I vividly recall one of their dinners: Dried ramen noodle, straight from the bag.
They slept in their bags exposed, beneath a basic light tarp.
Raman noodles or tortillas or something like that are generally used as a carrier for those foods to keep you sane, but they aren't very good from a weight to calories standpoint. M&Ms are also common, as they are easy to eat and keep well.
Some people actually just drink cooking oil, but it's rarely worth the tiny bit of extra weight efficiency.
Is this really a thing? I've read quite a bit about thruhikers and have never encountered this. If you have any more details, mind sharing?
antarctic sled teams do this sometimes, because you're burning about 7,000 calories a day just staying warm.
Yes, but I have always heard of sticks of butter being used for this purpose - not cooking oil.
http://oakden.co.uk/kendal-mint-cake-recipe/
It's a slab of peppermint-flavoured sugar, doused in glucose syrup, covered in chocolate.
It's one of those things that you cannot possibly imagine yourself eating, until you're actually out on the hills after a long day (or several days) and you're cold and you're tired and then you've never eaten anything quite so delicious.
Yes we do.
I would just call it walking, or tabbing if it's at an aggressive pace. Old people seem to call it rambling, but that makes it sound a bit lazy I think.
OED, which I'd trust more than Wiktionary, says 'colloq. orig. dial. and U.S.' and gives US examples prior to the 20s.
Almost all American English words are originally of English origin, of course ;)
However, Google Ngrams shows that the term "hiking" was very rare prior to about 1920, and the large majority of 1920s sources are American. https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=hiking&year_st...
Compare hiking, hill walking, tramping, and rambling: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=hiking%2Chill+...
Tabbing tends to be a military term as far as I'm aware. I don't remember using the term hiking until recently.
The MilFit community have brought it into mainstream usage. I don't remember not using/hearing the term hiking.
That peanut butter has palm oil probably, but Nutella has it for sure.
Palm oil is very bad for your health, and it's very bad for the environment.
Peanut oil is one of the worst oils (arachidonic acid).
You're correct about palm oil production hurting the environment.
Not saying anything about its environmental impact, which I haven't researched, however.
Fun tidbit of the day: in the Marine Corps our long full pack hikes (~90lbs) were called "humps". In the old days they were death marches.
You make a porridge with oats, add few table spoons of sugar and so much oil that it looks more like soup than porridge.
100 ml oil contains 900 kcal. You can go all day with 3-4 oatmeals
As someone who is willing to tolerate utter dreck as long as it's In Spaaaaaaace, this made me smile. I think it's just the fact that the setting is so compelling and romantic for me, and I can ignore the flaws and enjoy the little redeeming value that is in there.
Most of the people I know who have problems with the movie are really in to hiking, and really liked the book. A fair number haven't watched the movie. I think if you just watch it without any expectations, it's a solid bit of entertainment about being outdoors. It's not the best movie, but it's a good movie to watch with someone.
A fun alternative is the unabridged audiobook, read by the author. Now that is great fun on a long drive!
Insect repellent and site selection (don't sleep next to lake) handle low bug pressure situations.
I don't worry about other critters where I hike in the PNW.
There are situations where a tent will be more comfortable: a tent provides protection from the wind absent natural barriers, a tent provides a refuge from biting insects, etc.
In many situations, the comfort provided by a tent is more mental than it is physical. The full enclosure of a tent provides comfort to people who worry about critters crawling over them in the night. Some people just feel more comfortable when fully enclosed.
All this said, it does take more expertise to sleep comfortably with a tarp. Site selection is more important. There are several ways to pitch a tarp and the best pitch to use depends on the situation. Tarps are more fiddly to pitch.
At the end of the day I never wanted to waste time boiling water/cooking food I just wanted to eat and sleep. I found myself eating cold even with a stove so I just dropped the stove.
I don't know anyone that has done it just to be hard-core.
True.
There is one interesting exception though: everyone I met who traveled (not hiked per se, but lived out of a backpack), had one "luxury item".
It was something that was absolutely not necessary, but they lugged it around with them anyway, because it made sense strictly for them.
One dude I met had a folding camping chair. (relatively) big, awkward, weighty. But around the campfire, everyone was sitting on rocks like cavemen -- except he was enthroned on his camping chair.
Before you ask: my luxury item was a discman (this dates me, I suppose :-) ), plus a few CDs. Really awkward. Susceptible to impact and moisture, requires batteries, etc etc. But I just love to get lost in rhythm and let it drive my thoughts while I'm out hiking or biking.
I'm embarrassed to admit how many times I've eaten that on hikes. For my next long hike I'm probably going to ditch my stove completely: it's not so much the weight, but personally the last thing I want to do after a day of hiking is cook.
"Sure, I could boil some water. Or I could just sprinkle seasoning on the top and eat it now..."
When there aren't any cool ranch Doritos left, what are you going to do?
Mamee noodles:
They're very popular in Australian schools - basically dried ramen noodles with a special seasoning you sprinkle on, and eat them dry.
(The product originally started in Melaka/Malacca, in Malaysia which is my father's hometown).
I had a few packets of ramen. I'd eat two packets for breakfast, but alredy an hour or so later I'd feel painfully hungry again.
I dreamed of huge, juicy steaks like you wouldn't believe.
After I returned to the world, I treated myself to the biggest steak the supermarket sold. DELICIOUS.
A poll of Facebook friends showed that EVERYONE in the northwest in my age group found it normal and common, and it was common in Hawaii and really all over the west coast -- but nationwide as well. I think the idea originated with families of Japanese origin.
I love hiking and but I also love cooking. Few years ago, while starting to shift into lighter base camp, I discovered how easy it is to make your own dehydrated meal. Nowadays when I hike, and especially on long multiple day hikes, I prepare myself a diverse food menu (i.e. Hummus, Pad Thai, vegetarian bolognese, curry, lentils with rice and the list goes on). I find that it keeps me motivated on the trail and full of anticipation for dinner rather than just eating to fight the trail hunger.
Moreover, the entire (long) process of cooking before heading out to the trail is for me a ceremony that fills me with anticipation.