Part III: Food

The Food Complex is everything you need for eating and storing snacks and full meals.

List of Equipment

For a 14 day thru-hike in the summertime, here was my list of equipment:

1. 12" x 12" sheet of aluminum foil
2. Camping Stove
3. Small cannister of fuel
4. Water canteen & filter
5. Camping pot complex (comes with a kettle/pot, 1 mini covered bowl, 1 insulator)
6. Mini lighter
7. A sturdy spork
8. 9" x 6" microfibre towel - in addition to the one I packed in my Hygiene Complex
9. 1 large zippered freezer bag - for garbage

There were many more things I could have included, but in the end (and perhaps unfortunately) the most important piece of equipment was often my garbage bag! I’m always thinking of how energy bars, pre-packaged meals, and canned food can be done in a way that is even less wasteful.

Cooking on the Trail

1. Find a spot secure from brush and wind (sometimes the foil came in handy as a wind protector).
2. Attach my little camping stove to the fuel cannister. I found half finished cannisters for cheap at a sporting goods stores; I didn't plan to burn fuel for warmth or for hours, so I wouldn't use even a small cannister in 2 weeks.
3. Add filtered water from the canteen to the kettle/pot and using the lighter to turn on the stove. Bring water to a boil.
4. In the bowl use some of the boiled water to pour myself some tea or make bone broth and cover to let it steep.
5. Directly into the kettle/pot, add dehydrated meal to the rest of the boiled water and allow to cook and rehydrate for several minutes.
6. Use the spork to shovel said food into my mouth!
7. At the end of the meal, use a bit of fresh water to rinse the pot, bowl, and spork. Warm the water and use a bit of soap from the hygiene complex if it needs a bit of extra cleaning. Wipe up with the microfibre towel.
8. Deposit any garbage into the large freezer bag.

A Minor Horror Story

One time, at the start of that thru-hike, I lost my water filter and my lighter. Not only was I disappointed by my environmental impact, but losing these two things was pretty catastrophic for my little food complex!

I want to say that everything was okay… but it was pretty hard for 5 days until I made it back into town to repack and refuel. Because I lost my water filter (and I didn’t have any water purification tablets), I had to stop and boil my water every so often. It did not cool quickly.

And because I lost my lighter, I had to use the matches in my Other Emergencies Complex. Unfortunately, they were not top quality, so the humidity and sea breeze rendered them useless! Luckily, I had enough snacks to tide me over. But a fraction of my hardwork in dehydrating meals was spent for nothing!

This is how I learn…