Hello, fellow vegans. Not going to get too into my personal veganism here since I'll be discussing these on the board later anyway...

I'm nearing my 1 year mark since turning vegan (mid May). I've recently been divorced in December so I'm currently trying to completely overhaul my entire life so I'm playing around with so many things and pursuing many new things. Chiefly my bucket list...

I currently have a bucket list with over 10k miles worth of hiking just in USA alone. I'm also wanting to bike from coast to coast AND to also walk from coast to coast.

While I do all of that, I'm also trying to develop two skills (photography and making iOS apps) on the side to hopefully make enough income to live comfortably. I'm rather extremely minimalist already right now and Would only have a single medium box plus a bike in storage when I go hiking this summer.

My dream retirement is to basically live in a large van and travel the country in it. I'm even working on saving up for a small hatchback (Like a tiny 1984 Toyota FX16 Hatchback (first car I really owned, love that thing)) to live out of at first to help with my finances.

I work at a school at the moment so I'll be able to have all major holidays plus summer off and paid for. So I'm using this summer to hike my first big section of the Appalachian Trail. Which is actually why I'm here on the board, I'm in a need for more practice, recipes, and the like for vegan meals on a hike.

I did mention that I'm deaf. This present some difficulties when it comes to meeting up with other people, including other vegans. Especially since I'm in Montana which is pretty much a vegan desert (just look in the Montana subform here, last post was like 2 or 3 years ago!).

Being deaf also means that I have not been exposed to much cooking experience growing up. So even something as basic as eating a kiwi, I'm very unsure of how to do that. I'm also working on developing my taste for vegetables and fruits from scratch. So please bear with me if I ask some crazy simple question or anything like that. I'll google and try to figure it out myself first.

Anyway, I'm glad to be here! Hope to enjoy the board!

Welcome aboard, Lostear!

Hi welcome. When I go hiking I tend to take sandwiches with something, say avocado and tomato, which I slice up at lunch time, together with some snacks like nuts and crips. You don't have to put much thought on it when it's a day hike. I went on a 3-day trip once but there were plenty of places to stop and buy food, we were on the bus for most of it. I met some vegans and they had a little camping gas stove and they bought pasta and soy meat and things like that, and they had these little homemade cakes and biscuits they favoured me with when I made friends with them and they found out I was veg also.

On the trail, do you have to carry food for a week or two at a time? Or can you easily just step a mile or two off the trail and hit a store? I read Bryson's book and I seem to recall him doing that at least once or twice.

To be safe, I would frequently carry about 4-5 days worth of foods. And as mentioned above, I knows very little about many aspects of foods in general. One of them is how long can a food unrefrigerated last. So that's the big part of why I'm needing to find vegan trail foods ideas to help familiarize myself some more.

Bryson's book aren't actually very good of a reflection of the trail itself (it's more about Bryson than anything else related to the AT). That said, there are town stops that can be made every few days. I'm specifically trying to avoid doing that as much as possible simply due to the fact that town stops seem to be the #1 expense for most hikers on the trail.

I like the idea of cooking pasta but that sounds like it would take a lot of fuel to cook. I've heard of cold soaking so I'm researching that at the moment to see if that's a feasible method to save on fuel expenses when preparing certain meals like quinoa, pasta, and more.

I do a 2-day hike on a mountain and I considered making it a 3-day hike. However, I realise that going to 3 days would have made it quite a bit trickier from a food and water standpoint - I would have needed a bigger bag for starters. I'm not sure what the longest time between water is on the trail - just googled it and it looks like the trail's not too bad for water.

My Dad also had hiking a big section of the Appalachian trail on his bucket list. He did it right after he retired. I never saw him happier than when I picked him up at the end of his adventure. It was a wonderful experience in every way. Good luck!

Hello and welcome to VB Lostear!

Your story sounds very interesting and I love your idea with the van

Welcome Losttear,

You sound wonderful!

I just joined today. I hope you’ll be back soon and we can eventually connect. I’m a 2 year old vegan and learning everyday. Or at least I like to think so!

Warmest,

Nancy

Here are some things I would take:

Sachets of olives
Sachets of dried couscous (you can rehydrate with boiling water)
Pitta bread or wraps
Instant oatmeal (just pour boiling water on)
Trail mix (dried fruits and nuts) for snacking while walking
Instant coffee
Dried bananas, apricots, dates
Sachets of instant soup (check labels of course, rehydrated with boiling water)

I often eat couscous vegan and olives (And I love rice with "pois chiches"), I love bananas.
I love aubergines also.

hi!
my country is also vegan desert =)
pleased to meet you!

I'm 2 years old vegan - life is beautiful, new colors have appeared in everything))

Welcome Lostear C:

Great options! Would also recommend peanut butter!
Knew a guy who did the whole AT off peanut butter and fritos.