Okay, so I must confess that in addition to possible glue in my shoes, I wore... wool socks sometimes. Although I unnecessarily broke from my vegan covenant, you certainly don't need to.
For a warm season thru-hike you most likely won't need particularly thick socks - in fact, so much of the Pacific Crest Trail is in deserts that thin, well breathing socks are your best bet. I am an Eagle Scout, and thus grew up in the old world of hiking - heavy leather boots that required nothing short of a sweater wrapped around your feet for padding with poly-pro socks underneath. The last mile of trail was usually a near sprint as I couldn't wait to get to camp, tear off my boots and air out my feet in some camp shoes (running shoes!). Well, fortunately I now wear running shoes to hike in and don't need all of the padding. The only times that I wear something thicker than a light running sock is when I know that I'll be spending the day in the snow or if a blister is beginning to form. Incidentally, I didn't get a single blister after 2 weeks on the PCT.
Within the world of thin socks there are endless possibilities. Just about every athletic company makes wicking socks for running these days. Hiking companies still make a number of different types of non-wool hiking and walking socks and liners that also do the trick. The "Ray-way" is probably to grab some polyester dress socks out of the bargain bin at your local clothing store. I hiked with people that wore poly dress socks and had no complaints. I carried 3 pair of socks with me at any given time on the trail - 2 thin pair for hiking and 1 thick pair for sleeping. The world of thick socks gets a little trickier for vegans. Companies are pretty good at making it unclear as to exactly what goes into their products. It seems as though wool is enough of a selling point these days to the average outdoor enthusiast that companies often advertise the wool content even if there is very little. CoolMax is an engineered high-wicking polyester material used by a number of sock companies such as ThorLo and WigWam.
Part of the reason that I wore wool socks is because I have pretty sensitive skin to synthetic materials. There are a number of non animal natural fibers out there, althoughI do not have a great deal of experience with them. I have a pair of hemp socks that are marketed as hiking socks, however, even though hemp has more oil than cotton, the socks seem to perform like cotton when wet - i.e. they don't. I've seen bamboo socks available but know very little about them. Although not organic (yet) there are a number of treated cotton socks that offer a nice balance between natural fibers and high performance. Many CoolMax socks are, in fact, a blend of polyester and cotton.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Monday, August 4, 2008
Vegan Hiking Clothing Part 1 - Shoes
I wish that I had a great definitive solution to the vegan and socially conscious footwear dilemma. Those of us trying to live humbly and consciously can eat from local farms, buy organic clothing that is locally/fairly made and even build our houses from local resources such as mud, straw and sustainably harvested timber - but when it comes time to buy new shoes, good luck. If you are reading this because you are interested in long distance hiking you will probably have to compromise your veganity and/or social righteousness for the sake of your feet.
Perhaps if you have a personal cobbler that will stitch up 4 pair of organic hemp shoes with sustainably harvested cork insoles and recycled tire outer-soles you will be set. For the rest of us there are some pretty good options if we are willing to make a few compromises. The great debate sort of centers around the question of whether leather, usually a byproduct of the meat industry, is really any worse than petroleum derived synthetic leathers. Since this is a vegan blog, we'll just assume that most readers will side that synthetic is better, even if only slightly so.
Athletic shoe companies seem to be finding it cheaper to make shoes from synthetic materials - additionally, some of the synthetic materials are now engineered to outperform and be more durable than leather. In fact, with the exception of Nike, I think that essentially all athletic shoe companies offer styles of shoes made from all human-made materials. Some companies even make shoes explicitly labeled vegetarian or vegan such as Garmont's Vegan Hiker. Although not as heavy as a mountaineering boot, this is still a fairly rugged boot to take on a thru-hike.
This raises the need for a small discussion on thru-hiker footwear. Ray Jardine makes a fairly good argument for hiking in running shoes in his books. Unless you are planning to carry an 80 pound pack or need to front point in your crampons, I highly recommend that all hikers consider running shoes as standard hiking footwear. Consider these previously held beliefs...
1. We need boots to support our ankles: Our ankles are designed to keep us stable. Ultralite hiking greatly reduces our packweight so that we no longer are overburdened by extra weight that our ankles can't support. The more we wear boots, the more we weaken our ankles.
2. Boots last longer: Boot soles don't tend to last much longer than those of running shoes. Which is easier while on the trail... have a new pair of shoes sent to you? or try to get your one pair of boots resoled? New shoes.
3. Boots protect our feet and have better
traction. This may be technically true, but they also make our feet so clumbsy that they bang into more stuff anyway. Most thru-hikers survive just fine in their running shoes. I have summited a number of peaks, including Whitney, Shasta and the 3 Sisters in trail running shoes and never wish I had something heavier.
The primary advantage of running shoes over traditional boots is that they are much lighter. Your feet are being lifted perhaps 1000 times each per mile. Hiking with lighter shoes makes a significant difference. Additionally, running shoes breath better than boots. As a hiker, our feet become our most important asset. A critical part of keeping our feet healthy is keeping them cool and dry. Good ventilation helps to reduce swelling and moisture that leads to odors, fungi and blisters.
The best way I found to protect my feet was to stop every 2-3 hours for a 15 min. break where I would take off my shoes, pull out the insoles and air everything out.
So, back to the shoes.
There are many resources on the web for vegan shoes. A quick google search will turn up hundreds. I think that Zappos.com is a nice place to start because they have a vegetarian shoe section. In this section you will see that nearly all of the running, trail running, and hiking shoe companies are represented in the vegetarian section: Asolo, Montrail, Vasque, New Balance, North Face, New Balance, Adidas, etc.
What I haven't mentioned so far is that while all of these shoes may not be made of leather, they all contain glues which may or may not contain animal products. Many glues use casein, other animal proteins, or even ground bones and hooves. Unfortunately, I don't know anyone who has had any luck finding out which shoes use which type of glue. New Balance tends to issue blanket statements that they get their glues from different sources and cannot guarantee whether or not a particular shoe has animal products in the glue.
With that said, I believe that New Balance is a very good option for hiking shoes. What I like about them is that they assemble many of their shoes in the U.S.A. and their shoes come in 4 different widths to accommodate a variety of foot shapes. This is particularly nice, because as thru-hikers know, your foot will tend to swell at least 1/2 a shoe size from its regular size. Most of this swelling makes the foot wider rather than longer. The whole "Made in the USA" thing is a little confusing. New Balance claims that certain materials cannot be acquired in the USA, therefore none of their shoes are 100% made in the USA. If a shoe bears the "Made in the USA" logo, that means that more than 70% of the shoes value was made in the USA. Although not
perfect, there really aren't other companies that even offer 70%.
When I hiked the PCT, I wore New Balance 906's that are no longer made. I got about 700 miles per pair. That was fairly long relative to other hikers. I observed that hikers usually got from 400-800 miles per pair of shoes. During the High Sierra/John Muir Trail section of the PCT I switched from my NB's to a pair of Montrail Hurricane Ridge's. Although the Montrails seemed like some serious mountain shoes with a partially plastic sole and GoreTex XLR throughout, they turned out to be the worst shoes I've ever owned. They have plastic pieces on the side that focus all of the stress in the shoe to a thin piece of fabric near the ball of your foot. Both shoes had gaping holes within 60-70 miles of use. Fortunately R
EI reluctantly replaced them. Since hiking the PCT, I've switched to a pair of Montrail Mountain Mist's and a pair of Vasque trail running shoes (Blur, I think). These shoes are great. I don't wear GoreTex shoes, though, unless I know I'm going to spend the day on snow. Asolo shoes always seem pretty hard core, but I don't have any personal experience with them.
I think that the most important part of selecting shoes for a thru-hike is making sure that they fit your feet. Every brand of running shoe fits slightly different, so it is good to try a number of shoes to see which fits your feet best. Some running shoe retailers have tread mills and trained fitting specialists that can analyze your foot and gate and recommend the optimal shoe for you. I don't recommend trying shoes on at a local retailer and buying them online. I think that it is only fair to at least buy the first pair from the local retailer that offered the service of letting you try it on. Once you have a pair of shoes that you have settled on, make sure to break them in. The great thing about running shoes is that it doesn't take much to actually break them in, but the important part is that you have spent some time on the trail actually testing the comfort and support of the shoes that you have chosen.
And don't forget to shake your shoes out in the morning!!!
Perhaps if you have a personal cobbler that will stitch up 4 pair of organic hemp shoes with sustainably harvested cork insoles and recycled tire outer-soles you will be set. For the rest of us there are some pretty good options if we are willing to make a few compromises. The great debate sort of centers around the question of whether leather, usually a byproduct of the meat industry, is really any worse than petroleum derived synthetic leathers. Since this is a vegan blog, we'll just assume that most readers will side that synthetic is better, even if only slightly so.
Athletic shoe companies seem to be finding it cheaper to make shoes from synthetic materials - additionally, some of the synthetic materials are now engineered to outperform and be more durable than leather. In fact, with the exception of Nike, I think that essentially all athletic shoe companies offer styles of shoes made from all human-made materials. Some companies even make shoes explicitly labeled vegetarian or vegan such as Garmont's Vegan Hiker. Although not as heavy as a mountaineering boot, this is still a fairly rugged boot to take on a thru-hike.
This raises the need for a small discussion on thru-hiker footwear. Ray Jardine makes a fairly good argument for hiking in running shoes in his books. Unless you are planning to carry an 80 pound pack or need to front point in your crampons, I highly recommend that all hikers consider running shoes as standard hiking footwear. Consider these previously held beliefs...
1. We need boots to support our ankles: Our ankles are designed to keep us stable. Ultralite hiking greatly reduces our packweight so that we no longer are overburdened by extra weight that our ankles can't support. The more we wear boots, the more we weaken our ankles.
2. Boots last longer: Boot soles don't tend to last much longer than those of running shoes. Which is easier while on the trail... have a new pair of shoes sent to you? or try to get your one pair of boots resoled? New shoes.
3. Boots protect our feet and have better
traction. This may be technically true, but they also make our feet so clumbsy that they bang into more stuff anyway. Most thru-hikers survive just fine in their running shoes. I have summited a number of peaks, including Whitney, Shasta and the 3 Sisters in trail running shoes and never wish I had something heavier.The primary advantage of running shoes over traditional boots is that they are much lighter. Your feet are being lifted perhaps 1000 times each per mile. Hiking with lighter shoes makes a significant difference. Additionally, running shoes breath better than boots. As a hiker, our feet become our most important asset. A critical part of keeping our feet healthy is keeping them cool and dry. Good ventilation helps to reduce swelling and moisture that leads to odors, fungi and blisters.
The best way I found to protect my feet was to stop every 2-3 hours for a 15 min. break where I would take off my shoes, pull out the insoles and air everything out.So, back to the shoes.
There are many resources on the web for vegan shoes. A quick google search will turn up hundreds. I think that Zappos.com is a nice place to start because they have a vegetarian shoe section. In this section you will see that nearly all of the running, trail running, and hiking shoe companies are represented in the vegetarian section: Asolo, Montrail, Vasque, New Balance, North Face, New Balance, Adidas, etc.
What I haven't mentioned so far is that while all of these shoes may not be made of leather, they all contain glues which may or may not contain animal products. Many glues use casein, other animal proteins, or even ground bones and hooves. Unfortunately, I don't know anyone who has had any luck finding out which shoes use which type of glue. New Balance tends to issue blanket statements that they get their glues from different sources and cannot guarantee whether or not a particular shoe has animal products in the glue.
With that said, I believe that New Balance is a very good option for hiking shoes. What I like about them is that they assemble many of their shoes in the U.S.A. and their shoes come in 4 different widths to accommodate a variety of foot shapes. This is particularly nice, because as thru-hikers know, your foot will tend to swell at least 1/2 a shoe size from its regular size. Most of this swelling makes the foot wider rather than longer. The whole "Made in the USA" thing is a little confusing. New Balance claims that certain materials cannot be acquired in the USA, therefore none of their shoes are 100% made in the USA. If a shoe bears the "Made in the USA" logo, that means that more than 70% of the shoes value was made in the USA. Although not
perfect, there really aren't other companies that even offer 70%.When I hiked the PCT, I wore New Balance 906's that are no longer made. I got about 700 miles per pair. That was fairly long relative to other hikers. I observed that hikers usually got from 400-800 miles per pair of shoes. During the High Sierra/John Muir Trail section of the PCT I switched from my NB's to a pair of Montrail Hurricane Ridge's. Although the Montrails seemed like some serious mountain shoes with a partially plastic sole and GoreTex XLR throughout, they turned out to be the worst shoes I've ever owned. They have plastic pieces on the side that focus all of the stress in the shoe to a thin piece of fabric near the ball of your foot. Both shoes had gaping holes within 60-70 miles of use. Fortunately R
EI reluctantly replaced them. Since hiking the PCT, I've switched to a pair of Montrail Mountain Mist's and a pair of Vasque trail running shoes (Blur, I think). These shoes are great. I don't wear GoreTex shoes, though, unless I know I'm going to spend the day on snow. Asolo shoes always seem pretty hard core, but I don't have any personal experience with them.I think that the most important part of selecting shoes for a thru-hike is making sure that they fit your feet. Every brand of running shoe fits slightly different, so it is good to try a number of shoes to see which fits your feet best. Some running shoe retailers have tread mills and trained fitting specialists that can analyze your foot and gate and recommend the optimal shoe for you. I don't recommend trying shoes on at a local retailer and buying them online. I think that it is only fair to at least buy the first pair from the local retailer that offered the service of letting you try it on. Once you have a pair of shoes that you have settled on, make sure to break them in. The great thing about running shoes is that it doesn't take much to actually break them in, but the important part is that you have spent some time on the trail actually testing the comfort and support of the shoes that you have chosen.
And don't forget to shake your shoes out in the morning!!!
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Vegan/Ultralight Sleeping Systems
This is really a pretty simple topic. In the world of commercially available and generally accepted sleeping systems (bags) there are essentially two choices: down and synthetic insulation fill. Since this is a vegan blog, down is not a choice and thus, synthetic is the only choice.
Perhaps the main reason for writing this entry is to dispel the down myth as well as share my PCT sleeping experience. I'm sure many readers have at one point or another had a sleeping bag sales person or other hiker try to convince them that down is the only way to go. I got tired of hearing it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know you can special order some $300+ down bag that only weighs 1 pound - but for less than a pound more one can get a comparable synthetic bag for $80-$200. Yes one whole pound does seem like a lot of weight to someone who cuts the tags off of their clothes to save weight, but keep in mind that most down bags actually come in between 1.5 pounds and 3 pounds.
Mostly, I think that down has been over hyped up. Althoug
h sleeping bag fabrics have improved and down is "less likely" to get wet, the last thing that you want is to find yourself several days hike from anywhere with a limp, useless down bag. Down is worthless when it gets wet. On the other hand a synthetic bag can be wrung out and still retain as much as 50% of its insulative value when wet. Getting a bag completely soaked is not as unlikely as it may seem. Although many hikers don't run into extended periods of rain on the PCT, it is also possible that you get stuck in a week of rain, never allowing your gear to properly dry out. Also, any one of the many river crossings is an opportunity for an unexpected swim and gear wash.Down is the soft quill-less feathers closest to a duck or goose's skin. Some times these feathers are removed after the animals has been slaughtered as part of the meat industry. Often, particularly with geese, the feathers are painfully plucked from the live bird on regular schedule - in fact these are often the same birds being tortured for foie gras. For more information about down checkout PETA's factsheed: http://www.peta.org/mc/factsheet_display.asp?ID=121 or their video, Plucked Alive: The Torture Behind Down: http://www.petatv.com/tvpopup/Prefs.asp?video=down
My choice for the trail was a well used 35degF North Face bag. I still think that a 35deg bag is fine for summer purposes but in the mountains and desert it is important to know smart camping practices to stay warm inside the light of a bag. The bag that I started the PCT with was extremely compacted and was probably more like a 40-50 deg bag at that point. It got me as far as Aqua Dulce before I was able to switch it out for essentially a new version of the same bag - a 35degF North Face synthetic bag. After removing unneeded bells and whistles such as pillow pockets, watch pockets, etc. each bag weighed in at just under two pounds.
As mentioned earlier, I would say that goo
d camping/survival skills are more important than the sleeping bag itself. The PCT Hiker's Companion has a number of good tips for staying warm at night. If you think that is going to be cold, it is important to shelter yourself from the wind, clear skies and cold ground. If you cannot completely shelter yourself from the wind sleep feet into the wind so that the wind doesn't go down your bag and so that the least amount of your body is exposed to the direct blasts. Clear nights act as blackbody radiators, literally stealing heat from you. This (and dew prevention) is a good reason to camp under tree cover if possible. Tree cover also means that it is more likely that there is a good layer of humus on the ground. Humus is the layer of organic matter than builds up on forest floors. This stuff is fluffier than lower strata of soil, thus it holds more air and helps to insulate your body from direct conductive body heat loss to the ground. If humus isn't an option due to availability or the site is sensitive and shouldn't be slept on, use extra clothing, backpacks and other gear to pile up under you. Finally, don't camp in a low flat spot. Flat spots at the base of a hill or mountain often collect extremely cold air that pours down the mountain and settles. One of the main thru-hiker tricks is to keep a little high calorie snack next to your bed to eat in the middle of the night when that 3am chill sets in. The extra calories give your raging metabolism a little more fuel to keep yourself warm.Another sleeping option:
Although I haven't personally tried it, I am not convinced that the Jardine sleeping quilt is the worst idea in the world. The basic idea behind it is that the when you sleep in a sleeping bag you compress all of the fill underneath you so that it is effectively doing nothing. Therefore, R.J. suggests using just a quilt over you and some sort of closed cell foam type sleeping pad below you. "The Goat People" aka Rob and Katherine used quilts that they made and seemed pretty happy with them (especially through the sections when they had a warm goat to cozy up to). I think that each of their synthetic fill quilts weighed about one pound. I think that if my wife and I did more long distance hiking together I might make a quilt for the two of us to share. Also, I might try putting a piece of nylon across the bottom of the quilt to make sure the quilt doesn't slip off and to prevent warm air from leaking out around the edges.
Other down gear:
Most other down gear has an equal synthetic counter part. I hiked the High Sierra section of the PCT with a Patagonia puff vest made from synthetic insulation. Also, when I got to Stehekin there was a severe threat of snow storm - and conveniently a sale at the Stehekin Lodge ultralight gear shop - I was able to get a previous season Go-Lite puff parka for only $40. This is now one of my favorite pieces of backcountry gear summer or winter.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
My Food Strategy
Overview
Anyone interested in the PCT probably knows all about resupply strategies by now; hopefully I can provide a little insight to how strategies are effected by being vegan and introduce them to those that don't know at all. Essentially there are two primary strategies, plus a number of hybrids of the two.
1. Buy all of your food in advance, package it into boxes and send them to any of a number of post offices or resorts along the trail. A list of commonly used resupply points, their addresses and important information is available on the PCTA Website.
This is essentially the strategy that I used. It is a good strategy for vegans and those concerned about what they put into their bodies. You can purchase food in bulk, buy local, organic, vegan, exactly how you want. Shipping can get expensive though (definitely use flat-rate boxes to save money) and most likely you won't be able to really know exactly what you want to eat every day for the next 4-5 months.
2. Buy your food along the way. There are a number of larger towns within 4-10 miles of the trail that can be hiked or hitched to, however, most of the time the shopping is limited to what one might find at a typical gas station. Hiker's that buy along the way tend to eat a lot of candy bars, pop tarts, ramen, instant rice and instant oatmeal. Although a considerable amount of money might be saved on shipping, mountain resort food prices are significantly higher than one can find when buying bulk.
3. The main hybrid strategy involves buying along the way at locations where good food is available and sending food from some of these locations to the places where good food is not available. For instance, Ashland is only a 10 mile hitch from the trail and is a great place to buy bulk, organic, etc to resupply for Oregon and possibly Washington. If you are willing to hitch, you can probably buy good food within 10 miles of the trail for most of the Southern California portion.
My Food Planning:
My typical, off trail, diet primarily consists of organic fresh fruit, vegetables and whole grains. I was a little concerned about 4+ months of no fresh vegetables and a diet of a great deal of dehydrated foods. Additionally, I was overwhelmed by the idea of
planning all of my food for 4.5 months in advance. To begin to reduce the stress I made a day by day itinerary of my trip down the trail in Excel. I used the PCT data book and guide book to get a general idea of where I would be and when. I allowed myself 2 weeks to build to a 20 mile per day average (based on the recommendation of another thru-hiker I had talked to) and barely hit 25 a day before the Sierras where we reduced mileage again to below 20. After the High Sierras we planned for 25's again (but in reality we averaged 30 a day from Tahoe to Canada).
After creating a rough day by day itinerary, we were able to plug in the resupply locations that we had chosen. Most of the points were chosen due to proximity to the trail since we were planning to avoid getting in cars when possible. Therefore, all of our resupply locations were within about 4-5 miles of the trail where we could easily walk to them. We resupplied at:
Mt. Laguna, Warner Springs, Idyllwild, Big Bear, Cajon Pass, Aqua Dulce, Tehachapi (we had family deliver this one), Kennedy Meadows, VVR, Tuolumne Meadows, Echo Lake, Sierra City, Belden Town, Old Station, Castella, Seiad Valley, Crater Lake, Shelter Cove Resort, Santiam Pass (again family delivered this one), Timberline Lodge, Cascade Locks, Naches, Snoqualmie Pass, and Stehekin.
My original plan was based on recipes from "Lip Smackin' Vegetarian Backpacking" a book of backpacking recipes by Christine and Tim Conners. Essentially I picked about 20 recipes that "seemed" good
to me. Unfortunately I never really went and tested them all - worse, I thought that for some reason while out on the trail I would begin to like hot cereal... not the case. So, I made another Excel sheet of all of the recipes and used it to total all of the ingredients that I needed to buy, went out and bought them all and the weekend before beginning the trail I packaged each meal into zip-lock baggies and put them in bags that would eventually be packed into flat-rate boxes.
My general plan included 3 "meals" per day plus several baggies of snacks, which included nuts, dried fruit, trail mix and energy bars.
My Revised Plan (What actually worked for me):
As I mentioned, the whole hot cereal breakfast thing was a no go, also my other breakfast plan - soymilk powder + granola, just add water was a gooey disaster. I also realized that a number of my untested meals were no good (inlcuding: Green Dragon Pad Thai, Absaroka Sweet & Sour, and Time Travelers Tamales). It is funny, I had done a decent amount of backpacking before this trip but it was rarely in the desert and rarely did it involve sunrise to sunset hiking. I should have known that 3 "meals" a day would never work. In addition to problems with the actual food, I had pretty serious "trail shock"/heat sickness the first two weeks on the trail. I could barely eat a thing (fortunately I had plenty of fat reserves to give me energy...)
My saving grace was that my girlfriend (now wife) was sending each of my resupply boxes one at a time - so I had a little room to make some changes. I had her take out every breakfast and about a third of the other meals (starting with the above listed). She replaced my old breakfasts with about 1.5 cups of dry granola and doubled my nuts, dried fruit and energy bar supply. So, the new plan that got me the from about Idyllwild to Canada was granola first thing, nuts, fruit and energy bar in the morning, the same in the afternoon, and a cooked dinner when we reached camp. It is strange getting used to the idea of exercising all day, eating, and immediately going to sleep - it seems contrary to what we are told about healthy eating, but for a thru-hiker it makes a great deal of sense. If you look at Barbara Braatens articles that I refer to in the previous post, she recommends eating a large carb meal within 15min to an hour after stopping exercise - this help to restore glycogen levels. Additionally, thru-hikers metabolisms never stop racing which means when your body is out of calories in the middle of the night it can get cold fast. A meal before bed restores glycogen and gives it the energy to feed your metabolism through the night.
In addition to the above noted regime of granola, nuts, fruit, bars and cooked meals there were a number of little extras mixed in. I brought ONE powder with me, a whole food veggie based powder that meets most of a persons daily needs for vitamins and minerals. Since I wasn't getting fresh veggies often, this seemed to best way to keep my body in balance. At a few points along the trail my dad surprised me with care packages of his dehydrator creations. Some of my favorites were tofu jerky and smoothies. For the smoothies he would simply dehydrate some fruit, throw it in the blender with some soy milk powder and I would add water - not exactly Jamba Juice, but it sure is refreshing. Other treats included chocolate, fruit leathers, halvah (5000 calorie sesame based dessert bars) and what we called energy goo - essentially peanut butter, chocolate chips, rolled oats and coconut mixed up in a zip lock. Whenever we hit town we loaded up on any and all fresh produce that we could find.
Thoughts For Next Time
I have many thoughts for next time, which will most certainly be topics for future posts, but the main one I will share now is a change in strategy for my cooked meals. It seems as though I would divide my cooked meals into three types and bring about 1/3 of my meals from each type.
1. Pre-assembled meals - This is essentially the approach that I already took. There is very little prep really, you simply buy a few ingredients, combine them in a zip lock, throw them in a pot of boiling water and done. Some of my favorites from "Lip Smackin Vegetarian Backpacking" were: Miso Madness, Ketchikan Cous Cous and Lone Pine Lentils.
2. Make a meal trailside - We spent a good amount of time with the infamous "Goat People" aka Rob and Katherine and they had a similar set of dietary goals but a different meal approach. They pre-cooked all of their rice, beans, lentils, etc. and dehydrated them. In their packages they sent themselves larger bulk supplies of these grains and kept an array of spices, oils, etc. with them to create new meals each night.
3. Full meal dehydration - This is my dad's approach. He has a book called "Backpack Gourmet" by Linda Frederick Yaffe. He posted one recipe "Portobello Curry" that is either vegan or he adapted it to be vegan on his blog oregonhiker.wordpress.com. Another favorite was a potato and tofu breakfast scramble that he sent. The parents of my hiking partner, Dena, sent dehydrated Indian food leftovers and one point - in other words the options within the world of food dehydration are endless.
Some of My Favorites:
I've already listed a number of my favorite treats and recipes. But to recap...
Miso Madness - a combination of instant rice, miso soup powder, dried mushrooms, tofu and seaweed. You can make it soupy or like a pilaf.
Lone Pine Lentils - A delicious stew of lentils with fresh dumplings. Even though mixing the water and oil to the dumpling mix (flour and veggie broth powder) is super easy, something about this meal doesn't hardly seem like trail food. This meal never got old to me.
It is amazing how many things can be dehydrated and still taste great on the trail. I already wrote about the smoothies (mmm, smoothies), and mentioned the tofu jerky. There are a number of marinade recipes, but all you really need to do is marinade the tofu, slice it thin and dehydrate it. Spaghetti sauce rehydrates well as do other sauce like meals like baigan bharta and other Indian foods.
Store bought treats include other vegan jerkies like Primal Strips or Stonewalls Jerquee, the above mentioned halvah, chocolate, Newman O's, Uncle Eddies vegan cookies and Tami found vegan, whole wheat doughnut holes at one point that she sent for a resupply day treat. Dena's mom did some research on the foods of nomadic people and sent a number of interesting dried breads and crackers along with spreads and chutneys that didn't spoil in our packs. Mary's Gone Crackers and various seed/nut based raw crackers are particular good. The easiest way to increase ones calorie to weight ratio is by adding a tablespoon or so of oil to meals. Many hikers use olive oil, I like coconut oil because it stays solid below about 75degF. Perhaps the health effects of coconut oil can be a future discussion.
Although I ate a Cliff bar nearly every day, I think that they are way too sweet and can hardly eat them now. I will post in the future about vegan energy bars, but Lara Bars and Bumblebars are some of my favorites. Lara Bars are raw and date based (and delicious). Bumblebars are sesame based and equally tasty.
- Resupply Strategies
- My food planning
- Revised food plan (what actually worked for me)
- Thoughts for next time
- Some of my favorites
Anyone interested in the PCT probably knows all about resupply strategies by now; hopefully I can provide a little insight to how strategies are effected by being vegan and introduce them to those that don't know at all. Essentially there are two primary strategies, plus a number of hybrids of the two.
1. Buy all of your food in advance, package it into boxes and send them to any of a number of post offices or resorts along the trail. A list of commonly used resupply points, their addresses and important information is available on the PCTA Website.
This is essentially the strategy that I used. It is a good strategy for vegans and those concerned about what they put into their bodies. You can purchase food in bulk, buy local, organic, vegan, exactly how you want. Shipping can get expensive though (definitely use flat-rate boxes to save money) and most likely you won't be able to really know exactly what you want to eat every day for the next 4-5 months.
2. Buy your food along the way. There are a number of larger towns within 4-10 miles of the trail that can be hiked or hitched to, however, most of the time the shopping is limited to what one might find at a typical gas station. Hiker's that buy along the way tend to eat a lot of candy bars, pop tarts, ramen, instant rice and instant oatmeal. Although a considerable amount of money might be saved on shipping, mountain resort food prices are significantly higher than one can find when buying bulk.
3. The main hybrid strategy involves buying along the way at locations where good food is available and sending food from some of these locations to the places where good food is not available. For instance, Ashland is only a 10 mile hitch from the trail and is a great place to buy bulk, organic, etc to resupply for Oregon and possibly Washington. If you are willing to hitch, you can probably buy good food within 10 miles of the trail for most of the Southern California portion.
My Food Planning:
My typical, off trail, diet primarily consists of organic fresh fruit, vegetables and whole grains. I was a little concerned about 4+ months of no fresh vegetables and a diet of a great deal of dehydrated foods. Additionally, I was overwhelmed by the idea of
planning all of my food for 4.5 months in advance. To begin to reduce the stress I made a day by day itinerary of my trip down the trail in Excel. I used the PCT data book and guide book to get a general idea of where I would be and when. I allowed myself 2 weeks to build to a 20 mile per day average (based on the recommendation of another thru-hiker I had talked to) and barely hit 25 a day before the Sierras where we reduced mileage again to below 20. After the High Sierras we planned for 25's again (but in reality we averaged 30 a day from Tahoe to Canada).After creating a rough day by day itinerary, we were able to plug in the resupply locations that we had chosen. Most of the points were chosen due to proximity to the trail since we were planning to avoid getting in cars when possible. Therefore, all of our resupply locations were within about 4-5 miles of the trail where we could easily walk to them. We resupplied at:
Mt. Laguna, Warner Springs, Idyllwild, Big Bear, Cajon Pass, Aqua Dulce, Tehachapi (we had family deliver this one), Kennedy Meadows, VVR, Tuolumne Meadows, Echo Lake, Sierra City, Belden Town, Old Station, Castella, Seiad Valley, Crater Lake, Shelter Cove Resort, Santiam Pass (again family delivered this one), Timberline Lodge, Cascade Locks, Naches, Snoqualmie Pass, and Stehekin.My original plan was based on recipes from "Lip Smackin' Vegetarian Backpacking" a book of backpacking recipes by Christine and Tim Conners. Essentially I picked about 20 recipes that "seemed" good
to me. Unfortunately I never really went and tested them all - worse, I thought that for some reason while out on the trail I would begin to like hot cereal... not the case. So, I made another Excel sheet of all of the recipes and used it to total all of the ingredients that I needed to buy, went out and bought them all and the weekend before beginning the trail I packaged each meal into zip-lock baggies and put them in bags that would eventually be packed into flat-rate boxes.My general plan included 3 "meals" per day plus several baggies of snacks, which included nuts, dried fruit, trail mix and energy bars.
My Revised Plan (What actually worked for me):
As I mentioned, the whole hot cereal breakfast thing was a no go, also my other breakfast plan - soymilk powder + granola, just add water was a gooey disaster. I also realized that a number of my untested meals were no good (inlcuding: Green Dragon Pad Thai, Absaroka Sweet & Sour, and Time Travelers Tamales). It is funny, I had done a decent amount of backpacking before this trip but it was rarely in the desert and rarely did it involve sunrise to sunset hiking. I should have known that 3 "meals" a day would never work. In addition to problems with the actual food, I had pretty serious "trail shock"/heat sickness the first two weeks on the trail. I could barely eat a thing (fortunately I had plenty of fat reserves to give me energy...)
My saving grace was that my girlfriend (now wife) was sending each of my resupply boxes one at a time - so I had a little room to make some changes. I had her take out every breakfast and about a third of the other meals (starting with the above listed). She replaced my old breakfasts with about 1.5 cups of dry granola and doubled my nuts, dried fruit and energy bar supply. So, the new plan that got me the from about Idyllwild to Canada was granola first thing, nuts, fruit and energy bar in the morning, the same in the afternoon, and a cooked dinner when we reached camp. It is strange getting used to the idea of exercising all day, eating, and immediately going to sleep - it seems contrary to what we are told about healthy eating, but for a thru-hiker it makes a great deal of sense. If you look at Barbara Braatens articles that I refer to in the previous post, she recommends eating a large carb meal within 15min to an hour after stopping exercise - this help to restore glycogen levels. Additionally, thru-hikers metabolisms never stop racing which means when your body is out of calories in the middle of the night it can get cold fast. A meal before bed restores glycogen and gives it the energy to feed your metabolism through the night.
In addition to the above noted regime of granola, nuts, fruit, bars and cooked meals there were a number of little extras mixed in. I brought ONE powder with me, a whole food veggie based powder that meets most of a persons daily needs for vitamins and minerals. Since I wasn't getting fresh veggies often, this seemed to best way to keep my body in balance. At a few points along the trail my dad surprised me with care packages of his dehydrator creations. Some of my favorites were tofu jerky and smoothies. For the smoothies he would simply dehydrate some fruit, throw it in the blender with some soy milk powder and I would add water - not exactly Jamba Juice, but it sure is refreshing. Other treats included chocolate, fruit leathers, halvah (5000 calorie sesame based dessert bars) and what we called energy goo - essentially peanut butter, chocolate chips, rolled oats and coconut mixed up in a zip lock. Whenever we hit town we loaded up on any and all fresh produce that we could find.
Thoughts For Next Time
I have many thoughts for next time, which will most certainly be topics for future posts, but the main one I will share now is a change in strategy for my cooked meals. It seems as though I would divide my cooked meals into three types and bring about 1/3 of my meals from each type.
1. Pre-assembled meals - This is essentially the approach that I already took. There is very little prep really, you simply buy a few ingredients, combine them in a zip lock, throw them in a pot of boiling water and done. Some of my favorites from "Lip Smackin Vegetarian Backpacking" were: Miso Madness, Ketchikan Cous Cous and Lone Pine Lentils.
2. Make a meal trailside - We spent a good amount of time with the infamous "Goat People" aka Rob and Katherine and they had a similar set of dietary goals but a different meal approach. They pre-cooked all of their rice, beans, lentils, etc. and dehydrated them. In their packages they sent themselves larger bulk supplies of these grains and kept an array of spices, oils, etc. with them to create new meals each night.
3. Full meal dehydration - This is my dad's approach. He has a book called "Backpack Gourmet" by Linda Frederick Yaffe. He posted one recipe "Portobello Curry" that is either vegan or he adapted it to be vegan on his blog oregonhiker.wordpress.com. Another favorite was a potato and tofu breakfast scramble that he sent. The parents of my hiking partner, Dena, sent dehydrated Indian food leftovers and one point - in other words the options within the world of food dehydration are endless.
Some of My Favorites:
I've already listed a number of my favorite treats and recipes. But to recap...
Miso Madness - a combination of instant rice, miso soup powder, dried mushrooms, tofu and seaweed. You can make it soupy or like a pilaf.
Lone Pine Lentils - A delicious stew of lentils with fresh dumplings. Even though mixing the water and oil to the dumpling mix (flour and veggie broth powder) is super easy, something about this meal doesn't hardly seem like trail food. This meal never got old to me.
It is amazing how many things can be dehydrated and still taste great on the trail. I already wrote about the smoothies (mmm, smoothies), and mentioned the tofu jerky. There are a number of marinade recipes, but all you really need to do is marinade the tofu, slice it thin and dehydrate it. Spaghetti sauce rehydrates well as do other sauce like meals like baigan bharta and other Indian foods.
Store bought treats include other vegan jerkies like Primal Strips or Stonewalls Jerquee, the above mentioned halvah, chocolate, Newman O's, Uncle Eddies vegan cookies and Tami found vegan, whole wheat doughnut holes at one point that she sent for a resupply day treat. Dena's mom did some research on the foods of nomadic people and sent a number of interesting dried breads and crackers along with spreads and chutneys that didn't spoil in our packs. Mary's Gone Crackers and various seed/nut based raw crackers are particular good. The easiest way to increase ones calorie to weight ratio is by adding a tablespoon or so of oil to meals. Many hikers use olive oil, I like coconut oil because it stays solid below about 75degF. Perhaps the health effects of coconut oil can be a future discussion.
Although I ate a Cliff bar nearly every day, I think that they are way too sweet and can hardly eat them now. I will post in the future about vegan energy bars, but Lara Bars and Bumblebars are some of my favorites. Lara Bars are raw and date based (and delicious). Bumblebars are sesame based and equally tasty.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Nutrition for Thru-Hikers
Although being vegan is a lifestyle that guides ones decisions regarding most aspects of life, most people think first of how it effects ones diet. Thus, an intro to trail food seems an appropriate way to kick-off this blog.
I am by no means a dietitian, nutritionist or other expert on human dietary needs, but I have been vegan for about 8 years now and didn't have any dietary problems during my PCT thru-hike (after the first 2 weeks - more on that later). Brenda Braaten, however, is a PhD dietitian and has written a series of extremely useful articles on nutrition for long distance hikers and other endurance athletes. These articles can be found at:
http://thru-hiker.com/articles/pack_light_eat_right.php
The page includes articles on sugars/carbs, fats, protein, vitamins, minerals, recipes and even wild harvesting. Although the articles are not vegan specific, she writes mostly in general terms and does make a few specific recommendations for vegetarians. Additionally, her tables and charts of suggested foods tend only to refer to jerky and powdered milk - nearly all of the rest of the info is vegan.
Her primary suggestion is to create a diet that is approximately 50% Carbs, 35% Fat, and 15% Protein by calories. Although her fat recommendation is far higher than normal suggestions, fat tends to contain more than twice the energy of sugars by weight and since thru-hikers will burn the calories almost immediately it is okay. Braaten also focuses a great deal on carbohydrates. Carbs are our primary energy source - they feed both our brains and our muscles. Braaten recommends munching on carbs throughout the day and avoiding simple sugars (particularly before exercise has begun). She says that the protein recommendation for a long distance hiker is only slightly higher than that of a normal person - and as most vegans know, the average American consumes twice as much protein as they need. Protein is an inefficient source of energy, so it is really just needed for building new tissue.
I am by no means a dietitian, nutritionist or other expert on human dietary needs, but I have been vegan for about 8 years now and didn't have any dietary problems during my PCT thru-hike (after the first 2 weeks - more on that later). Brenda Braaten, however, is a PhD dietitian and has written a series of extremely useful articles on nutrition for long distance hikers and other endurance athletes. These articles can be found at:
http://thru-hiker.com/articles/pack_light_eat_right.php
The page includes articles on sugars/carbs, fats, protein, vitamins, minerals, recipes and even wild harvesting. Although the articles are not vegan specific, she writes mostly in general terms and does make a few specific recommendations for vegetarians. Additionally, her tables and charts of suggested foods tend only to refer to jerky and powdered milk - nearly all of the rest of the info is vegan.
Her primary suggestion is to create a diet that is approximately 50% Carbs, 35% Fat, and 15% Protein by calories. Although her fat recommendation is far higher than normal suggestions, fat tends to contain more than twice the energy of sugars by weight and since thru-hikers will burn the calories almost immediately it is okay. Braaten also focuses a great deal on carbohydrates. Carbs are our primary energy source - they feed both our brains and our muscles. Braaten recommends munching on carbs throughout the day and avoiding simple sugars (particularly before exercise has begun). She says that the protein recommendation for a long distance hiker is only slightly higher than that of a normal person - and as most vegans know, the average American consumes twice as much protein as they need. Protein is an inefficient source of energy, so it is really just needed for building new tissue.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Quick tidbits about my Vegan PCT Thru-hike
To be clear, my perspective is that of a person who started in Mexico, ended in Canada, only left the trail by car at three points (always retracing steps so that no section was skipped), took about 7 zero days and most important to the blog stayed vegan the entire way.
2005 was a record snow year. Those that left from the late April kick-off found themselves wasting time in the desert, taking an extended stay in Kennedy Meadows or making their hike some kind of a flop or flip-flop. Many got off at Kennedy Meadows and headed up to Canada to hike south. Some went to Oregon, hiked south to Kennedy Meadows, then went back to Oregon to start hiking toward Canada. It was also a record year for North to South hikers. I had one last class to finish to wrap up my Bachelor's degree, and thus couldn't leave until May 21st. Although this was a very late departure by most standards, it set us up for the Sierras perfectly and we still finished in the middle-front of the pack on October 2nd - before winter arrived.
I had planned for several years to hike the trail with a buddy of mine, but alas, he met a girl while traveling in Italy and decided to extend his stay. Fortunately, through mutual friends, I heard that another friend, Dena, was in a similar situation - so we got to talking. We agreed that the struggle to keep morale in the first month would be the hardest, so not knowing each other particularly well we set a plan to hike together until Kennedy Meadows at which point we would re-assess our hiking partnership. Now, it is needless to say that we hiked the entire trail together and became very close friends. Fortunately, too, Dena is vegetarian and nearly vegan - so it was nice to share in that facet of the experience as well.
It seems like a good time to mention that I was in a relationship with another girl at the time, who I am now married to, so, if any potential hikers/readers are interested in our thoughts on maintaining a relationship while out on the trail, don't hesitate to contact me. Tami, my wife, was critical to my success on the trail. Although I pre-packed all of my food, considerable changes were made to my diet and I definitely kept her busy in addition to the weekly trips to the Post Office. Furthermore, she visited me 7 times: at the Sauffley's in Aqua Dulce, Kennedy Meadows, Sonora Pass, Alpine Meadows, Beldon, Seiad Valley and Crater Lake. We lived in Berkeley at the time, so obviously it was more convenient for her to visit than if we lived in say, Boston.
Of course, it wouldn't be right to go on talking about the people who made this trip possible for me without talking about my parents. Both of my parents were extremely supportive of me throughout the trip. My dad offered to pick me up in Kennedy Meadows and drive me to Canada if the snow was an impassable. My mom met me with hot, calorie-loaded food at Crater Lake, Willamette Pass, McKenzie Pass, Santiam Pass and Mount Hood. Dad hiked with us the day from McKenzie Pass to the Santiam Pass and even bought me a new camera when an unplanned swim in the Sierras put an end to my first one. Once again, without them, I doubt that I would have completed the trail.
A few other tidbits about our approach to the Pacific Crest Trail...
Although we met amazing people along the way and didn't dislike anyone that we did meet, I did not hike the PCT to be part of a trail community. I hiked the trail for many reasons, but all of which were about my individual experience in the wilderness. Starting a month after the kick-off meant that we met very few other hikers for the first few weeks. It wasn't until Northern California when we began to pass hiker's and cross paths with South-Bounders and Flip-Floppers that we met most of the people that we did.
Since, my experience on the trail was about being in the wilderness (where it still exists) and not about a 4 1/2 month nomadic party, we strove to not get into cars. In fact, the first time that we did get into a car was at Beldon/Quincy, 1300 miles into the trip. After that, we got into vehicles only two other times, at Stephens Pass and Stehekin. So, it is possible to actually walk the whole way - though, I must confess, having people visit us with hot vegan food trailside every couple weeks definitely made it easier for us.
Ultralite... the PCT was my first major sojourn into the ultralite paradigm and I must say that I am hooked. No, I didn't have the lightest pack on the trail, but with a typical base weight of only 14 pounds, my pack was much lighter than I had ever experienced. I couldn't fathom thru-hiking any other way. Very few sacrifices were made, in my opinion, and when hiking 30 miles a day there is little time to enjoy most of the things one might weigh their pack down with anyway.
Welcome
Greetings and Welcome to my web log.
As I prepared for my 2005 Pacific Crest Trail thru-hike, the one thing that I wished for was more information on vegan thru-hiking, backpacking and long distance hiking. As I learned more, found resources and created solutions, I became intrigued by the idea of creating a web page that served as a resource hub for other vegan hikers. Well, three year later, here I finally go... I have to thank my dad, who recently started a blog at oregonhiker.wordpress.com. His blog is becoming a great resource for ultralite hiking, information for diabetics and hiking in the Pacific Northwest. Seeing his success has definitely been the inspiration that actually got this blog up and going.
I don't expect to post every day, but hope, as I have time and topics, to post regular articles about food, equipment and other issues related to hiking from a vegan perspective. If you have any particular questions, topics or areas of interest, please do not hesitate to contact me. I will do my best to respond or post as soon as possible.
Like many vegans I am vegan for a number of reasons. These include: a striving for greater ecological sustainability, a deep reverence for all life, objection to modern factory farming and a strong desire to keep my body physically clean and healthy. Since being vegan for me is more than just simply a diet, more than likely, many of the posts will drift into the realm of "ecologically sustainable hiking and camping" and general human/athlete nutrition.
At first, I am planning a series of posts related to my lessons learned thru-hiking the PCT. These posts will include: my packing list and the decisions that I made regarding each piece of equipment from a vegan/"green" perspective; the food that I prepared for the trail, daily menus, recipes and lessons learned; and key veggie friendly stops along the trail.
Thanks for reading.
As I prepared for my 2005 Pacific Crest Trail thru-hike, the one thing that I wished for was more information on vegan thru-hiking, backpacking and long distance hiking. As I learned more, found resources and created solutions, I became intrigued by the idea of creating a web page that served as a resource hub for other vegan hikers. Well, three year later, here I finally go... I have to thank my dad, who recently started a blog at oregonhiker.wordpress.com. His blog is becoming a great resource for ultralite hiking, information for diabetics and hiking in the Pacific Northwest. Seeing his success has definitely been the inspiration that actually got this blog up and going.
I don't expect to post every day, but hope, as I have time and topics, to post regular articles about food, equipment and other issues related to hiking from a vegan perspective. If you have any particular questions, topics or areas of interest, please do not hesitate to contact me. I will do my best to respond or post as soon as possible.
Like many vegans I am vegan for a number of reasons. These include: a striving for greater ecological sustainability, a deep reverence for all life, objection to modern factory farming and a strong desire to keep my body physically clean and healthy. Since being vegan for me is more than just simply a diet, more than likely, many of the posts will drift into the realm of "ecologically sustainable hiking and camping" and general human/athlete nutrition.
At first, I am planning a series of posts related to my lessons learned thru-hiking the PCT. These posts will include: my packing list and the decisions that I made regarding each piece of equipment from a vegan/"green" perspective; the food that I prepared for the trail, daily menus, recipes and lessons learned; and key veggie friendly stops along the trail.
Thanks for reading.
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