion could not keep up. In El Rito I bought a jar of peanut butter and used that to supplement and to replace the gel packs. I also bought some raisins, but I think they came over on the Mayflower. They were very dry and very potent. Overall, there were not many places to resupply in New Mexico, but I do not think that is true to the north (except in Wyoming).

At my wife's suggestion, after Grants, I flipped breakfast and lunch around. Instead of stopping to heat up water for lunch I ate a Mountain House ProPak meal in the morning and then ate granola for lunch. She also traded out the Clif Bars for Pemmican Bars that had almost twice the calories. Those simple changes helped, because I did not lose weight quite so fast.

At one point it was suggested that I not worry about the weight loss, because I would make it up quickly once I got to Banff. That is a point of view to consider, but for now I think I will go make some breakfast...