This thread is making me excited about nutrition again, and planning my next trip. I did 1500 miles down the eastrn divide this last january. Was thinking if I could get out there by October 1st I might be able to do all or a lage portion of the *western* divide before the snow storms hit the passes. Not quite sure if it's logistically going to happen yet.
Anywho... I shot for carrying 25,000 or so calories on my trip down the eastern divide. Not that I needed it given the non-remoteness my route. Indeed I think 5k would have been fine considering how often I found open restraunts and how nice the weather was.
I managed to fit most of this on a Salsa Anything Cage on my front fork. About 8lbs I think. Or maybe it was 10lbs... anyway it was to much. I cracked it on the first day, but rallied with a few hose clamps which held it just fine for the rest of the trip. I ended up finding that 3lbs or less was plenty for the trip.
Forgot what the calories per ounce came out to, shall have to look it up. I think it ended up being 200 calories an ounce over all. I consider I was aiming for gas station / small town grocery store replenishable foods, wasn't some specialty menu.
I learned that while olive oil is the best thing ever calorie wise I simply didn't like it... or maybe it was the brand. I prefer to get my fat through margarine / butter.
As has been mentioned here there are a lot of really quickly cooked / hydrated items like cous cous, grits, creame-o-wheat, oats, etc. Etc. I've found these pretty much universally come in at 100 or sometimes 120 calories an ounce. However when cooked up with butter / margarine / olive oil it balances out quite nicely.
Also... starting your trip 3 days after christmas has tremendous advantages. Loads and loads of christmas things like hot honey hot lips peanuts and other assorted junks have ridiculous calorie counts like 240 calories / oz. It took me almost two weeks to get through all my post holiday junk food. Best use for christmas junk food ever.
Anything involving chocolate and any kind of nuts = awesome. But then again, that was a cold weather trip. You have to try a little harder in the summer.
On a related note I believe almonds are the highest calorie nut. At least that one can find in a gas station regularly. But really that's splitting hairs, give me any nut, peanuts, cashews and I'm a happy man.
I also found that not having to carry fuel / worry about restocking fuel absolutely rules. Damn the soot, wood is where it's at. The advantages of wood are crazy awesome. Light, heat, infinite fuel supply, keeps the bugs at bay... and it's lighter by far than anything else.
Damn not being allowed to have a fire in rare areas... it's easy enough to plan to be out of them before mealtime or simply to eat uncooked food for a night here and there. Keep in mind that just because a place says "no campfires" doesn't mean you can't use a well contained wood stove. There are no burn rules and then there are no campfire laws. Be sure to know the difference.
As such I've been obsessing over my cook kit and cannot wait to show you it. Unforetuneatly I'm very busy, but maybe I can come back and post it later tonight.
I will say this.
1) titanium light my fire spork = best utensile ever
2) Platypus water bladder with top cut off = best bowl / cup ever. I call it the "Platy Bowl"
I consider dreaming this up to be one of my finest personal contributions to UL gear. Natural thermal properites mean no cozy is necessary. Able to take boiling water no problem. Roll-able top with an improvised split stick clip for keeping it closed so food can cook nicely... rolls up to pack in no space at all... can be sterilized / cleaned on the trail by dropping it in your pot to boil. (This is important because sometimes I forget to clean them properly between my frequent s240 trips and inevitable food residue gets.... well... gross.
Esentially the platy bladder idea came to me when I saw a collapseable dog watering bowl sitting at an adirondack shelter on the AT (appalachian trail) this last January. Eureka moment indeed.
Yes... I'm poking fun at my geekiness... what's the fun in being a geek if you can't make fun of yourself.
It is essentially just a reuseable and much more durable ziplock. Plus ziplocks don't stand up by themselves. Platy bowls do.
Needs more smileys.
That's better.
The backpackers love the ziplocks because they pre-prepare their packable foods. However we bikepackers / UL tourers go in and out of civilization infinitely more often so we don't often pre-prepare our meals at home (unless we're going to the Yukon). Instead we use what I like to call "hit and run gourmet" or "gas station gourmet"... which is to say cram your face at every restraunt / eatery you see (if your lucky) and then go across the street and stuff your bags with all the fine gas station foods you can find.
Ours is it's own art.
BTW, My Platypus mug bowl weighs .6 ounces and can hold close to 1L with the top rolled shut. I don't skimp on size. If you wanted to you could use the narrower 1L platy bladders.
Drinking out of the platy bowl is it's own art btw. You have to pinch and curl a side, but it works and works well. Extremely well.
3) my new wood stove weighs exactly 2.15oz.
I have not given it a pet name yet, but I like to simply desribe it as a "glorified titanium burn barrel ...with special enhanced air ports."
Mostly I stole the idea from Trail Designs and their Tri Tri Inferno. But made it straight sided so it would roll up around my pot/bottle. I then made it a little bigger so it would burn hotter and more consistently without a screen in the bottom. Finally I ditched all the silly gassification junk because I'm an anti-complexity wh*re. Soot is soot. Wether it's a little or a lot it's still soot. Deal with it... for example by making the stove wrap around the pot.
So, it's 2.15 oz. Single piece, no titanium stakes or anything needed, but I'm thinking I might trim it down to 1.9oz or so, not because it weighs to much, but just because I have to much excess material.
The taller narrower pots sit right down inside it on or in amongst the flameables. No pot stand is necessary.
Works well with my evernew 700 and my tall/ narrow Venom energy drink pots.
BTW... twisted metal twine handles rule. Most effective and light handle ever.
About the size. It's huge. 8" across, by 8" high but it rolls up tiny since it's flat sided.
it can be abused like crazy if I want to use it as a mini campfire. Heat has no effect on titanium. Indeed I can set a 10 lb log on it and burn it straight through. I can also fit up to 4" diameter chunks of wood in it for prolonged burns. I can take it down as well with a few titanium stakes if I intend to abuse it.
It can boil 2 cups water in 2 minutes flat (once it gets going, it is wood after all), indeed with a little practice I think I could top that. Obviously this has to do with the fact that the flame is all around the pot.
It is an excellent source of light and heat with up to 2-3 foot flames.
It's efficient. It can burn for hours on a single 3-6 foot branch (and all it's accompanying sub branches). Wood naturally keeps the mosquitos and other bugs away.
With pot, lid and pot grabber it weighs 4.48 oz.
And the only reason I'm using a 2.33 ounce Venom pot is it keeps melting my lighter weight Full Throttle can pots so I had to switch to something heavier. Oh... and the entire thing fits in a standard water bottle cage, and can function as a standard water bottle... which is great for having the morning coffee on the road. Though admittedly it does not hold enough water for meaningful consumption... at least not by my standards. I like to use the platy 1L water bladders for drinking water.
Anyway, cannot wait to show you all. I think I have broken through a weight barrier that even the UL backpackers would respect. Will upload some pics and maybe a video later.
For my next act (after I upload some pictures) I'm working on a titanium frying surface to go on top of it. I think it's big enough and can produce even enough heat that a shallow sided, rollable titanium pan weighing in a tenth or two tenths of an ounce would actually fry things evenly... if not crudely. The plan is be able to fry up things like packets of spam, tuna, whitefish and well... anything else I can find. Since I've never carried a frying or grilling surface before I've never really explored the possibilities. Admitedly this idea is crude... I got the idea from aluminum foil. I often carry some with, but I don't really care for disposable things like ziplocks and foil. It's hard to replenish them on the road.
