The main protein source was buffalo, seasoned and cooked, dried to small crumbles. I picked up a pack of jerky from the Reds Meadow hiker box too.
I prepared orzo, and rice, as dinner carbohydrates, adding in instant potatoes at the end of the trip to stretch the dinners farther.
Additional dinner ingredients were lentils, beans, veggies, chicken stock, tomato sauce, and some spices.
My spice rack was reduced to three options this trip. I had a Tomato-Garlic-Onion-Salt&Pepper mixture used to season most everything. I also brought some chilli powder and generically indian spice blend. A few days before the end, I traded some curry powder for some cayenne pepper.
Snacks were largely made up of fritos and cheetos, crushed together in a large bag. I used 3 pounds of this over 21 days. Additional snacks were my chocolate oats and chip cookies, strawberry rollups with electrolytes, crushed dried blueberries, licorice pastels, m&ms, wheat crackers, gold fish crackers, and candy coated sunflower seeds.
Extra special "Tasty Treats" were given to me by Mike McDole. I carried a dozen on the trip, using them as needed to calm my stomach. I carried these the entire length of the trail, and they held up extremely well. A fantastic gift indeed.
Breakfast was Nut and Honey cookies with freeze dried and powdered fruits blended with malto-dextrin, fructose, and glucose. I also had Mike Clelland's Spud Bomb for breakfast twice. I recommend it highly. Buy his ultralight backpacking tips book, it is fantastic.
Lunch was consistently a goo of nut butters, blended with nut oils, agave nectar, and honey. I ate this from the tube, and on tortillas, depending on the tortilla supply. One lunch I ate seasoned olive oil on wheat crackers. That was good too, but not as satisfying as the nut butter goo.
Using a trickle of simple sugars and carbs I was able to effectively fight hunger, and burn my body fat effectively. I lost 18 pounds on the trip, but was also stretching my food to stay out almost a little bit longer than anticipated, and had gotten sick early in the trip. Again, never hungry, but consistently taking in fewer calories than I was needing. I supplemented my planned food with two granola bars, a lipton rice package, and a package of instant potatoes to get me through the last few days of the trip.
I ate the last of my food at the outpost camp, and finished the hike out to the portal.
I was disappointed with the meals I purchased at Tuolumne, Reds, and the portal. VVR had some good biscuits and gravy that I rather enjoyed, as well as a decent fish and chips.
Thanks for reading, photos coming soon, just not of the food. I seem to have trashed my iPhoto library, and lost the food preparation photos. Lame.
