Sànbù

Take a hundred steps after a meal, and you'll live to be ninety-nine.

• Chinese Proverb

I learned the term sànbù from Chen. A sànbù is a Chinese cultural concept of going on a leisurely walk for health and leisure, often after a meal to aid digestion. A post-meal walk is not unique to Chinese culture, "I am too full, I need to take a walk" is a phrase I have often heard.

Thru-hiking completely flips the near universal idea of walking to digest on its head. When you are walking 20+ miles a day, you will find yourself digesting to walk. Pushing up a mountain with a fresh resupply of food and water is taxing, you have to get in a lot of calories to keep your body going. I often found myself forgetting to snack, especially early in my hike. Maximizing calories during a meal is important, but I've found it's hard to get enough food if you only eat three times a day, a constant drip of calories really helps fill in the gaps. What this means is finding snacks that you are happy to eat all day and are still palatable when you're hot and sweaty.

I actually found a lot of my go-to snacks when biking from Seoul to Busan with Andrew and Pepe — an event that requires a similar level of calorie input to make sure you don't bonk. My three pillars are peanut M&Ms, Haribo gummy bears and Sour Patch Kids. They are quick carbs for your body to process and not too dry so I can eat them even in the desert heat. I have also added dried mango and beef jerky to my snacking repertoire, though they are a bit less evergreen than the other options, especially the jerky, and require switching out after a bit.

Big Bear was a resupply gold mine; not only are there two proper grocery stores (a Vons and a Stater Bros), there is also a Grocery Outlet. Grocery Outlet is like the Temu of grocery stores, they won't have exactly what you went in looking for, but they will have something very similar for a fraction of the price. This can be very dangerous when getting food to hike with. It's very easy to get carried away when you have cheap food prices and options that you don't get in most full-price grocery stores.

Did Grocery Outlet have pop tarts? No, but they had organic versions for half the price. Cheetos? Actually yes, I got some Cheeto puffs, probably because they were near expiration or had packaging for a seasonal event that had passed.

My top two Grocery Outlet hits were probably bone broth powder — it's just packets of powder that can be added to meals. They are beef flavored and add some calories and 10g of protein. They blend well with things like ramen and have even gone well with couscous, which has become a staple. The second major hit is B I G K I D S. Big kids are just sour patch kids, but they are bigger. This might not seem like much, but it's actually a great form factor for hiking. They take longer to chew, so you don't have to pick up your trekking poles as much. They are easier to control your intake with because you can just grab a few and put them away so you don't eat too many at once. They are also BIG, which is fun. I have been pounding them on my way to camp tonight, the first night out of Big Bear.

I am about to make dinner, and I am worried that I got more food than I will need for this stretch. The excitement of GrossOut and not getting enough snacks last stretch might have led me to go a little too crazy. My food bag is currently quite hefty. That being said, I continue to eat more than expected. If you ever find yourself wanting a diet plan where you can eat any amount of anything you want and still lose weight, thru-hiking might be for you. Dinner will be two bowls of tteokbokki that I got from Groutlet and some snacks.

"If you ever find yourself wanting a diet plan where you can eat any amount of anything you want and still lose weight, thru-hiking might be for you." I will say I have done a good job of maintaining weight, which was a concern of mine coming into the hike. Last chance I had to step on a scale, I was only down about two pounds. I think "hiker hunger" has hit me faster than most since I started with low body fat. My first night in Big Bear, I ate an entire large pizza by myself in one sitting. I hiked almost 25 miles that day, so it might be the only context where eating a day's worth of calories in a sitting isn't overly concerning.