Food

[naherzing]

I'm crossing Canada with one other this June and am starting to worry about food. Are protein and energy bars enough to get you through some days? Should we bring MRE's with us? Nuts, jerky, fruit? I'd love some tips and advice on the best food to carry with us to be successful in our 150km a day rides across Canada!

 

[doss]

I would avoid mres as they are heavy and can mess with your system if you are not used to eating them. I don't know about your lodging situation but if camping check out the backpacking foods as they are light high calorie and pretty good. No matter what you do figure out your menu and test it for a week when you are training hard and listen to what your body says about it and adjust as needed. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[naherzing]

Thank you so much for the advice! We are camping so camping food makes sense. I wasn't a fan of the MRE idea, so thanks for the heads up!

 

[doss]

Check out the backpacking lite forums for tons of food and even lightweight cheap stove ideas such as the Pepsi can stove so you can get fuel at any gas station (heet). Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[An old Guy]

Originally Posted by naherzing

I'm crossing Canada with one other this June and am starting to worry about food. Are protein and energy bars enough to get you through some days? Should we bring MRE's with us? Nuts, jerky, fruit?

I'd love some tips and advice on the best food to carry with us to be successful in our 150km a day rides across Canada!

150k is 6-7 hours of riding time. You have lots of time to stop and eat during the day. About 30-40 days of riding.

The most important issue about food is having food that you will eat even if that food will kill you. I used to carry a candybar in my jersey pocket. It would be there for months before I would need it. It was ugly looking, but I enjoyed eating it.

I would:

Carry some emergency food for emergencies. Something I could replenish or replace that food at stores on the ride.

Try to schedule my days to eat in towns or at gas stations. 30-50k before breakfast is ridable. 30-50k after dinner is ridable. Maybe 80k between a beakfast stop and a dinner stop.

Maybe after dinner buy food for a night time snack and a pre-breakfast snack. Some chips and a banana.

June is warm. If I needed to carry food because of distances between towns, I would pick up food that does not need cooking - can of beans, cheese (evaporative cooling is sufficient).

---

It is not like you need to carry food for the entire trip.