What I ate on the Cape Wrath Trail

Wayfayrers Vegan Breakfast in pot, coffee bag brewing in cup. Noodles packet from dinner the night before.

On long-distance walks I buy food along the way rather than send food parcels. There are a number of reasons for this – supporting communities along the way, curiosity as to what I’ll end up eating, reducing pre-walk chores. On some walks this has resulted in a peculiar diet at times!

Foods need to be lightweight and compact. I don’t take cans or jars. Food needs to survive being squashed in the pack too, sometimes for several days at a time. Soft easily squished food is a bad idea as is food that can go off quickly. I’m vegetarian, which cuts out quite a few items, and prefer organic wholefoods, though I wasn’t expecting to find many of them along the way.

I didn’t know what I’d find in small stores along Cape Wrath Trail. Only Ullapool had a supermarket and an outdoor shop that sold specialist backpacking meals. As it was, I was pleasantly surprised at what was available.

I started out with five days food so could take exactly what I wanted for this section. In fact when I reached my first supply point at Morvich I still had a fair amount of food left as I ate in cafes and restaurants on the first day and a half along the Caledonian Canal and the very hot weather meant I didn’t have much appetite anyway. That changed at Morvich. The weather turned cool, wet and windy. The cafes disappeared. My appetite rose.

At Morvich Kintail Crafts had a reasonable choice of suitable foods, though no instant soups. I was delighted and surprised to find Firepot dehydrated meals here. This was unexpected. The owner told me I had a previous CWT walker to thank who had suggested stocking them the year before.  I bought two packets of Posh Baked Beans, which were good for breakfast and dinner, and a Vegan Orzo Bolognese. I hadn’t tried either of them before. I really liked the beans – I’ll be buying them again. The Bolognese I found “a bit dull, needs more tomato or some chilli, but OK”.

From Morvich it was four and a half days to Kinlochewe where there’s a café and a couple of places that sell groceries. In the Village Store I had another pleasant surprise – Adventure Food dried meals. It was only two and a half days to Inverlael where I was meeting Tony Hobbs and going to Ullapool so I just bought the Pasta Al Funghi as I still had a meal I’d carried from Morvich.  It was the best dried meal of the walk.The Village Store also had my favourite Ainsley Harriott instant soups – I bought several packets – and various snack foods from Highland Wholefoods in Inverness.

At Inverlael Tony whisked me off to Lochinver, the nearest place with anywhere to stay (see this post for the story of the walk). I reckoned a week to the next grocery shop. Supplies for this were bought in the little Spar shop in Lochinver, where I was delighted to find Taylors Coffee Bags and more Ainsley Harriott soups, and Ullapool Outdoor which had Expedition Foods dried meals – I bought three - and  Wayfayrer Vegan Breakfasts, which I really like but which are quite heavy so I only bought one. As bad weather stopped the walk at Inchnadamph five days out from Inverlael I never ate the Expedition Foods Mediterranean Vegetable Pasta – I still don’t know what it’s like. The Macaroni and Cheese I found “quite tasty and filling” and the Scrambled Egg with Cheese & Caramelised Onion excellent for breakfast.

Of course food needs to be tasty and enjoyable. This differs from person to person. Below is what works for me.

Breakfast

My usual breakfast consisted of oatcakes with Primula Cheese Spread or Tartex Vegetarian Pate and coffee. Three times I had a hot breakfast – the Wayfayrer one, the Firepot beans, and the Expedition Foods Scrambled Egg – which made a nice change.

Day Snacks

On long walks I don’t have a lunch stop but a series of snacks whenever I feel hungry. Mostly these are a mix of bars – flapjack, fudge, tablet, dried fruit - and boiled sweets. Occasionally oatcakes and cheese. The only drink was water.

Dinner

The evening meal started with two packets of instant soup, restoring liquid and salt. The main meal was either one of the specialist dinners – cook in the bag and mostly healthy ingredients – or much cheaper supermarket meals like Idahoan Mash and Batchelors Super Noodles – cook in a pot and rather more in the way of not so healthy additives.

Overall I was happy with my food choices. It was tasty enough and kept me going, I was impressed with the specialist meals. The quality really has shot up in recent years.

 

 

Food & Resupply in the Colorado Rockies

A key to planning on a long walk is knowing where you can resupply with food and other items. How many places are there? Will you have to leave the route to reach them? How many days food needs to be carried between supply points? How much are you prepared to carry?

On my recent month-long Colorado Rockies walk there were several options for resupply but all bar one were quite a distance from the trail, necessitating hitch-hiking or long road walks. However, thanks to the support of Andrew Terrill I only had to leave the mountains once. Andrew invited me to stay with him for a couple of nights while I finalised planned and took me round grocery and outdoor stores in his home town Golden so I could buy supplies. He also generously offered to bring supplies for me half way through a long section so I didn't need to leave the trail or carry a really heavy load. This made a huge difference to my planning.

Sorting supplies at Andrew's.

In Golden I bought twelve days supplies, leaving half for Andrew to bring in twelve days time.

After the first six days walking I arrived in the tiny hamlet of Twin Lakes (population 23), where I had a day off. Here I bought food for the next section at the hiker friendly General Store.

Twin Lakes supplies

As always at a town stop I ate plenty of fresh food, dinners (and beer) at the Twin Lakes Inn and snacks at two roadside takeaways. I stayed at the Twin Lakes Roadhouse Lodge, which provided excellent muffins for breakfast.

Civilised dining in the Twin Lakes Inn - veggieburger and beer.

Six days after leaving Twin Lakes I arrived at the little pool just below the Continental Divide that Andrew had picked as looking a good camp spot. It was. It was superb. Andrew was already there and welcomed me with a can of ginger beer that had been cooling in the water. After a hot tough sweaty climb this was very welcome.

Andrew cooking dinner

I'd been expecting to be on dried rations for another six days. Andrew had other ideas. He'd brought up the ingredients for a delicious fresh meal - salad followed by butternut squash pasta with a fresh veg and soya pieces sauce. It was the best meal of the trip.

Mouth-watering!

It was then back on dried food until I reached my second town stop. This was the old mining town of Creede, where I'd enjoyed staying on my Continental Divide Trail hike in 1985. It didn't seemed to have changed much. Creede was ten miles from the trail and a long way down. I walked about half of that before someone gave me a lift.

Creede

I stayed in the same motel, the Snowshoe, which provided a good breakfast. Whether I ate in the same restaurants and cafes during the day I don't know, but they were excellent back then and excellent now. I did buy stove fuel and some backpacking food in San Juan Sports, as I'd done on my first visit. The rest of my supplies came from a couple of grocery stores.

Nine days supplies

In Creede I had to make a decision. I reckoned I was nine days from the end of the walk. Did I want to carry that much food? There was one road crossing where I could hitch-hike to another town about half way. Staying in the mountains was appealing though. I decided to carry all the food. Heaving my heavy pack on my back after a ride to the trailhead I wondered if that was wise. It was too late to change my mind. Thunderstorms would distract me from the weight the next few days. And when I reached Wolf Creek Pass at the end of the walk with no food left and after a minimal breakfast I wondered why I hadn't carried more. Happily Igloo Ed was there to meet me - it's good having friends like this - and I was soon having a veggie burger down in South Fork.