Dehydrating Thanksgiving Dinner for a 140-Mile Trail Hike

Gila Wilderness Trek Preparation

• 🌲 The duo is preparing for an 8-day, 140-mile hike in the Gila Wilderness of New Mexico, coinciding with Thanksgiving.
• 🏞️ The route follows the Gila River, involving an estimated 100-200 river crossings, and features wildlife like Gila monsters, elk, bears, and wolves.
• 🗺️ This hike is an alternate route on the Continental Divide Trail (CDT), a 3,000-mile trail they previously hiked in 2021.

Crafting a Trail-Ready Thanksgiving Feast

• 🦃 The main challenge is dehydrating or freeze-drying a full Thanksgiving dinner, including a plant-based turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potato pie, cranberry sauce, and gravy.
• 🍎 Ingredients like tomato sauce, beans, mushrooms, peppers, and corn are dehydrated separately for versatility in meal preparation.
• 🥧 Specific dishes include homemade cranberry sauce (dehydrated into a "cranberry leather"), apple crisp, and sweet potato pie made from a "secret recipe" found on a can.
• 🍲 Gravy is made from scratch using plant-based ingredients and then freeze-dried into cubes for easy rehydration on the trail.

Gear and Food Logistics

• ⌚ Sunto Vertical 2 watches are highlighted for their GPS tracking, long battery life (65 hours with GPS on), and built-in maps, crucial for navigation.
• 🥾 Special gear includes waterproof neoprene socks and hiking sandals (with Vibram Mega Grip soles) to manage the frequent river crossings.
• 📦 A resupply box is being mailed to Doc Campbell's Post, a hiker-friendly location, to manage food for the 8-day trip.
• 🎒 Backpacks are packed with essentials, including clothing, sleeping bags, cooking gear, water filters, and electronics, with a focus on layering for variable desert weather.

Meal Assembly and Future Hikes

• 🍜 Over 23 additional meals (dinners, lunches, breakfasts) are prepped, including coconut cashew noodles, peanut butter pasta, chili mac, and granola, using a streamlined assembly line process.
• 🍫 Freeze-dried candy like Skittles, chocolate, and Swedish fish are included as trail treats.
• ⛰️ The team reflects on the extensive preparation, noting that prepping for a 4-month hike is logistically easier than a shorter, more complex trip like this one.
• 🎁 The video concludes with the resupply box being packed and labeled, ready for its journey to meet them on the trail.