No Cook? No Fun!

So the secret is out, I am not a small guy, yet I don't think of myself as being overly large either. Regardless, I do like to eat. I like all sorts of food, healthy veggies, bad old chips and simple carbs, yum yum. Yes, and go figure, when I hike a like to eat. Love to eat.

I think it all relates back to my first hike when I just didn't bring enough food. Hiking for the first time with an overly heavy backpack in cooler temperatures proved to drain my energy and I found myself that first evening of my first hiking trip rather ravished... matter of fact, that squirrel was rather lucky it didn't come any closer to me. But in all honesty, as all hikers know, food, and often just the simple consideration of calories is vital to a successful hike.

Cooking with fire can reduce the weight of your pack. Is this inline with leave-no-trace however?

Granted, a vast majority of hikers do not eat all that healthy when on the trail. If you ask most thru-hikers of the PCT, AT or CDT you will find that a vast majority have and will continue to consume pop tarts, chips, and salt, vast amounts of salt, in any form really, and candies lovely candies. There’s nothing like a Jolly Rancher in the middle of the Mohave Desert to get salavia going in your mouth... ah but I digress. So, while these items prove to fill in the missing gap with respect to calories alone, maybe, just maybe, these items aren’t really all that great for oh let’s say general nutrition and the like. Let’s not forget however, food is heavy, calories-per-ounce is a real measurement, and Jim's backwoods gas bar may not have the most nutritious selection of food. So this brings me to the main point of this post. Considering that most hikers need to supplement their diets with high energy, ready to eat foods, it always astonishes me when someone says they are choosing to hike without heating or cooking anything.

Don't get me wrong I truly do understand the concept. The decision not to cook does come with its advantages. With respect to thru-hikers not cooking means that the weight of a stove, pot, and fuel are foregone. This reduced weigh can translate into quicker and longer daily miles thereby reducing the time spent between resupplies. Simply put, not cooking could shave days off of resupply stops and in all honesty, is it that hard to go without hot foods for a few days? Very convincing. Yet on a personal level I just can't picture myself enjoying a hiking trip without hot foods.

Hikers don't really operate in a realm of endless gourmet possibilities when it comes to cooking hot meals. This is not say that they are impossible, and I do send a shout-out to those who spend the time to make notorious gourmet meals, however, for the vast majority of long distance hikers where the cumulative weight of multiple days of food comes into consideration hot cooked menus are often limited to fast noodles, instant rice, dehydrated meats and veggies, tuna packets, and dehydrated and freeze dried meals. With this in mind, is the ‘cookless’ option really all that bad? You forego equipment weight, reduce hiking days, and really, are you truly missing out on a smorgasbord of great food? I’d say no. So why cook? Why carry that extra weight?

For me cooking and hiking are like peanut butter and chocolate. Sure, individually they are great, but together, wow. Personally, and this whole posting is a personal choice, being able to brew up some instant coffee (Starbucks makes some really good stuff) while stopped for a few moments on a knife edge or atop a pass or bald is quite something. Hot beverages kept me going on the PCT and while hesitant at the start of my trip my pack from here on out will have coffee, hot chocolate and maybe even the odd apple cider. Equally, being able to sit around a cooking pot of Asian style Side Kicks at the end of a hard days hike while talking to friends or just enjoying the scenery breaks up the monotony of hiking and eating dry ready to eat foods. This is not to mention the pleasure of filling your tummy with some warm food before retiring for the night.

To me the decision to cook or not to cook is clear. While each presents a unique twist of benefits and drawbacks, being able to eat hot foods, seemingly unappealing as they may be, far outweigh (quite literally) the benefits of not cooking while on the trail. Food for thought!

- Steve

Thru-Camping? You're Not Serious!

Those individuals actively engaged in hiking and multi-day backpacking and of whom proactively engage in discussions and research regarding trip planning and gear selection, jargon such as thru-hike, day hike, section hike, base weight, 'the big three' (trails), the 'big three' (weight), and bounce box are most likely terms that are either understood and used or at least acknowledged. For you see, like most hobbies, sports, professions and jobs, hiking comes with its own list of abbreviations, terms and phrases that help individuals describe, discusses and understand the sport. Yes, sport. I'll talk about this in another post.


This brings me to the term thru-hike. Verging on the edge of almost being spelt completely incorrectly,  thru-hike refers to the act of hiking a trail from start to finish in one continuous and uninterrupted effort. Traditionally and most commonly referring to the decision to hike from either the southern or northern terminus to the northern or southern terminus of one of the 'big three' trails in the United States, the Appalachian Trail, the Pacific Crest Trail, or the Continental Divide Trail, hikers who engage in a thru-hike attempt to hike the entirety of these trails in one hiking season. Without doubt the term thru-hike has grown to become much more inclusive then this initial understanding and is widely used to describe any hike that aims to complete a trial from start to finish in one continuous effort in one season. Yet what is more interesting then its expanded application to trails outside the 'big three' is its use as a mantra, a guiding principle to the way in which people think about multi-day trips, its implication with respect to gear planning and almost synonymous use with the notion of lightweight backpacking, its reverence as being pure, incontestable and ultimately being the 'highest' form of multi-day backpacking available. While this may seem ignorant or even ridiculous, having just completed over half of the Pacific Crest Trail on my 2012 thru-hike bid, there is no question in my mind that the term thu-hiking is highly revered. Having said that, I am not completely sold on its newly formed connotations.

Yes, I love the idea of hiking a trail from start to finish, even better is the idea of hiking from Mexico to Canada on the PCT in one season through one continuous effort, the initial underpinning of a thru-hike. However, when one becomes entirely fixated on hiking every step of the 'officially' designated trail, foregoes every form of creature comfort and completely minimizes every ounce of gear, while unquestionably acceptable and fully in-line with the notion of 'hike your own hike', it is when this alternative becomes the only inclusive definition of a 'true thru-hike' I take opposition. This can't happen you say, this is not inline with 'hike your own hike', but believe it or not I have been accused of not 'really' attempting a thru-hike on my 2012 hike of the PCT as I carried a MSR Whisperlite stove with white gas and missed a 2 mile section of 'officially' designated trail due to a decision to dodge an overgrowth of puddle dog bush. This is when I adopted the notion of 'Thru-Camping'.

Brought up from behind the trail during my hike of the PCT, I was jokingly introduced to the idea of thru-camping. The basics are this, take thru-hiking, throw away the ignorance associated with extreme gear weight decisions, don't worry about the miles and the time it takes to do them but enjoy the moment, stop and take a good look at the scenery, maybe boil up a coffee, engage in a longer then hello-goodbye conversation, and above all, enjoy the heck out of camping at the end of the day. Sounds appealing, however, can this mantra replace the weight conscious, mile directed, minimalist approach to thru-hiking? Maybe not on the 'big-three' but I can easily see its place in more commonly tackled multi-day hikes. Yet even better, Its true utility may be best understood when used as a tool to 'un-plug' from the hustle and bustle of weight decisions, to bring those individuals whom have lost the true reason as to why we hike back to grips, to truly appreciate nature and our ability and fortune to enjoy it in its entirety. Thru-Camping, maybe?

- Steve