<p>My ultra-light AT-section-hiking friends are foodies. Trust me, food is NOT where they choose to cut weight! For the JMT hike, they sent several bottles of wine up with the mule-packers & consumed it at the resupply point.</p>
<p>We’ve gotten tasty & inexpensive backpacking food at Trader Joes - the eggplant curry & boil-in-bag rice is a particular favorite. Our local grocery story also has boil-in-bag meals, such as Old El Paso steak, black bean & rice tortilla stuffers. The problem is that this food is heavier than traditional freeze-dried backpacking foods. But it also tastes better & is less expensive. S1 overdosed on tuna-in-a-pouch during the JMT hike. By the end when they hiked up & down Mt. Whitney, he was hallucinating about eating marmots. :eek: By contrast, the following year he hiked the Coast to Coast trail in England with our friends. They camped behind pubs every night, had a hot pub meal & 2 pints, then staggered back to their tents & slept soundly. Very civilized.</p>
<p>That reminds me - don’t forget to check on the recommended daily caloric intake while hiking. S1 found that he was not getting enough calories while hiking (hence his marmot hallucinations). He ended up losing 15 lbs in 2 weeks. (He is rail-thin & can’t really afford to lose weight. I, on the other hand, should take up long-distance hiking for that very purpose. 
)</p>