Woke up at 5:30. Actually my alarm was set for 5:30 and I woke up at 5. Of course I slept like shit. I couldn’t get my mind to stop racing about last minute things I should do or remember to do in the morning. First time I’ve set an alarm since probably leaving Chile a couple weeks ago. I guess we mostly set alarms for flights. It turns out peanut butter and Nutella are considered liquids by the TSA, and mine were confiscated. The woman told me they had been considered such for 15 years. I’ve never flown with jars of them before so I didn’t know and I didn’t bother to check. Oh well. One more thing to shop for in Atlanta before hiking. Taxes will get you even if you’re not working. 😉

We start tomorrow. I packed today. It’s so much easier this time around, at least it feels that way. Our life is largely already packed away. We only have a bit more than what we would take hiking anyway. Leave the laptop and few other clothing items behind and we’re back to all we need to hike for 5 days at a time, indefinitely. I think it’s also easier because I am already planning to quit. Just one month this time. Not a whole trail. If something happens and we can’t even do a month, it’s not like we messed up a huge project. We didn’t plan for months or years to do this. We’re just hopping on the trail, taking advantage of our time, health, and abilities. ...

T minus 5 days until we start the Appalachian Trail. We are preparing boxes of food to mail to ourselves. I thought I would write down some of my current thoughts on backpacking meals as it applies to long distance hiking. Backpacking Meals There are 4 main ways to pack backpacking meals: Bars/snickers: You eat bars for dinner. This is easiest and probably cheapest, but the least likely to bring you joy at the end of the day. For some people, this is all they need so going further is a waste of time. I am not one of these people. Pre-made meals: These are your Mountain House, your Peak Refuel meals. Most people do this for backpacking trips and at around $12-15/meal, they’re certainly not the cheapest. They are convenient, light, and offer quite a bit of variety. This works well for occasional backpacking but does not scale well to longer backpacking trips where the cost of these becomes a significant portion of your daily budget. Making your own dehydrated meals by purchasing dehydrated ingredients. This offers more cost savings per meal, at the expense of your time: you need to make the meals. This is a really good fit for backpackers and long distance hikes because the cost per meal is relatively low (~$3-$5), the weight is just as good as the pre-made meals, and they can be quite good. The cons are really the time required (it’s harder than buying a bag from REI), and the variety is slightly less than pre made meals. Dehydrating your own meals. This is at the other end of the spectrum from bars in that it requires maximum time commitment. Many people are drawn to this because of the appeal of creating your own meals from scratch and knowing exactly what is in them. You only eat “normal” foods and you use recipes you probably use at home already. The problem is dehydrating your own food takes a massive time commitment. I met people who prepared for the Pacific Crest Trail by dehydrating food months in advance. They spent months of their free time cooking meals and then meticulously dehydrating them. The cost of these meals is likely between pre made meals and buying dehydrated ingredients. Call it ~$8/meal. Most people do either option 2 or 4. You can save quite a bit of money with minimal additional time commitment by making your own meals (option 3). I’ll even link you to our two favorite recipes. The next time you’re planning to go backpacking, try making one of these ahead of time. ...