Originally Posted by
phughes
I get what you are saying, but I have planned week long trips on the bike as well, and as long as there are stores on your route, it isn't really difficult to "just eat." I will have to add though, that my last tour posed some difficulties in that regard, since many days I went without seeing any stores, or restaurants from the time I left came, to when I was near my next camp.
My comment though wan't addressed at you, it was addressed at the overly complex analysis of food using charts. Offering up information as you have done in this thread is very useful, and appreciated.
I think this thread is very valuable, but I still find the over-analyzing of food using charts or spreadsheets to be a bit overkill.
My last tour, I knew in advance that there would be about a week where I was in a food desert. But I think it was on day five or six when I found a grocery store that was not on any of my maps. Pleasant surprise.
When the sign says no fuel for your car for 205 km, you can pretty much bet that you will go a lot further than that before you find a well stocked grocery store.
Maybe my problem is that I love wilderness too much.
I agree that it is possible to over-think this stuff, thus I prefer to just put together my meal plan and then after that check calories and protein, then add in where I had shortages.
One trip when I got home, I had some physical issues, my Dr looked at the lab tests and bluntly said you need more protein. That was when I learned the hard way that I need to do more calculations, prior to that I never ran the numbers for protein.
And I have diabetes, have to eat a low carb diet. A lot of people can stop at a convenience store and buy a bunch of carbs and live off of that just fine for a week long trip. That would be a severe problem for me. That is why I can't do ACA trips, last ACA trip it took me two weeks after I got home to get my blood sugar under control. I average about 30 percent of my calories are from carbs, the standard USA diet is 45 to 65 percent of calories from carbs. Thus, my diet is a bit out of the norm.