RE: [Philmont]: Inedible Trail Food???

 F rom: Bailey, Jerry D
> To learn about trail and/or hiking food - what one suggest to buy
> from REI, or other sporting/camping good stores to get started in
> these types of foods? I see it hanging up on the shelves but there
> is differ brands and entrees - I don't mind spending money - but I
> hate to waste it. Any recommendations for Name brand, name of
> foods, good, bad, etc, Thanks for sharing your experience!
> YIS: Jerry D Bailey

The problem we had from trying to duplicate the Philmont trail food
from the posted menus is that very few of the items listed are either
descriptive enough to know what it meant (including package sizes)
or, if it is, not readily available here in So. Cal.

We looked at where a lot of those foods were from on their
packaging and noted that many came from mid-western packagers.
Some, like the Hooah bars (good) have NO equivalents available around
here. Some, like "canned ham" could not be figured out until we saw what
Philmont was actually using because they don't give sizes or type (our
best guess on that one in training was SPAM - dead wrong).

We were unable to locate "pilot biscuits" here, though having now
seen them we can get their equivalent by several different names.

The list goes on. Our bottom line was we were often 180 degrees off on
what the actual items were when we tried to use the meals as listed
in training. Very few of the items were the equivalent to off the shelf
backpackers foods (a couple of richmoor products that don't appear
to have local equivalents sold, even under different packaging, as an
example). So, going to REI is not going to prepare you.

If you've traveled cross-country, you know there are regional suppliers of
things
and there are national suppliers. Where Philmont used a national supplier
(such as harvest bars and rice crispy treats), it is relatively easy. Where
Philmont used a local supplied (the majority of their items, it would
appear),
finding the equivalent is challenging. In retrospect, we should have
ordered
left over philmeals to use in our training hikes.

So, bottom line, if you haven't been, or didn't pay much attention, your
chances of picking the right stuff may be challenging. It sure was for us.

Regards
Don Roberts
2005 808-K

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Received on Tue Aug 23 18:37:00 2005