What does a hungry person look like?

"What does a hungry person look like and how can I look like that person?" So began one of our many conversations about food with fellow thru-hikers.  This question was asked by HotSauce while he was hiking through the Shenandoahs.  While we sat around in Duncannon eating pounds of BBQ and potato salad he began to recount to us how hungry he was in the Shenandoah national park and how horrible it was to see all these car tourists parading around with uneaten food sitting at their picnic tables or in their car windows.  As he was staring through a car window to a rather large woman's chili dog he asked himself that question.  "what does a hungry person look like and how can I look like that person?" 

Food is a major topic of conversation.   Dinner time rolls around and as people cook up their meals we always ask  them what's on the menu.  Having talked to countless other thru hikers about their daily diets I feel that when people ask me "what do you eat?" I can confidently say "Anything and everything." 
Let me give you an example of some of the various culinary creations.
One hiker always carries a bag of crumbled Doritos. He sprinkles them on everything he eats.  We thought this was so genius that we started doing the same thing-only we've been using sour cream and onion potato chips.

During our first few weeks on the trail we ended up at a shelter with Hawk who introduced us to the joy of the Ramen Bomb.  A package of Ramen Noodles and a package of Instant Potatoes.  BAM!  Delicious!  But don't stop there. Those are just the key ingredients. We've been known to add in cheese, onion, crackers, cheezits,  mayo, mustard, soysauce, hot sauce or chips.  And don't think less of us, but if we had all those things at one time-all would probably go into the pot.   We recently heard the suggestion of adding a package of powdered gravy to the mix.  GENIUS!

Rayo, our hiker friend from back at the beginning, would eat a daily breakfast of oatmeal and brownie mix.  

I watched a hiker eat an entire jar of peanut butter-IN ONE SITTING.

While at the Goose Pond shelter were pancakes are included with a stay I ordered a modest 3 pancakes while a fellow hiker ordered (and ate) seven.

Lots of people carry hunks of cheese and a sausage stick to eat for lunch or supplement dinner.

Our friend Chicken Feathers introduced me to the delicious snack of Nilla Wafers and Peanut butter and I personally love peanut butter and peanut M&Ms. 

Once, and don't judge me, I was so hungry that I ate pepperoni and peanut butter. I made a little cracker sandwich out of them. 
I attached a picture of a wrap we made with Buffalo flavored Deviled Chicken, Mayo, relish, chopped onions, cheese and cool ranch Doritos.  MM!

But normally our food isn't so crazy.  We prepared a lot of our food before hand and Jamie's dad mails it out to us.  We packed up 6000 calories a day of breakfast, lunch and snacks.  Lots of trail mix,  nuts, tuna and crackers, and various recipes of dehydrated meals we  found on Trailcooking.com.   I put in a picture of that too.  

Oh. and coffee.  Stick coffee every day.

Well, when we came into town we stopped at the Hardee's to eat breakfast and after 2 country fried steak biscuit sandwiches and a Hardee's Breakfast platter each, it's just about time for us to be getting hungry again.   We're off to the All-You-Can-Eat Chinese buffet for lunch!