andrewclaus

Yeah, don't skimp on food costs and don't settle for "relatively" healthy.

My stoveless travel style has worked for me for the Triple Crown of hiking trails, and it's worked for bike touring as well, including a Northern Tier ride. It makes life on the road or trail simpler, and makes dry camps much easier. I'm a lousy camp chef, and the fewer chores the better. It also frees up pack space. My old bike touring kitchen took up an entire front pannier. Now, with other simplifications, I don't need front panniers any more, a significant change. I tend to carry more fresh fruit and veg so the weight savings sometimes get cancelled, but I'm eating better than the packaged crap I used to carry. And when I don't need to carry much food, when markets and cafes abound, the weight savings do matter.

GhostRider62

With or without a stove, it takes some logistics and thinking. Wisdom to Kosskia westward is only about 300 miles but it goes over two decent passes, Chief Joseph and Lolo. Gorgeous area. Fortunately or unfortunately, these passes separate long stretches of limited services. Going east bound, Kooskia to Lolo Pass only had the campground at the base of Lolo, it had a pretty well stocked store. IIRC, this was 80 miles. I am pretty fast, so, this was just a morning but this could be more than a day for others. Carrying some a days food might be a good idea.

Lander to Rawlins is another long stretch. Maybe 100 or 120 miles IIRC. Do not miss the gas station mini mart in Muddy Gap as you make the right, it is right at the intersection. There is also water at the rest stop. But that is it for services.

Tourist in MSN

On the topic of Ramen, it has been years since I had a Ramen meal as a stand alone meal. When two of us rode Pacific Coast, we had a lot of one pot suppers and we usually threw in a brick of Ramen as an additional calorie booster to whatever else was in the pot, it works great for that. And a gal I know would put a brick of Ramen in a jar in the morning with some cold water when she was camping, then by lunchtime it was hydrated for lunch.


I always am on the lookout for a good restaurant when touring, and if it is a short distance from where I plan to stop for the night, that is even better because I can ride pretty slow for a couple hours after a really big meal.


My two solo foreign trips, both of which went through areas that I would call a food desert. Both of those trips involved riding for over a week with no grocery stores or restaurants.

The photo below was at the first restaurant that I saw for over a week and a half. Near the ocean so seafood was the specialty. When in seafood areas, my go to meal is usually fish and chips.



It was great.

staehpj1

Missing Jerry Johnson Camp where we stayed wouldn't be missing much if it is still the same, but I hope you took time to hit the Jerry Johnson Hot Springs. Definitely worth the side hike if the river is at a level that suits a dip the springs.

The ride along the Lochsha was really beautiful btw. I think it was 77 miles of climbing going east bound, but very pleasant climbing.

mev

It can be a matter of personal preference and I am someone who has gone without a stove and instead use a mix of cafes and no-cook alternatives.

I learned some of this on a long remote trip up the Dempster Highway in the Yukon Territory. It was 231 miles and three days cycling on mostly gravel roads before I came to the first point of civilization - the Eagle Plains motel. I had plenty of food with me - including no-cook and found the mosquitoes sometimes made it rather obnoxious to be outside my tent cooking - so I mostly ate the non-cook stuff including stopped during the day.

I figured if I can go three days without needing to cook as much - I can also plan shorter gaps. For those, I'll have a mix of staples e.g. crackers, pita, peanut butter, nuts, avocados, apples, etc - and then augment with a cafe meal when I come across them. Every once in a while you might get a place that is temporary closed or unexpected so have some margin for that too. However, then there are also large parts of the country where I can have a more common pattern of (a) get up early and leave motel/camp for an hour or two before breakfast (b) go mid-morning and stop somewhere for lunch (c) plan my ending of the day. Not everywhere but I've been able to make it work for me including some places that are more remote than the TransAmerica route.

I did however, bring a stove for the Dalton Highway in Alaska and in that case weight of stove, basic pot was a fair amount less than weight of food I needed to carry.

mev

Also Jeffrey City with the Split Rock Cafe about half-way between Lander and Rawlins.

GhostRider62

It was closed when I was there.

I got food at the campground and Inn just before Lolo. Loshska Lodge IIRC. I cannot recall the miles, I went from Grangeville to Hamilton that day. Just a pretty long stretch the only place open for food was that Lodge before the pass.

indyfabz

That's the thing. The guy and his companion were not in that sort of environment, had not been for at least a few days, and were not going for at least several more days. In fact, I am not certain the case of Ramen even had a dent in it.

Tourist in MSN

This example is not on your route, but to emphasize that sometimes there are long distances between food stops, this was the first grocery store I saw in close to a week. It was a momentous enough occasion to warrant a photo.



This is on the north end of Cape Breton Island.

staehpj1

We ate there. I recall the food being good. I think I had a good bison burger.
Sounds like a long day. I think we were several days there. I know we did some short days around there.

pdlamb

My memory of the TransAm is like most of the previous posters', there was usually a diner somewhere along the day's ride. The two of us refilled the gas can twice, IIRC, and either had no-cook lunches, oatmeal + Poptarts + cocoa for breakfast, and freeze-dried dinners most of the way.

But there was one stretch in Kansas where we hadn't seen anything green to eat for a week, and so we went to the grocery store. I think we got at least one of every fresh vegetable they had, threw it all in a pot, with some noodles and cheese. That "hippy pasta" turned out to be one of the best meals we had the whole trip!

indyfabz

On July 3, 2000, I ate lunch at the Split Rock while staying at the J.C. Motel during a tour from Seattle to Cortez, CO. Later that evening I went back for a beer and ended up talking to a one-legged woman about antelope hunting and the history of town. It was incorporated in the 50s as a base for uranium miners. Still standing were Army barrack-type buildings to house workers. One of them was for single men. A couple of guys were complaining how hard it was to get an elk tag.

At the time there was also a small gas station that had a bare minimum of stuff. IIRC, I bought a can of chili and added it to some pasta I cooked at the Lions Club park across the street. There were three westbound Dutch tourists camping there. They told me how bad the KOA in Rawlins was. Next to I-80 and no shade. The best thing I could find for breakfast were blueberry flavored wafer cookies. I would be surprised if the store still there.

I think there used to be a cafe around Muddy Gap called Grandma's or something like that. She would let you camp there.

BTW...The J.C. Motel has reopened as something called the Green Mountain Hotel. I remember reading a post from someone who stayed at the original motel shortly before it closed. The first room he was given had mushrooms growing out of the carpet.

jamawani 

You are never far away from peanut butter and jelly.

Tourist in MSN

When you are doing multi-week or multi-month trips, nutrition issues do get a bit complicated. These references are oriented towards long distance hiking, not cycling, but are still largely applicable.
https://www.msrgear.com/blog/nutriti...food-for-fuel/
https://www.msrgear.com/blog/9019/

And this one I think is pretty good to review too.
https://www.roadbikerider.com/energy...e-intensities/

You probably will run a calorie deficit, but a key thing would be to make sure that your deficit is not too severe if you are doing a multi-month trip. One pound of body fat is about 3,500 calories, so if you lose a pound of body fat each week, that is about a 500 calorie deficit per day.

I think the younger you are, the more your body can tolerate imbalanced nutrition. If you are an older rider, you probably have to be more careful to make sure you are getting enough protein, vitamins, etc.

Have a great trip.

HendersonD

Thanks for the great resources. I am in my early 60s and do watch what I eat. I hope to do the same on my 3 month ride

staehpj1

Nope! I will be 71 in June. I feel a lot older than I did in my early 60s. These last few years have felt like decades.

Tourist in MSN

And (again), one more quick note.

Most physical trainers will tell you that protein soon after exercise is important for muscle recovery and building muscle mass. When I got back from my Iceland tour which was my first long solo foreign tour I had some weird physical issues, one of which was protein deficiency. Since then I try to have a protein bar after I am done riding every day. I mention this because protein is not important for energy or fuel, thus it is rarely mentioned or discussed when the diet is focused on getting enough calories.

And one day two years ago I went on an exercise ride, 60 some miles, and badly bonked. I had done this route many times before and since, knew how much hydration and calories I needed, but that time I ran out of energy. Later I concluded it must have been lack of electrolytes. Since then I always have some salty snack food in case I have a reoccurrence.

Have a great trip.


I think these past few years of a pandemic have felt like decades for all of us. I am only three years behind you.

indyfabz

I managed to put on fat pounds during my W-E Northern Tier tour when I was 34. We hit the mountains of Washington early on. Once we got to Curt Bank, MT, things began to ease up. I think my metabolism slowing down combined with less taxing days but still eating like I was riding in the mountains took it's toll. Another thing I think was a factor is that when the weather got really, really hot (we had days in the upper 90s to 100+ in IA, IL and IN) we ate more prepared, cold foods. I am another tour participant got motel rooms more frequently mean eating in restaurants more. Both my jerseys and shorts began to feel tight. I started to cut down in the portions and bad stuff. Once we hot the mountains of NY and New England, the weight started to come off.

After the tour ended in Bar Harbor, ME, I started riding south to home. I did not have cooking gear for that leg of the journey. Didn't like having to depend on either restaurants or grocery stores with prepared foods. My body runs best long-term on carbs. I remember having to settle for some piss-poor spaghetti at a Friendly's in Freeport, ME. Still, I was able to shed more pounds. I remember one afternoon in a NH campground realizing that I was having a bit of difficulty keeping my off-bike shorts up.

HendersonD

That is why I am headed out on the Transamerica now, I am not getting any younger and finally have the time now that I am retired. Best of luck to you, keep on pedaling

staehpj1

I did the TA at 56 as my first tour. I still felt like a kid. These days I start to worry how many years I have left to tour. It could be quite a few, but at this point I am less confident. I hope to ride the 50th anniversary of bikecentennial, but who knows what lies ahead. I could be in great shape then with 10 years of touring still ahead of me or I might be done.

The pandemic combined with other issues has kept me home lately. I plan to do some kind of trip this summer, but it may be a hike or a tour. Also I am not sure how ambitious it will be. I really need to get out though.

KC8QVO

I'm late to the discussion here, but in reply to the OP's conundrum of taking a cooking set or not - I, for one, can not imagine going "out" without a cook set.

Of course, I do not pack light - that isn't my style. Though, I realize that is a popular aspect of human powered traveling - whether that is long distance backpacking or cycling or what ever.

From the perspective of keeping myself comfortable while "out" - food and drinks are very important to me and to keep that going comfortably I need a stove.

The above having been said - I have had problems getting fuel on-tour. As luck would have it, a fellow adventurer (hiked the AT) brought me 3 canisters after yaking with me as I was getting going in the morning one day, the day I was going to hit town to resupply with fuel. You couldn't get canisters at that time where I was, for what ever reason. Those 3 canisters got me home - and I made it home a couple days quicker than I anticipated thanks to the weather.

I carry both a white gas stove and a canister stove. I know a lot of people would really frown upon this - but I cook in my tent. That becomes a necessity when the weather is poor. And the weather, for the majority of my last trip, was poor - so I was cooking in the tent about 80-90% of the time. I will only use the canister stove in the tent, never the white gas. Hence the issue with running out of canister fuel - that would have really hurt the trip. I like being self-supported to where I don't have to rely on other resources, but no canister fuel might have resulted in a "call a friend" to bring me some from somewhere that had it - which would have tied them up for a day getting the fuel and traveling. So for the "trail magic" canisters - I am very grateful for the fellow adventurer for dropping them off.

The above story also brings up a good point - I think something that is neat about our views on traveling and adventuring is we understand, at least a lot closer, to what others doing similar things are going through. On part of that trip (the first half of it) I ran in to some guys that were rollerskating down the route I was cycle touring. I ran in to them at a trail head shelter. I stealth-camped the night before, got up, and got rolling right about the time it was starting to get light out. I might have gone a couple miles or so when I got to the shelter and by then the sun was up. I decided that was a good spot for breakfast. These two guys were slung in hammocks up under the shelter roof between the rafters. My rattling around woke them up. When they got up and we talked a bit I got to hear what they were up to.

If you can imagine this - these guys were rollerskating for a few back-to-back days down a trail network in cool weather. Nights were below freezing and days were in the 40's or so. They didn't have any cold weather gear and they didn't have any cooking gear. All they had to eat were snack bars and some water.

They got up out of their hammocks colder than I could imagine. In fact, I felt pretty guilty able to sit there warm in my layers, eating a hot breakfast, and drinking some hot coffee. So I made them a pot of coffee to split between the two of them. They sure appreciated it! Both it being hot and the caffeine jolt to start their morning with a bit more of a bang.

That happened the 1st half of the trip, the guy that brought me the 3 canisters was on the 1st part of the 2nd half of the trip. Maybe the canisters were my "thank you" for giving the guys the hot coffee that morning a couple weeks before.

A couple closing points -
- I think a cook set is a necessity
- Keep your "adventurer" spirit and enter the world of adventuring with a free and caring mind. You might run in to a scenario where you can make someone else's adventure shine in an otherwise dark time, and that might work in your favor also and come back to help you if you're in a jam.

Some of the best memories I have of adventuring (cycling and backpacking) relate in some way to the latter point.

imi

^^^ good stories, and good points 👍

alan s 

I often pick up a can of soup at a convenience store if that’s all I can find. Easy to prepare with one pot and burner, and quite satisfying as an evening meal. Way cheaper and more convenient than eating out. Usually plan for lunch at a restaurant if there is one on my route.

GhostRider62

A 110 gram butane canister weighs about 200 grams, an Evernew Ti pot less than 100 grams, and an MSR little stove is around 75 grams. Throw a big wooden spoon and a small kit of spices, dehydrated coffee, teas leaves, and it is under a pound.

garryg

Cycltouring without a stove is a proven way to lose 85 per cent of the joy in your morning camp!