Fried Chicken... Fried Chicken... Fried Chicken...

Mile 465 to 626
June 2
Pearisburg

I hear about a hiker who was trotting into town chanting "Fried chicken fried chicken fried chicken fried chicken..." I have adopted this mantra and repeated it as I descended from Angel's Rest to Pearisburg, an elevation drop of nearly 1500 feet.

We eat to live. Hikers eat twice as much to live. Some say that hikers need up to 6000 calories a day to maintain weight. I think that figure may be slightly inflated, but we definitely need a lot. And the more dense the better. Not many hikers can subsist on typical food. It is far too heavy! We need fat. Lots of it. Dehydrated stuff, no water weight.

Without enough calories, a hiker may just wither and fade. So here is a list of various calorie dense heavy things that I eat:
Nuts, salted, raw, roasted, flavored... Granola, dried fruit (not much), crackers, chips, pretzels, dehydrated rice, beans, couscous, lentils...

I try to keep the calorie density above 1600 calories per pound. Some very high calorie foods are shredded coconut, 3000 calories per pound, peanut butter, 2800 calories per pound, and corn chips, 2500 calories per pound. So when you are going out for a weekend or a summer, look at the packages and do the math. More density means less total food weight.

However! One must endeavor to eat high quality food. Dinners with their complex carbohydrates do a lot to give a hiker much needed energy. Foods high in protein will do much to repair muscle damage. Low quality stuff such as food high in sugar is fairly worthless. Sugar does not pack a sustained wallop. It will give bursts of energy, but not enough to keep oneself moving up a 4000 foot peak. In addition, it is low in density! There is a five percent difference in calories between natural peanut butter and sugar added peanut butter. Sugar added Peanut butter has less weight from fat (9 calories per gram) and more calories from sugar (4 calories per gram.)

Of course, Fresh stuff can do a lot for hikers' morale. I have packed out fresh fruit. I feel rejuvenated by the fresh enzymes and nutrients.

And in town... It is important to eat proper healing foods. Upon our entry into Pearisburg this morning, the hiker with whom I have been traveling and myself, split 32 ounces of plain yogurt, two pounds of berries, and a box of mostly natural granola. In the words of another hiker I met once, "That's power food right there."