welcome back to dehydration stations— my series on experimental hiking meals (a little detour from my usual baking adventures in penny’s kitchen!).
not interested in this series? you can unsubscribe from just dehydration stations by following the steps here. and don’t worry! the baking updates continue as normal on penny’s kitchen
i’m freshly back from three days, two nights solo hiking and camping on the central coast of NSW
i spent three days in bouddi national park and half a day in kuring-gai chase national park
i wanted a coastal hike, with swimming beaches, wildlife, and phone reception for safety the entire time (as i was solo!)
my hike didn’t quite go to plan, so i thought it would be interesting to go through the planning and execution of this trip
the plan
day one:
bus to palm beach wharf
ferry to wagstaffe wharf
hike around box head and along to putty beach
camp for the night at putty beach campground
this would be about 11km with 400m each ascent and descent
day two:
hike out from putty beach campsite along the bouddi coastal walk to little beach campsite
return via mount bouddi
camp for the night at tallow beach campsite
this was the big day: 24km and 950m ascent and descent
day three:
hike out from tallow beach campground back to wagstaffe wharf
ferry to kurring-gai chase via palm beach
set up camp at the basin campground
explore kurring-gai park and hike to mackerel beach and hungry beach
total for the day: 3km and 120m (to the wharf) plus 14km and 500m (in kurring-gai) makes 17km and 620m gain and loss
day four:
slow morning at camp
catch the first ferry back to palm beach
bus home
essentially no mileage this day, and home for lunch!
summary
i used the pandolf equation to estimate the caloric burn from each day’s hiking to help me plan my nutrition requirements
those calories are the additional metabolic cost of walking with a pack, on top of my normal energy requirements needed to live
i knew i’d leave after breakfast on day one, and be home by lunch on day four - so i needed essentially three full days supplies plus the hiking calories above
this comes out to about 7,500 calories required
packing
i knew from previous trips that my pack is too small to fit both the tent and cooking gear so elected to go stoveless on this trip to save space and weight
the weather forecast was for blue skies, no rain, and high UV
i also knew there might be cafes along the way that i could stop in and get meals (and hot coffees!) at but i didn’t want to rely entirely on them being open when i needed!
i went for an adaption of my hardcore solo hiker’s menu with overnight protein oats for breakfast, peanut butter wraps for meals, and a mix of sweet and salty snacks through the day
this provided a total 7,900 calories (50% carbs, 16% protein, 34% fat) and weighed 1.9kg (without packaging weight) for a caloric density of 4.1 cal/g, not bad!
here’s how it looked laid out
for cooking equipment i only had to bring a jar and spoon for the overnight oats - even the peanut butter was in a squeezy tube!
the total weight of my pack was 9kg - and almost half of this was food and water!
the reality
day one
it was hot hot hot by the time i got to wagstaffe
i explored the area behind the wharf, did a little bush-bashing, then elected to cut day one short by skipping the leg out to box head on exposed fire trails and instead headed directly to the kiosk at killcare beach for a cool, crisp salad sandwich and a relax in the shade to avoid the heat of the day
i eventually summoned the strength for the 1.6km soft sand crossing to putty beach, my home for the night
i had a swim, doodled around, resisted the urge to bbq my peanut butter & pretzel wrap, and was tucked in bed by 8pm
day two
broke camp by 6:30am and was on the bouddi coastal walk headed to little beach before the heat of the day
much of the way was fire roads in full sun so i elected to cut off the side trips again and stuck to the coastal route for some breeze
i made it back to putty beach by lunch and spent the middle of the day alternately swimming and hiding in the shade
there was a final 4km of fire trail to get up and over before i could hit camp at tallow beach for the night
i parked my tent in the last sliver of shade and headed down to explore tallow beach & little tallow beach
day three
up with the birds for a phenomenal sunrise at 5am
i was feeling surprisingly perky, so completed the section out to box head that i’d skipped on day one, before heading to the wagstaffe post office / general store / cafe for a coffee and natter with the locals
a quick ferry ride later, and a banh mi stock up in palm beach, and i arrived in the basin campground in kuring-gai chase national park
i set up my tent, to the fascination of the local wallaby population, and headed out to explore a new national park
my planning failed me here - the walk out of camp was a relentlessly steep concrete road, that eventually turned into gravel fire trail, then walking along the shoulder of a fast bitumen road with no shade, no breeze, and no views
i turned around and stomped back to camp early, having only made it 10km
while i’d been away, an entire primary school had moved into the campground with their palatial coleman tents and were busy unloading trolleys of pillows, airbeds, and sausages from the ferry - not quite the serene nature experience i’d been after
i made a quick decision to bail on my final night and head home on the last ferry with no regrets
in total i did slightly less distance than planned, mostly due to the trails (especially at kuring-gai) being far more exposed to the sun that i had expected
i ate most of what i’d packed, minus the day four breakfast and snacks (due to heading home earlier than planned)
what went well
the salty pretzels and salt & vinegar fava beans were just what i wanted on a hot day after sweating buckets
peanut butter pretzel wraps are excellent
bouddi national park was a delight
room for improvement
i came home with 4 serves of peanut butter left - so i had been under-eating my pb serves while on the trail
i craved savoury, sour, spicy flavours after a few days
i ate more cafe food than expected, and could have carried less food around if i’d known!
banana chips are not good in overnight oats
i was far hungrier than my previous maths would have predicted
i’m currently working on an update to my forecasting models to account for the extra energy of setting up camp, exploring beaches. stay tuned for more soon
see you out there,
penny 🥾✨