PCT 2007 – Trader Joe’s instant Miso Soup may have saved my life…

Ok, maybe that’s a little bit of an overstatement, but looking back, the soup, some oranges and oatmeal carried me for four days. As I described in my Cutthroat to Glacier post, I pushed  it a little too hard and wound up suffering from over-exertion. On the morning of Day Three, I discovered that this manifested itself in my being unable to keep down tea or any form of solid food. I did manage a little runny oatmeal and could suck on some orange slices, but otherwise, whatever I put in had a residence time of only a few seconds – not enough to extract any energy.

All the goodness you can ask for in a cup of instant soup...

Fortunately, the ever thoughtful Fabian had stocked up on Trader Joe’s instant miso soup.  I tried a package for lunch that day, and not only could I stomach the broth, I enjoyed it, and I could keep down the cubes of tofu and pieces of kelp.  As you can see from the nutrition data, this soup covers all the food groups, and in particular has a high protein content in those cubes! So began my four day restricted diet – Runny oatmeal for breakfast, miso soup and oranges for lunch, and miso soup and oranges for supper.  I tried eating trail mix, but couldn’t swallow more than 1 peanut every five minutes. I also made an effort for our traditional dinner of pasta, marinara sauce and landjaegers on the fourth night- Fabian had lugged a 16 oz can for the occasion – but I couldn’t eat more than a spoonful.  Not until we ended our trip at Manning Park could I keep down any solid food.

I would not recommend this as a weight loss approach – though I definitely came out a few pounds down from my starting weight . My net caloric intake per day – probably 1000. My hiking burn, probably 3000 calories per day (6 hrs – 500 per hour), combined with regular metabolism left me in a pretty big deficit. Although they didn’t say much along the way, I am guessing that Fabian and Ken had at least fleeting thoughts of how they might have to drag their heavier companion out of the wilderness.

While I probably would have made it out regardless, the soup played a primary role in keeping me going.  Since that trip, I usually won’t even go on a day hike without stopping at my local Trader Joe’s, conveniently located nearby on my favorite roadway –  Roosevelt Ave.  Each time I prepare lunch out on the trail, boiling some water in my little titanium pot and emptying in a pouch, I think of the last 45 miles of the PCT and relay the story of how Miso Soup may have saved my life…

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