All-you-can-eat (PCT Days 135-139)

The all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet at the Timberline Lodge is legendary on the trail… I’d started hearing about it at least a thousand miles before I got there, and now I was hungry… I’d been hungry for weeks… All-you-can-eat buffet… That’s every thru-hikers dream!

Wet and bedraggled, I finally made it to the Timberline Lodge… A warm, dry place with an all-you-can-eat buffet… What more could a weary traveler ask for!!

Pop quiz: What is the name of the artist and of the song that commingled with my dream of eating more calories and led to this song getting stuck in my head?

Calories, calories, calories
I need to get more
Calories, calories, calories
I need to get more calories
I need to eat more food
I want to eat whatever I like

You say milk, I say shake
You say French, I say fries
You say fast, I say hey man,
McDonald’s was never my scene
And I don’t like Starbucks

You say lo, I say mein
You say meat, give me a choice
You say beef, I say steak
I don’t believe in dieting
Fasting long or weightwatchers
All I want are

Calories, calories, calories
I need to get more
Calories, calories, calories
I need to get more calories
I need to eat more food
I want to eat more

Double-stuffed Oreos
are coming your way
So forget all your diets oh yeah
Blueberry pies will be baking today
We need more desserts oh yeah
On your marks, get set, eat

Calories, calories, calories
I need to get more
Calories, calories, calories
I need to get more calories
I need to eat more food
I want to eat whatever I like

You say coke, I say pop
You say pork, I say beans
Hot dog, I say cool whip man
I just wanna find a nice buffet
You say Mac, I say cheese
Caviar, I say please
Calorie count, I say Jesus
I don’t want to be a master chef
Don’t want to be Ramsey
or Emiril Lagasse
All I wanna do is eat

Calories, calories, calories
I wanna eat more
Calories, calories, calories

(For dinner I ordered every dessert on the menu!)

Backpacking Science and Privilege: Food

On long-distance backpacking trips we don’t take the same things for granted that we do at home and as a result we can gain some insights into our privilege and how it affects the way we hike our hikes, and pack our packs. In this series of three posts I’m going to talk about how science and privilege influence the way I pack my pack. Using science as my guide, I’m going to break the discussion into three parts (requirements for physiological homeostasis in the wilderness):

1. Food: Our ability to regulate blood sugar levels (glycoregulation).
2. Water: Our ability to regulate water and minerals (osmoregulation).
3. Shelter/Heat: Our ability to regulate body temperature (thermoregulation).