Food Plan

Many people have asked what Santiago eats on the trail.  It should not surprise anyone who knows him that he has researched this topic very thoroughly!  He’s determined he needs to maximize calories per food item while minimizing the weight he has to carry, for carrying 4-5 days of food gets pretty heavy!  His current food plan is to snack on bars, nuts, and cheese & salami packages I send to him — he typically eats five (5) of these “snacks” from the time he wakes up until the time he rolls into his camp for the night.  Once he’s at his campsite, he boils water to prepare his freeze-dried packaged dinner.  After careful analysis, Mountain House was the clear winner for dinners for their ease of prep, good taste, maximum calories per serving, and minimal garbage, and there are a good variety of flavors including Beef Stroganoff, Chicken Teriyaki, Spaghetti with Meat Sauce, Rice & Chicken, Beef Stew, and many others.  The photo depicts a typical food cache I send him when he arrives in a trail town.