Mitigating the Damage: My Strategy for CDT Consumption (TRAILS Series, Part 4)

Welcome back to the TRAILS series, where I am documenting my preparation for the 2026 Continental Divide Trail step by step:

• training
• Rexterior planning
• TOAppropriate equipment
• Consumption
• llogistics
• Yessecurity

Today’s post is in me for Consumption. It’s not simply about what foods to buy; Arguably hiking’s most fundamental logistical problem: How can you sustainably fuel a machine that burns 5,000 to 7,000 calories a day, every day, for five months? The dietary requirements of long-distance hiking are immense and the goal is to reduce the rate at which my body burns out.

The physiology of chronic caloric deficit

The numbers are against you. It’s almost impossible to carry enough healthy food to replace 6,000 calories a day without your backpack weighing 50 pounds. This inevitably leads to a calorie deficit down the road. While that is the fundamental principle of any useless diet, down the road it is a different matter. When the body runs out of external fuel reserves, it enters a catabolic state, where it begins to cannibalize muscle tissue for energy. Long-term nutritional deficiency doesn’t just mean losing weight; can lead to a compromised immune system and brain fog (“hiker brain”). Worse yet, there is a skyrocketing risk of injury. Stress fractures and tendinitis, as we discussed in the «T» segment, are often caused not by the walking itself, but by the body’s fundamental inability to repair microtrauma due to a lack of sufficient protein and calories. Managing this systemic deterioration is the primary job of a successful hiker.

The Supply Chain Problem: Trail Town Food Deserts

Ideally, you’ll fuel this effort with complex carbohydrates, lean proteins, and fresh vegetables (hopefully). The reality of the trail makes this virtually impossible. The CDT passes through some of the most remote cities in the United States, places where the local general store (if it exists) is often just a convenience store at a gas station.

These places stock food for drivers, not endurance athletes. You will find chips, chocolate bars and jerky. Ramen, if you’re lucky: high sodium, high sugar, but low nutritional value. It is incredibly difficult to get sufficient and adequate nutrition because supply chain logistics simply do not reach these areas. Unless you are willing to go the hiker’s pack route, you will be forced to construct a diet from what is available, often resulting in a reliance on semi-«junk food» trail just to meet the necessary caloric bases.

The trade-off between weight and nutrition

This situation leads us to the brutal balance: weight versus nutrition. Fresh foods are heavy because they contain water. To keep the weight of my backpack manageable and protect my knees, it is essential to prioritize calorie density. The gold standard is 125 calories per ounce or approximately 4000 calories per kg. The lack of availability of the food offering that spoils us in supermarkets, combined with the need for high-density foods, is not a trivial issue. Most hikers consciously trade nutritional integrity for energy density. Therefore, my strategy is cyclical: along the way, I survive on a high-fat, high-calorie diet, accompanied by the occasional luxury food I find in the city. When I arrive at a refueling stop, I treat it as a “refeed” phase, intensely consuming fresh vegetables, fruits, and high-quality protein to replenish my micronutrient stores before returning. At least that’s the plan. Let’s see if it survives contact with the enemy 😉

Water: The sanitation imperative

Food keeps you going, but water keeps you alive. Water replenishment poses immediate and dangerous challenges, especially in more arid regions like the New Mexico desert and the Great Wyomin Basin. Long transports of water are needed here, sometimes up to 7 liters. Carrying this weight adds significant weight to my pack, increasing calorie burn and risk of injury.

Added to this is the problem of water quality. In livestock areas, springs are often stagnant and shared with livestock, making them a breeding ground for fun species like Giardia and E. coli. Effective water sanitation is crucial. While boiling works, chemical treatments or a reliable filtration system are the much more effective and widely used methods when dealing with water sources of questionable nature.

Food Logistics: Replenishment Strategy

My general philosophy will be to resupply along the way as much as possible because, for me, it’s part of experiencing the region I’m traveling through. Stopping and chatting in local shops and eating regional food is an important part of the experience for me.

However, mail-in replenishment shipments are necessary in some areas and convenient in others, as they can save you a trip to the city, which in rural areas can mean saving you a day. Many towns along the CDT are remote places where the local grocery store doesn’t exist or simply doesn’t sell the specialized, high-calorie foods a hiker needs. Therefore, in the most extreme refueling stops, such as Pie Town, Ghost Ranch, Lima, Leadore and Doc Campbells I’ll have my kind friends send boxes full of curated food from MS, a state known for its culinary tradition of high-calorie food. This ensures that on the most physically demanding stretches, I have the best fuel possible, rather than relying on the gas station lottery.

Intake is a complex balancing act between physiology, logistics and weight control. It’s all about mitigating trail damage by keeping the engine running. In fact, there is a very well done video on the subject. If you are interested in learning more, I suggest https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nx7H5Qpbyn8

In the next post, we move on to the lyrics. l: Logistics. We’ll discuss everything from postal schedules to urban transportation and how to manage the inevitable urban vortex.

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