Resupply Strategy – Gluten Free Edition

I’m free

Of gluten and dairy that is. My body hates them both (full disclaimer, I can eat occasional dairy, but only in very small amounts). Thankfully, in these modern days, the options for gluten free and dairy free foods have improved significantly. It’s still difficult though to navigate every day grocery shopping while avoiding these two ingredients that seem to be in everything. Soy sauce… why the heck does soy sauce have gluten?! I digress.

In true type-two fun fashion, I have decided to take a difficult diet in modern life and make it even more difficult by thru hiking! Here we go!

Backpacking and eating candy, now THAT’S multitasking

The strategy

My resupply strategy is the only thing I will be actually planning for in this hike – because of my dietary restrictions and let’s be honest here…. I’m a health fanatic, so I also want to take Curcumin and my gauges get funky if I don’t use Jojoba oil (gauges look awesome but are really a pain, trust me) – my life is complicated.

I’m doing a hybrid-style method of resupplying. In towns that have large grocery stores (I’m talkin like a Safeway here) or health food stores (cue excitement and joy), I will be buying my food from town. However, towns that have very limited options I’ll be sending a box.

My resupply boxes just chillin in my closet

The food

What exactly am I going to eat? Well, mostly a metric fuck ton of rice. I eat a lot of rice products in everyday life anyway, so it shouldn’t really feel that different. I’ve done my best to pack in as many calories as possible, and I’ve got upwards of 4500 per day (I plan to just pig out in town to try to make up for the deficit).

Four days worth of food

For my “dinners” I’ll be having some variation of a rice dish (or rice ramen). I’ve purchased some dehydrated meals that I’ve tested and know to not make me feel like hot garbage (Good to Go Mushroom Risotto is my jam). I will also be dehydrating portions of my other meals to keep things fresh and healthy (for example – for rice ramen, I bring a beef bullion, jerkey, tamari packets, sriracha and dehydrate a nice variety of veggies to throw in there).

An example of one dinner (minus an olive oil packet, check out Andrew Skurka’s recipes to find this one)

For my “breakfast” items, I have a few variations of homemade vacuum sealed granolas and oatmeals that have a good balance of healthy fats and sugars to get me going. I use powdered coconut milk and hemp/chia seeds to pack in some lightweight extra calories, as well as a good variety of freeze dried fruits because fruit makes me happy. I also drink coffee, I’m NOT a morning person so that’s a non-negotiable luxury for me.

Making oatmeals

My “lunches” have always consisted of just eating a few snacks in one sitting and that seems to work well for me. Some of my favorites are tuna packets with mayo, Slim Jim’s, and any kind of chip really (I definitely make a meal out of chips at home, hiker trash for life).

Chip lunch

As far as snacks go, I’ve done my best to plan to eat 200 calories every hour of hiking. I have a lot of bars which I’m sure I’ll get sick of. A few of my favorites include NuGo, Cliff, Kind, RX and Tahoe Bars. I’ve done my best to have a good variety of bars to rotate through so I hopefully don’t get tired of them.

Some bars that I’ll grow to hate

Other snacks include almonds (I’m rotating 6 different flavors for variety), peanut butter (I use single serve packets for areas with longer carries or when I need the BV500 in the Sierra). I also have some gluten free Honey Stingers/Swoffles, energy gels, and assorted gummy candies to keep my morale up.

Example of some snacks

The extras

Along with food, there are some other non-food items that I plan to pack in my resupply boxes. I care about me a lot, so I plan to take as good of care of myself with as little as possible. I take Curcumin regularly for inflammation, personally I find that it works extremely well for me. I’ll also be packing 1/2 oz containers of Jojoba oil which I use to manage my eczema and to keep my gauges as non-funky as possible.

I’m the lightest sleeper on the planet, so I’m also including a pair of earplugs per box. I’ve vacuum sealed some wet wipes and I’m also including a few extra ziplocks for trash and repackaging my vacuum sealed items. Lastly, for town, I’ll be throwing a shampoo and conditioner in to use at wherever the shower is, as well as some non-scented laundry detergent pods.

I’m a vacuum sealing machine

My expectation

I fully expect for plans to change, pre-packing resupply boxes is advised against mostly everywhere. However, in true HYOH fashion, I’m just doing what I think is best for my body. As I mentioned before, I care about me a lot. And anything that doesn’t work out will just help me practice being flexible and patient. Go with the flow.

 

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