How I Do Long Distance Backpacking Completely Powered by Plants…and Loving It!

2019.  Andover, Maine.  Tearfully, painfully, I was getting off the Appalachian Trail.  New Hampshire and southern Maine had done me in, leaving me in pain with  two pelvic stress fractures.  With only 220 miles left, was a very sad end to what was to be my third and final long section of the AT.   I swore I’d never touch foot on the AT again.

Back home, I was one depressed hiker, living on the sofa day in, day out, and using crutches the few times I left my “safe” sofa.  I began seeing a counselor and asked for an antidepressant after a couple of months.  As the pelvis continued to hurt for several months, I scrolled the internet for magic pills or foods that would speed up the healing of bones.  Nothing.  So I turned to lots of Netflix.  What I ended up finding was something that would change the direction of my life:  the amazing documentary, “The Gamechangers.” 

This film highlights many top notch, world-class athletes who follow a vegan/whole food plant-based way of eating.  This includes an Olympic gold medal winner, the “World’s Strongest Man,” an award winning body builder (with no drugs) and ultrarunner Scott Jurek, who set the Fastest Known Time (FKT) at that time for the Appalachian Trail.  All of these achieve these feats powered completely by plants. No meat of any kind, dairy or eggs.

After watching this, I sat, stunned.  I was blown away.  I had tried eating vegan a few years before, but didn’t realize that I was still putting harmful foods into my body, including plenty fats (deep fried French fries wouldn’t be called healthy), cookies (sugar does the body no good) and copious salt (care to damage your arteries and kidneys and raise your blood pressure?).  

I finally said to myself, “Ruth, you need to try this someday.”  But wait….what other pressing obligations did I have right now?  Nothing, not one little thing. Nada.  Okay, let’s do it!

To shorten my long story, I told my husband the next morning, he wasn’t concerned about it and said he’d eat whatever I cooked. Good guy.  As Covid reared it ugly head,  we only ate at home, so no outside temptations.  After doing some quick research, I started cooking simple plant-based meals, consisting of vegetables, whole grains, beans/legumes and fruit. 

Within the first two weeks, our aches and pains disappeared. We were in our late 60’s, so we had plenty.  My pelvis no longer hurt at all (good-by inflammation, a product of our body’s autoimmune reaction to eating animal flesh, dairy and eggs).  I put away the crutches very quickly.  The deep depression lifted, I felt wonderful, so with my doctor’s guidance, I weaned myself off my anti-depressant.  

I continued to educate myself through copious books,  documentaries and going to a large plant-based conference, all of which taught me so much.  I ended up deciding to follow what might be called the most selective way of eating whole food plant-based (WFPB, which means  eating real, 3 dimensional food, not magic powders and highly processed, manufactured products).  I felt called to it due to a perennially high cholesterol, genetic markers, calcium buildup in the “widow maker” artery in my heart, and a strong history of heart attacks in the family.  This was  Cleveland Clinic’s Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, Jr.’s program and book, Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease. 

I soon learned that our livers produce the grand majority of the cholesterol our bodies need.  No plants give our bodies any added cholesterol. However, eating any animal products adds that animal’s cholesterol to ours, building up deadly plaque in the 60,000 miles of our vascular system.  Dr. Esselstyn insists that his patients avoid all oils (which damage our vascular system and dislodge the harmful plaque, yes, even the “healthy” olive oil!), sugars/sweeteners and salt or salty products.  What we do eat:  fruit, vegetables, whole grains, legumes/beans, and 1-2 T of ground flax or chia seeds per day.  What we avoid eating at all times:  anything with a face or a mother; dairy products (even low-fat, which actually isn’t low-fat); oils and all fats; refined grains; nuts (we can overdo those, and they’re high in fats, so we eat the flax and chia in controlled amounts.  No big deal).  

Good stuff!

Yes, this sounds hard to do, and overly strict.  HOWEVER, the approximately 200 participants in his two research studies, who had been sent home to die by their cardiologists, had the most amazing track record of survival out of any other research studies.  Those who followed this 100% continue to survive for decades, with zero reoccurring heart incidents/attacks.  Zero.  This is what I wanted, so I jumped in full speed ahead.  Moderation can kill.  Dedication and consistency pay off big time.  It’s amazing how quickly your tastes can change if you totally eliminate the harmful foods that consistently tempt you too much.  If it’s in your house, it’s in your mouth.  It’s not about willpower, which quickly goes down the drain.  Design your environment for success, dump the junk. 

I have gained so much more than I have lost!  I have found tons of delicious, widely varied recipes to follow,  I now enjoy cooking,  and have learned how to follow this when traveling and ordering in restaurants. I know that the food that I’m eating greatly decreases my odds of having  heart attacks, strokes, cancer, high blood pressure, diabetes, and many other of our common diseases.  A great deal of research studies back this up. 

Loving my cold soak, rehydrated lunch on the Florida Trail, sitting on my Bearikade Scout bear canister, which I entrust my food with.

My cholesterol came down greatly from it’s all time, animal-consuming high, no more periodic depressions, little to no pain anymore in my arthritic fingers,  no Covid, no illnesses of any kind (even colds) since I began this on January 6, 2020, no more cold sores in my mouth that plagued me 25% of the time, and a terrific sense of well-being, both physically and mentally.  I feel 20 years younger than my 72 years.  Bill continues to compete in sprint triathlons at age 73 and went to the Nationals last year, high in his age group.  We both recover quickly from our physical pursuits, my backpacking, workouts at the YMCA and frequent yoga and Pilates,  and his three sports plus a whole lot of gardening and yard work.

So, easy enough to eat this way in my own kitchen.  How about on the trail?  I did touch foot on the AT again, and triumphantly mounted Katahdin in 2021 with my super supportive husband by my side, both of us completely plant-powered. 

And I continue to do long distance backpacking, including the Colorado Trail, Ohio’s Buckeye Trail, Santa Catalina Thru-hike (short but so very sweet), and now in my final third of the formidable Florida Trail.  Not once have I strayed from this way of eating on the trail.  But how?

Enjoying a snack of cooked leafy greens while sitting by Lake Earie, the northernmost point on Ohio’s Buckeye Trail.

By dehydrating all my trail meals and snacks.  No commercially made, highly sweetened snack bars go in my bear canister, nor white flour ramen, Pop Tarts, packaged tuna, Knorr Sides, you know the drill.  I have been dehydrating since 2016, when I dehydrated a lot of beef jerky and bought dehydrated chicken. However, I now want to fill my body with premium fuel.

Much better: sweet potato and bean chili. Fantastic fuel for now on the trail, and an investment in the health of the only body I’ve been given.

I thought I was eating healthfully, due to a few added veggies, but my aching body told me something different.  Since 1998, I did 52 marathons and ultras, 6 triathlons (including a half-Ironman), cycled across the US, and did 90% of the AT eating animal products.  I did all of this DESPITE how my body felt (achy and hurting, and prone to tendonitis, feeling like I was aging rapidly in my 40’s and 50’s).  I now hike several hundreds of miles a year BECAUSE of how my body feels (strong, rested and ready to go every morning). 

Thanks to the excellent website and books by the Backpacking Chef, Glenn McAllister, I learned all I needed to know about dehydrating. I now own two dehydrators, both of which serve me well and often. 

My Nesco Gardenmaster and my Excaliber 9 tray (my favorite, but don’t tell the Nesco).

Dehydrating carrots, celery and black beans

Dehydrating delicious split pea soup, which comes out crumbly. A wonderful lunch, with some brown rice and additional veggies added.

I have a huge stockpile of recipes that we enjoy eating at home (curries, chili, bean burgers, my beloved Oatmeal Plus for breakfasts, etc.), all of which I easily dehydrate and enjoy even more at the end of a day on the trail.  My snacks are my oatmeal/banana/minced beets/cinnamon/vanilla dehydrated cookies; my own trail mix (no nuts. dehydrated chickpeas and various yummy chopped or slivered veggies), and quartered and dehydrated roasted chestnuts from Amazon (actually a fruit, but a great substitute for nuts, with no fats).  I  keep careful track of my inventory and replenish my stores when needed by making a double batch of our dinner, and dehydrating one of the batches.  It’s one of my new hobbies, and I benefit greatly from it.

Instead of baking my oatmeal cookies, I just mix them up and dehydrate them. Ingredients: uncooked rolled oats, mashed bananas, finely chopped cooked beets (so sweet and good for dilating the vascular system, sending your blood soaring to your muscles), cinnamon and vanilla. I love to eat these as I head up a steep uphill section.

How do I get my food to me?  I’m usually out for 4-5 weeks at a time.  Through the kindness of my husband.  I leave a detailed itinerary of when and exactly where I’ll have my periodic Zero Days, and he mails or sends them via Fed Ex to that hostel, hotel, or airbnb, or to the post office, General Delivery.  I’ve received every single shipment since I began dehydrating in 2017.  

4 weeks’ worth of food: 28 day packs, each containing 3 hearty plant-based meals, and my two generously sized snacks,

I love my food and my food loves me.  I eat like a queen on the trail and enjoy every single meal.  God willing, I intend to continue my backpacking well into my next decade.  I’ll have to stop the long treks and make adjustments someday.  But will I stop eating plant-based, which is so good for me, for the animals and our earth?  Never!

48 hours from now, I’ll be back on the Florida Trail for a nice three week section, with plans to finish the whole thing in April, 2026.  Watch here for upcoming posts.

If you’d like to know more, please feel free to listen to my interview on the Trek’s Backpacker Radio on episode #229 on Nov. 27, 2023.  What fun that was!  You can also find me on Julie Gayheart’s channel about section hikers on youtube,  as well as several plant-based youtube channels.  And join me on my FB page, Heart Healthy Hiking, where I share my adventures, much more about plant-based eating and have many great recipes in the files.  If you’re interested, you’ll need to answer the three very easy questions, please.  I’d love to have you join me!