Staying Healthy on the Trail: Part 1, Multivitamins

If you're a thruhiker or are at least familiar with thruhikers, you know what the vast majority of them eat. I'm talking a diet of peanut butter, tortillas, hamburgers, french fries, soda, ramen, spam, canned tuna, potato chips, etc. You name it, if it has calories and doesn't weigh diddly squat (or is at least somewhat shelf stable and portable), thruhikers are eating it. All of this food contains ginormous amounts of "empty calories".

Calorie: a unit of measurement, which, measures energy.

Empty calories: calories (macronutrients: fat, carbohydrates, and protein) with little or no micronutrients. Micronutrients being vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, electrolytes, etc.

Hikers need a lot of calories since they expend so much energy. Unfortunately, products containing empty calories often weigh and cost less, making them perfect hiking food. But are they really perfect hiking food?

All of those ramen peanut butter tortilla sandwiches? Well, they're not helping you much. You see, hiking twenty miles a day is pretty demanding and requires that one eats an adequate amount of macronutrients (energy) in order to replenish (and fuel) the body for the next day. However, hiking twenty miles a day also demands a lot of micronutrients, thruhikers (much like the average consumer) are just less aware of this demand.

Enter the multivitamin. Multivitamins are small, near weightless pills of concentrated micronutrients. Sounds pretty space age when you put it like that, huh? In any case, multivitamins weigh a negligible amount and offer up an entire day's worth of micronutrient goodness. When thruhiking, your food options are pretty limited, and unless you want to dehydrate six months worth of veggies before you start your thruhike, you might want to consider the multivitamin. But why are micronutrients so important? Let me break it down for you:

Routine exercise results in more micronutrient loss than a sedentary lifestyle. They're also lost through sweat, especially in the case of electrolytes. Lets face it, thruhikers are getting quite a bit more than just "routine exercise". And sweat? Thruhikers are covered in a constant glaze of the stuff. So it might be a good idea if the average thruhiker decided to up their micronutrient game.

NOT ALL MULTIVITAMINS ARE MADE THE SAME. Go ahead and read that last sentence twice, it's that important. I don't want to advocate for something that I don't entirely believe in, so let me elaborate on what you're looking for in a multivitamin, based on my experiences.

1) Minerals:

Minerals are important for a lot of reasons, some of which are repairing muscle tissue, bone growth and repair, and energy production. Minerals are incredibly important to athletes, especially considering that this micronutrient category includes electrolytes.

Electrolytes are chemicals that form ions in body fluids. They exist to help your body perform at optimal levels, and when you're low or out of balance in one, you'll experience cramping, dehydration, fatigue, or worse. Common electrolytes include potassium, sodium, calcium, and magnesium. One way to lose electrolytes is through sweat, and if you're a thruhiker (especially on the AT), chances are good that you'll be sweating A LOT.

Now, a multivitamin isn't necessary to get electrolytes. They're in our food and there's also products specifically designed for electrolyte replenishment (you know, Vega Sport and the like). But why take the chance?

2) Vitamins:

Vitamins control chemical reactions that convert food into energy and living tissue. Why is that important? Duh, this one should be a no brainer. The more efficiently your body metabolizes food, the more efficient a hiker you'll be, and the less food you'll have to eat!

Vitamins also help our immune system function correctly, which is also a no brainer. Staying healthy and avoiding illness should be high on any thruhiker's priority list. Trust me, you don't want to get sick out here, and if you do, you'll want to recover fast.

So get those micronutrients y'all!

Day 7: Top of Georgia

The rain is no longer my enemy. 

It's more like a close friend that you let move in... and it turns out that they're a really bad roommate. They're way too loud, stay up way too late, and leave their dirty dishes everywhere. But you can't tell them to move out, cause it would end your friendship, so you learn to deal.

We're at Top of Georgia Hostel currently, 'bout a half mile from Dick's Gap. In addition to their being not one, but two hostel dogs here (hell yeah!), they have a full sized kitchen! They also offer shuttles to and from the trail at several points, and shuttles to and from Hiawassee.

Located in Hiawassee is an Ingles, which is akin to Kroger or Safeway or Hannafords and offers much of the same selection, as well as organic and natural products. This store should be able to resupply anyone with any dietary restrictions.

Top of GA also boasts a small store for resupply and gear needs. They don't really offer much in the way of vegan food though. However, the nice lad in charge of ordering food inquired how they might better accommodate vegans and it seemed like he's legitimately interested in helping us out. He's an accomplished hiker and will be attempting the "Great Western Loop" next year. Wiki that stuff if you ain't be knowing what it is. It's crazy!

The store also has HMG packs (what me and Stevie are using and highly recommend) if you'd like to lighten your load...

The hostel was filled to the brim with hikers, and I'm pretty sure that the entire trail community took a zero that day. Also taking a zero was Doodlebug, another vegan thruhiker! (We out here, take notice y'all).

She offered me some B12 supplements (how vegan of her) and showed us how to play farkle, a dice game with an embarrassing name.

Afterwards, I ate some Amy's gluten free vegan mac 'n cheeze (that I picked up from Ingles) and was content.

Hiker hunger satiated.

Day 4: Mountain Crossings Kitty

Mountain Crossings. You are a precious baby angel. Laundry, shower, hostel, and a brief reprieve from walking through ankle deep mud.

Seriously, the dead-leaf-soaked mud trails feel and sound like stepping in a bowl of cereal that someone left out overnight. Yuck.

As I write this I'm sitting on a bunk with the insides of my backpack strung up just about everywhere in a desperate attempt to help things dry out. It's... sort of working? I hope?

At least I, myself, my body, is dry. I can't speak for my shoes or my Houdini, but my skin is no longer wet and wrinkled. 

I'm starting to think I've sent myself too much food. Oh well, looks like I'll be hella over eating for a few days.

In regards to vegan food to be found in Mountain Crossings... Well, there's some. They have some obvious things like clif bars and chips, but they also have a small selection of produce.

There's also some dehydrated vegan meals of the Alpine Aire and Good-to-Go varities.

And they have Near East Couscous and Thai Kitchens.

All in all, not a bad place to resupply for (non gluten free) vegans, but also not excellent. Be ready to spend a pretty penny on your food.

Edit: Don't know why the font is blue and can't change it... Also, this is a cat from Mountain Crossings:

Day 3: Eternal Rain

Wet. Everything is wet.

Creepy crawlies thrive in the rain. Hikers? Not so much.

We break down camp in the rain, we set up camp in the rain, we eat in the rain, we brush our teeth in the rain, we do everything... In the rain. It's literally impossible to not be totally soaked at this point.

The best part? The forecast predicts a whole week of rain to come... Jesus christ, Georgia. What is this, the book of Genesis? Seriously, I feel like I accidentally got caught in a forty day (and night) downpour meant to drown all the AT thruhikers in a never ending torrent of (unfiltered) water.

Walking into purgatory.

On a positive note, walking through the misty forests while green ferns shoot up through the ground makes me think I'm walking through Morrowind. High five to anyone who understands that reference. 

Blood Mountain, an ominous name for ominous weather.

Also, I figured out how to set up my tent/polycro so that I don't slide around all night. Looks like tonight will be a little bit more enjoyable.

Day 1: The Start

And so we begin.

On top of Springer with Sam. The nice weather didn't last long.

We threw out what little things remained at our apartment in Asheville and took off for the trailhead in Dean's car, listening to tapes of obscure goth metal bands while Dean and Sam looked for the best place to get boiled peanuts. Big thanks to both of you, we love you dearly.

Upon arrival at Springer Mountain's parking lot (let it be known that the seven mile dirt road up to this particular parking lot is scary as all get out and we almost died multiple times), we found that we had to backtrack 0.9 miles to the official terminus on top of Springer... So we did. Dean and Sam came along and when we got to the top, Dean heard a lady talking about Oklahoma, so just to irritate the bejesus out of us and force conversation, he loudly exclaimed something about me, Stevie, and Cheyanne being from Oklahoma, to which the stranger immediately asked, "Where in Oklahoma?!" I replied that I was from Norman, and turns out so was she... In fact, turns out I danced with her daughter when I was in the 3rd grade in front of the entire school to the "Copa Cabana". You know, the cheeseball song by Barry Manilow.

Wow, so embarrassing.

As of this moment I'm laying down in my newish Zpacks Hexamid on a polychro groundsheet, slowly sliding on my sleeping pad toward the bottom left corner. This is not a very fun way to spend the first night in my new tent, but hey, that's the price you pay for not testing it. Not so far away are the muffled voices of Cheyanne and Stevie, who periodically throw things at me just to make sure I'm not asleep yet. Further in the distance is the low roar of a water fall, Long Creek Falls to be exact. They're located about 150 steps off trail five miles in.

Waterfalls near out first camp site.

It's going to rain tonight. And then tomorrow. And then the next day. And the next day. And the next day. Or at least the forecast says so. But today was nice, so I'll dwell on that tomorrow when I'm wet and tired and starting to turn into a human sized prune. Or maybe tonight when I get hella wet cause I set up my tent in a whack spot that collects hella water. Only time will tell I guess.

Regardless, life is good.

It's feels so surreal that we're out here doing this, and I can't really wrap my mind around the fact that we're walking to Maine, but I think that will fade in time as I adapt to my life living in the woods.

Until next time,
Colton