Some trail “towns” are, let’s face it, disappointing. Despite the guidebook telling you there is NOTHING there, you can’t help but hope for the last 30 miles into town that perhaps that isn’t up to date and, indeed, there is a newly built pizza place or pie shop at which you can gorge yourself. Or, maybe you sent yourself a resupply box, but it is 2:05pm on a Saturday and the post office closed at 2. Do you wait until Monday, stealth camped in the dugout of the town baseball field? Or, do you suck it up and hitch to that convenience store down the road and get enough to get you 3 days closer to a real meal?
When I hiked the PCT, I decided that I would send myself as few food boxes as possible, and I was very happy with that decision. Not only did I notice that other hikers became dissatisfied with the type and amount of food that they sent themselves, but it seemed that their hike was highly dependent on an entity out of their hands–the US Postal Service. By the time I got a couple hundred miles in, I had figured out, and resigned myself to the fact, that I could survive on junk food.
I’m not trying to convince you that you need to eat junk all of the time, but you should know that if a convenience store is all you have, you could do worse! Nowadays, when I see there is a convenience store near the trail, instead of cringing, I embrace it. There are actually a lot of options if you open your mind a bit. When else other than thru hiking will you be able to eat this kind of crap?
WARNING: If you are new to thru hiking, the rest may be disturbing.
First, hit up the ice cream. I actually don’t love ice cream as much as some of my fellow hikers, but I recognize the draw here. Many convenience stores have a pretty good selection of bars and novelties. This may be your first stop, and it may help you calm the stomach so that you don’t over-resupply on gummies alone.
Breakfasts
Aside from the obvious bar options, breakfasts are pretty plentiful in convenience stores. I’ll buy a few of the cereal cups and pour them into a ziplock. Powdered coffee creamer from the coffee area works pretty good as a milk substitute. You can just add it straight to the bag of cereal to save on packaging.
Pop Tarts are decent too, and they usually have the single packs at convenience stores.
Pastries, fruit pies, and muffins another obvious ones, with lots of calories!
But, you can also carry out those frozen breakfast burritos or the breakfast sandwiches with the pre-cooked meat on them. They thaw out nicely in the pack in about half a day (depending on temps) and are not terrible when eaten cold. Just don’t let them sit in your pack for more than about a day.
Snacks
Snacks are pretty obvious and plentiful in convenience stores. Some of my favorite hiking partners don’t actually do meals of any kind, they just eat various different snack foods all day. Not for me, but it works for some. And, if you are out of fuel, unless you use an alcohol stove and buy yourself some HEET, you may need to choose no-cook options for this section anyway.
Lunches
I will often carry out some ready-to-eat food for lunch (or dinner) from the hot food area. Pizza, wings, burritos, and hot dogs keep okay in the pack for a day.
Crackers, meat (pepperoni, salami, bologna, even ham), and cheese keep pretty good for up to 2-3 days (unless you are in the desert).
If you can find tortillas or bagels, score! Do a tortilla with a little can of bean dip (shown above) and a piece of cheese (shown below). Or, a bagel or tortilla with a tuna foil pouch, a packet of mayo, and a packet of relish!
Often, the best you can find is a box of Triscuits or Ritz. No problem! They work good with tuna too. Or cheese, peanut butter, salami, or cream cheese (they often sell the little packets). If you don’t like your crackers mangled into dust, store them in your cook pot.
Dinners
Any of the things mentioned previously will work for dinners. Convenience stores also usually have ramen, mac and cheese, instant mashed potatoes, or instant rice. If you get something really plain, peruse the condiments over by the hot dogs and nachos. Frozen burritos are one of my favorites (eaten thawed). The frozen burgers (don’t forget to grab some condiment packets) are also decent thawed and eaten cold. Or, if they only sell microwavable pizzas, you can usually use their microwave and heat one up before you leave.
Considerations
1. Weight
Many of these suggestions are not the lightest. You will want to eat the heaviest first, which is often also the things that go bad the quickest.
2. Food safety
I have my Bachelor’s in Public Health. You would think that would make me more cautious, but it actually made me realize just how much I can get away with out on the trail. All of these processed foods have such high nitrates, sodium, and other preservatives–and they are packaged so well–that they keep much longer than you would think (temperature-dependent). Cheese may melt and get greasy and cream cheese may separate and look curdled. The manufacturer wants to have their product look appealing, so their shelf life and refrigeration requirements are very conservative.
That being said, don’t completely disregard food safety standards. Eat deli meat and thawed burritos within a day, if possible, especially on hot days. And, bury perishable items in the middle of your pack to insulate them. Preservatives can only keep food “good” for so long!
Also, make sure if you buy frozen or fresh items that all of the ingredients are pre-cooked. I once bought a chicken cordon blue, thinking I could thaw and eat it cold. But, the chicken was raw.
3. Packaging
I always have a few extra zippered bags on hand for repackaging food during my resupply. They stay pretty clean when they just have bread products or pastas in them.
4. Cost
This can also be a costly way to re-supply, but it is still often cheaper than a mailed box.
5. Cooking
If you are short on fuel, and you can’t get any that works with your stove in this “town”, you can still soak most of the pastas, instant potatoes, or instant rice in cold water for a while to rehydrate it. It takes anywhere from 0 minutes (instant mashed potatoes), to 10 minutes (ramen), to over an hour (mac n’ cheese). But it will rehydrate!
Example
Here is an example of one day’s worth of food that I would probably get at a convenience store:
- General Mills XL Golden Grahams Treats Bar (250 cal)
- Entenmann’s Little Bites Blueberry Mini Muffins (130 cal per bag)
- Pringles Sour Cream and Onion Potato Crisps (150 cal per oz., 6 servings)
- Blue Diamond Wasabi and Soy Sauce Almonds (170 cal per oz., 6 servings)
- Ritz Crackers (140 cal/oz.)–put in Pringles container when it is empty
- Tilla-moos Colby Jack Snack Cheeses (120 cal/oz.)
- Pre-Sliced Salami (~110 cal/oz.)
- Tropical Skittles (250 cal)
- Don Miguel Bomb Burrito w/ Hot Sauce Packet (960 cal)
The Hiking Tree Blog 
This is excellent — thank you. I plan to do a resupply-along-the-way strategy. What town locations do you think it is imperative to send a resupply box to?
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Thank you, L-Rod! When are you thru hiking? I think you will find that strategy to give you the most freedom. Obviously, there are places you will need to send yourself socks, shoes, new ground sheets, etc. But, as far as food, there are very few places that you truly *need* to send food (assuming you are inquiring about the PCT). Also, this is assuming that you are also making town choices that maximize a buy-as-you-go strategy. There is also the risk of a store being bought out it you are in the pack. However, if you wanted to do as few as possible, here are my thoughts.
California: IMO, you could resupply without a box in all of California. But, you’ve done the Sierra, some of those stores can be rough. Red’s Meadow and MTR are helpful. And, you are probably already sending something to Kennedy Meadows, so you could supplement there.
Oregon: I’ve done OR both sending boxes to the resorts, and without sending boxes. If you are thru hiking, at this point, you are making big miles and it is easy enough to not rely on them. Instead of Shelter Cove, I think I would hitch down to the town of Crescent Lake Junction. It’s ~7 miles down from Wilamette Pass. I drove through there this summer and the store is great. Plus, there is a restaurant/bar and a hotel. You may also want to send a box to Timberline, although you can hitch off Mt. Hood down to Government Camp (or even Hood River).
Washington: Stehekin
Those, in my opinion are the minimum. I have a feeling others would argue…
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Lol, wow. I could never eat this way on trail; crap food makes my GI tract react badly, and diarrhea makes me dehydrated.
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Me too…at home. On the trail, after about 3-4 weeks, my body takes whatever it gets. I don’t get diarrhea, nor do I have food allergies!
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I understand the convenience part, and agree that it’s certainly easier to buy food as you go along. But as a nutritionist, I respectfully disagree with this strategy and would never recommend it. Your body needs nutrient dense food more than ever when you are putting it through so much. Food is fuel, food is life. It’s worth putting a little more effort into what goes into your body and making a plan, even if it is inconvenient at times.
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Thanks for comment. It is definitely possible to do healthy if it is your priority. And, sending mail drops all the way up the trail has its convenience in some ways too!
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I understand that a thru hiker’s body has high nutritional demand. However, I think it is important to keep in mind TheHikingTree is not suggesting eating exclusively from convenient stores for months on end. Also, given the thru hiker appetite, I think the inherent deficiencies within convenient store foods are alleviated somewhat by the sheer quantity a hiker will eat each day, at least enough that a three day stint will cause no harm. Likewise, I don’t think the poisons within the food will cause any damage to an active person over such a short period. While physical health is vital on a long hike, so is mental health and morale. I resupply using convenient stores on thru hikes, when nothing else is available, because I abhor the stress of meeting a box on schedule and I want the flexibility to eat what strikes my mood. I concede the limitation on flexibility of what is available for sale, but I am not happy eating what I mailed months ago. Resupplying at convenient stores can be an important tool facilitating success on many of my hikes because it keeps my morale higher than the alternatives in certain situations. I’ve also noticed that convenience stores in areas without a comprehensive grocer will often stock more options, even fruit. TheHikingTree, thank you for pointing out the many options provided by these stores, for those of us willing to drink the kool-aid.
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