Colorado Trail (CT) – Food

Planning for a trail of this length seems so much more manageable than our planning for the PCT, and certainly the AT.  We are still opting to send ourselves resupply boxes along the trail…we know that many hikers aren’t into that style of resupply (they would rather buy in stores along the way), but for us, we really prefer it.  Sending our mail drops ensures that we get the specific food we prefer, and allows us to follow a more nuanced diet and to have nutritional supplements along the way to get all the vitamins and minerals our bodies need to stay healthy.  We have done a lot of miles buying food in towns during a hike, but have really found a groove prepping ahead of time.

For the CT, we are purchasing all of our food for our mail drops…we are not making any of our food.  This was simply due to the fact that we are preparing our food away from “home” and our dehydrator.  Last year, we have made beef jerky, almond butter, and dried apples.  This year, we are just going to with food from local stores or from Amazon.  While house/dog sitting in Colorado Springs, we are lucky to have great options for food shopping.  Having a Trader Joe’s or a Sprouts in the town where we are staying is quite a luxury for us!  We were able to buy all of our food over the week here in CO Springs and then just take our final morning to sort and pack all of the food for our mail drops.

One new factor for food on the CT, is that we decided to bring our cook pot with us.  This was basically because SweetPea was lobbying for it.  We got the cook kit last year when we were on the PCT and used it for our last month on the trail through Washington.  We like the cook system and it is quite lightweight, but it is still a consideration as the pack starts to fill up.  Neither of us minds eating cold food on the trail…especially a trail like the CT, which is less than 500 miles long.  For SweetPea, it was more a matter of having greater variety for food options.  She tries to avoid/minimize wheat, so she avoids some food which can be considered hiker staples.  On the PCT, she ate cereal everyday for one of her meals, since it is pretty high-calorie and it is easy to find in wheat-free varieties.  However, she got really sick of cereal well before the halfway point, so she didn’t want to do cereal again.

We tend to be creatures of habit when it comes to cooking at home…We often eat the same porridge for breakfast everyday and we eat basically the same salad/soup everyday.  So, having limited variety on the trail is not a big deal for us.  Even on the PCT, we pretty much ate the same thing everyday for the whole trip.  We certainly were happy for a change when we got to towns, but we were content (minus the cereal) with our food on the trail.

So, here is a basic day of food for each of us.

Beardoh’s Daily Food on the Colorado Trail

Breakfast:

• 1 Nature Valley Granola Bar (190 Calories)
• 1 Lara Bar (190 Calories)

Lunch:

• 1 Pack of Tuna (70 Calories)
• 1/2 Bag of NutThin Crackers (260 Calories)
• 1 Epic Meat Bar (130 Calories)

Dinner:

• 1 Pack of Tuna (70 Calories)
• 1/2 of Cooked Rice Dinner (350 Calories)
• 1/4 Bag of NutThin Crackers (130 Calories)

Snacks:

• 2 Lara or Luna Bars (380 Calories)
• 1 Epic Meat Bar (130 Calories)
• 2 Thin bars of Trader Joe’s 85% Dark Chocolate (640 Calories)
• 5oz of Nut/Raisin/Dark Chocolate Mix (600 Calories)

Total Calories: 3,140

SweetPea’s Daily Food on the Colorado Trail

Breakfast:

• 1 Cliff Bar (250 Calories)

Lunch:

• 1 Pack of Tuna (70 Calories)
• 1/2 Bag of NutThin Crackers (260 Calories)

Dinner:

• 1 Pack of Tuna (70 Calories)
• 1/2 of Cooked Rice Dinner (350 Calories)
• 1/4 Bag of NutThin Crackers (130 Calories)

Snacks:

• 2 Lara or Luna Bars (420 Calories)
• 2 Thin bars of Trader Joe’s 85% Dark Chocolate (640 Calories)
• 3oz of Nut/Fruit/Dark Chocolate Mix (450 Calories)

Total Calories: 2,640

We prefer to start out our long distance hikes with a lower calorie count.  We don’t usually feel super hungry at the beginning of a hike, however, we often add more food to our daily intake as we put on more miles and are hit with the hiker hunger.  For us, that seems to happen around 600 miles into a hike.  We figured that given the length of the CT, we won’t need to up our food before we finish.  If we find ourselves wanting more food, we can certainly augment in towns, but this food plan seems like a good starting place for us.