Just J.Faye

Hiking & Other Adventures

Food & Water on the Superior Hiking Trail

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I received a few questions about what Michael and I did for food and water on the Superior Hiking Trail, so I decided to do a quick post about it.

Water

Michael and I, for the most part, each carried only two liters of water at time. I carried two Smartwater or Lifewtr bottles, while Michael carried two Powerade or Gatorade bottles. All bottles are about one liter. The tall, slim bottles worked better in my backpack, while the opposite worked better in Michael’s.

We each carried the Sawyer Squeeze filter and one 2-liter pouch. It’s fast, light, reliable, and easy to use. Most of the hikers that we met along the trail were using Sawyer as well.

We would drink our two liters as we needed them throughout the day and filter water when we were getting low and came across a good water source. Typically we would filter water once in the afternoon and then again at camp – most Superior Hiking Trail campsites were placed next to a water source. In the northern sections of the trail the water sources were primarily beaver ponds and low streams. The sources got better as we hiked south and as we continued to get more rain.

Our first day we had to filter water at a beaver pond. Michael filled up the pouches while trying to avoid the scum and leaches. The water was pretty brown and tasted like dirt. Thank you Sawyer for being a great system and not giving us giardia!

We would add things like nuun tablets, mio, or crystal light to enhance the flavor a bit. I usually carried a liter of plain water and a liter of flavored water. The nuun with electrolytes were great to have, but once we ran out of our initial supply we couldn’t find them anywhere in the towns we went through.

One tip: Cut off the bottom of a Powerade bottle and keep it in your pack to use as a scoop. Sometime filling up the pouches can be difficult, especially when you’re at a small stream with a trickle of water. Scooping can also help you avoid getting sediment and dirt in the pouch, which can clog the filter.

I have this weird fear of running out of water, so I always, always leave about one-third of a liter of water in my bottle until we sit down to filter more. You just never know what is going to happen!

Overall, we always had enough water throughout the day on trail. There were some days where we had to fill up at sources we didn’t want to (AKA, beaver pond) or slow down our drinking until we got to the next source, but we never ran the risk of dehydration.

Food

As you can imagine, food is a pretty big deal on the trail.

We started the trail with a bunch of leftover dehydrated meals that we had gathered over the summer. Here’s what our initial food supply looked like:

A little fancy.

Once we had to start re-supplying in towns we were limited to what we could buy. We were stopping in smaller towns, so sometimes our only re-supply option was a Holiday Stationstore (a convenience store/gas station) or a small market. Then our food changed a little bit.

A little less fancy, but not bad!

I typically tend to carry more food than I need to. Like with water, I’m scared of running out and don’t mind carrying the extra weight.

For each day of hiking I would plan for a breakfast, a dinner, and three bars, plus a bag of trail mix (or something similar) to snack on across multiple days.

If I had 3 days between re-supplies I would need 3 breakfasts, 3 dinners, 9 bars, and 1 bag of trail mix; however, I would usually throw in an extra couple of bars and another bag of trail mix/nuts/jerky just so my food supply didn’t get too low.

Here’s what a day of eating on the Superior Hiking Trail may look like:

  • 8:00 am: breakfast consisting of 2 or 3 instant oatmeal packets with instant coffee – both usually made with cold water
  • 10:30 am: an EPIC meat bar and a KIND pressed bar
  • 12:30 pm: a protein cookie with a handful of trail mix
  • 2:30 pm: a Clif bar with a handful of trail mix
  • 4:00 pm: a packet of sour gummis, split with Michael
  • 7:00 pm: dinner consisting of ramen, usually 1.5 packet’s worth

As you can see I typically try to eat every 2 hours. Sometimes this depended on the section of the trail – the intensity, the weather, stuff like that.

Some days I felt suuuper hungry and other days I barely had an appetite (during which I’d force myself to eat plenty of snacks anyways), but Michael and I both always had enough food.

Then we’d get into a town and have a beer and a feast!

Food and water is different for everyone on the trail. The above is what I did for this trail, my strategy for the next one may be a bit different. We shall see!

Reach out if you have any questions!

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