On the Trail: Enough for Me and You?

. What is it about the planning of hiking and camping menus that brings out the "duh!" in people? The following stories are all true. But first a lousy poem I composed just for this occasion:

The hiker takes the stew:

Enough for me and you.
How about the other guys?
What are we to do?

He should have planned for eight.
For shopping it's too late.
We're miles and miles from anywhere

To make up his mistake!

Story 1: A threesome goes out for a full day of horseriding on country tracks and trails. The host, and owner of the horses, says that she'll pack some food for everybody. It might seem that riding horse is a no-energy pastime. But just ask the horse people and they will enlighten

you. When lunchtime rolled around the hungry riders turned to the host who handed them each a tiny pack of Oreo cookies, and showed them the "bags of potato chips for later" (which the other riders noticed were the teeny-weeny kindergarten size.) All arrived back at the host's house starving, but squelched their annoyance because they were nonetheless grateful for the opportunity for an otherwise pleasant bucolic trip.

Story 2: At the Grand Canyon a couple planned to go down to the Colorado River and back up the next day. One suggested to the other "Let's save the weight of food and a stove. We'll only bring water bottles, OK?" On certain backcountry trips like that a Ranger sometimes questions the hikers on their gear and may even asks to inspect their pack in order to give advice or warnings to greenhorns. Since the couple looked like they knew what they're doing he merely asked a couple of questions about gear and then said "You have enough food and water for the two days, right?" Needless to say the two liars came back up the following day thirsty, starving and exhausted.

Story 3: A seven-day trip in the wild and remote Canadian Northwest. The planning for different needs -- permits, maps, gear, fuel, food, etc was distributed among the half dozen trekkers. Everything went well until the fourth day when someone had a look at the food bags. "I thought you packed food for 7 days. It does not look like enough," said the astonished backpacker. I swear that the food person's response given is true and verified by the others: "I was planning that we could fast on one of the days." She is known to have survived the trip, but as they say, if looks could kill...

Story 4: My barber, always a reliable source of information and anecdotes about human nature told me about the following trek. Four of his nephews undertook a four-day hike in the willy-wacks (as we call wilderness in Maine sometimes). On the morning of the second day it was noticed that no one had brought breakfast food. Upon further

investigation it was found that, in fact, only two had thought to bring any food, and it was not enough to nourish four grown men for the rest of the trip. "We thought everybody would bring some," one of them said. Did it ever occur to them to check with each other on something so important before they left?

Solutions. First, all participants in a group hike, and even solo hikers should give recognition to the importance of food to provide energy for strenuous activity. Second if responsibility for amassing the food is given to one person he or she should plot out a menu for three daily meals, plus morning and afternoon snacks. This should then be reviewed by all right away to correct for food preferences, allergies, dietary restrictions, whatever. After this quantities should be determined for the portions for each person at each meal.

. The next posting will cover suggested foods honoring both nutrition and the need for variety and how to calculate food quantities for backpacking.