23 August 2006 - Ruminations on Food

I have been thinking about food for the last 500 miles or so.

I am eating out some, cooking things (spaghetti, dry soups, etc.) and eating lots of trail mix, raisins, Tac's chocolate chip cookies, peanut M&Ms, jerky. I generally stop about once an hour and throw 2-3 handfuls of food into my mouth and then ride on. I am drinking between 300 and 400 ounces of water per day on a day of 60 miles or more. I haven't been sick to my stomach yet.

The Corps of Discovery ate bears (meat and fat), elk, deer, antelope, dogs, fish, whale blubber, roots and various plants. Occasionally they ate "portable soup" which I assume is kindof like my soups only probably not as tasty. They avoided eating it until they were starving to death in the Bitterroot Mountains. I think it was in Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose where I read that the Corps of Discovery ate about 8000 calories per day. They would kill 2 elk and cook and consume all of it and then move on. They were frequently sick, especially after eating roots and plants, and I wonder if they were just being exposed to a new set of microbes to which their bodies had not adjusted. It seems like they were less sick (or wrote about it less often) on the return trip.

While in Missoula, I read a newspaper story about wildland fire fighters and a guy who studies their nutrition. He said that fire fighters expend about 6000 calories per day so the estimate for the Corps of Discovery doesn't seem that far off. He also found that it was better to eat a lot of carbs and protein and less fat and to eat fewer small meals than 3 larger meals. I guess I am feeding myself correctly.

Interestingly, Lewis and Clark were on the Columbia River on their return trip when the salmon runs were starting up. The Nez Perce Indians were then catching baskets full of salmon and they offered the fish to Lewis and Clark but they did not want any. Instead, they traded kettles for dogs which they then killed and ate. In one account of Lewis', he relates the evening that a Nez Perce made fun of him for eating a perfectly good and useful dog while there was so much salmon to be had. He took great offence to this and threatened to shoot anyone who made fun of him again. I have to say that I side with the Nez Perce. Lewis and Clark were on the Columbia River during a pre-European invasion salmon run before they were overfished and dammed to the point that there are fairly severe fishing restrictions in the headwaters of the Columbia Watershed (the Lochsa and selway watersheds). Salmon could be smoked and packed. It now sells for, what, $8.00 per pound. And Lewis and Clark passed on salmon!!