Presidential Traverse
Food System


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Introduction
Gear Selection
The Cooking System
The Clothing System
The Sleeping System & Miscellaneous
The Route
The Whiteout Navigation Plan
The Escape Routes
Camping
Emergency Strategies

The food on a presidential traverse has to be lightweight, simple to cook, filling, tasty and provide you with enough calories to sustain you during strenuous physical activity. There are two types of food we use, food we need to cook and food that we do not need to cook. Breakfast and dinner can consist of both types of food but rely heavily on cooked food, lunch on the other hand consists of only food you do not need to cook.

Because we are cooking in the tent we do not want the water to boil for very long. The boiling water fills the tent with moisture to such an extent that it is impractical to simmer food. That means we need food that cooks simply by adding boiling water to it in a covered container. Once the water is boiled we mix it with the food in an appropriate sized Tupperware container to "cook". The largest cooked meal we eat is dinner, so let's start with that.

Dinner usually begins with a soup course. For that you can use Cup-o-Soup or if you want something with more bulk Ramen works great. We allow 2-3 packets of Cup-o-Soup or a package of Ramen per person. Next is the main course, prepackaged freeze-dried meals such as Mountain House or Backpackers Pantry seem to be the common, "just add boiling water" hiker meals these days. These meal packets vary in taste and are expensive, but more importantly they are pretty bulky. What we have been using is the meals in a cup you find in the natural food section of the grocery stores. They come from companies like Fantastic Foods, Nile and a few others. We package them up by dumping two of them out into a sandwich size Ziploc bag, then we add about a half a cup of Minute Rice. We also bring along a small can of chicken, tuna or ham to add to the food. We generally bring one can for every two people. After dinner we have teas, instant apple cider or hot chocolate. We also bring along a package of cookies, our favorite is the Pepperidge Farm Cookies but you will have to experiment on your own!

Breakfast is the next meal we cook. For breakfast the old standby is oatmeal supplemented with some kind of breakfast bar and coffee, tea or hot chocolate.

Lunch on the other hand consists of only ready to eat food. Lunch is by far the heaviest meal we carry and the most often over packed. It is important to have enough lunch food but too much will significantly add to pack weight. The best way to know how much you require for lunch is to monitor your intake carefully when you are on day trips. Remember you should be hungry when it comes time for dinner. It is always better to eat more dinner type food and less lunch type food. Not only will it be lighter, the full stomach at night will help keep you warmer at night as well. What you bring for lunch can vary. With all the food bars, candy bars and gorp available you can tailor your lunch to your taste. One hint though, make sure that your favorite energy bar can be chewed when it is frozen, because on the traverse it will be frozen!

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