What to eat on long paddles?

For an easy PB&J option, both peanut butter and jelly are available in squeeze bottles and soft tortilla shells do just fine without refrigeration. Quick, easy, and mess free. Put together on site.

A pb&j tortilla!!! Hmm…lol ok I’m gonna try it

Peanut butter and tortillas. I like pita and it works for a day trip but tortillas keep longer. Honey or Nutella instead of jelly. Granola bars that aren’t sugar bombs, bananas, homemade trail mix. Oatmeal with sliced almonds, real maple syrup and dried cranberries for breakfast. Or homemade breakfast sandwich or tacos.

A lot of marathon canoe racers ( myself included) do well with high calorie liquid Boost or Ensure, perhaps a banana before and during, packets of Goo, or just candy bars ( or Cliff bars- yuk, have had far too many of those bricks). For very long days, some like pre cut fresh fruit. I do well with cherries in season, others like melon chunks. Cheese and meat sticks for variety. I find that if I eat sparingly and often ( something small like fruit to digerst every 30-60 minutes), then when it comes time for something more substantial, my stomach will tolerate it better. Gatoraid should never be taken full strength. Most will dilute it to 1/3 or at most half gatoraid for better digestion.

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Water for sure, a protein bar and banana I’m good for a few hours

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For 3-hr paddles, I take a 32-oz. bottle of water and apple juice (half and half), with a half-teaspoon of salt. That provides the essentials of water, potassium, and salt. For hot days, I freeze 1/3 the evening before. I also take a fruit or energy bar.

I am hungry when I get home, but since I passed age 60, I find it best to spread out the calorie recovery over a few hours. Reputedly, protein is best for building muscle after intense exercise, so I start with that and some veges.

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5 grain cereal (cooked - then cooled), berries (frozen), walnuts, sweetener (honey or ?, and sufficient milk to keep it well moistened). Store it in a wide, shallow thermos. I like Stanley Food Jars for convenience and utility.

Eat some, a few bites at a time, as needed, along the way. I like it along with hot coffee or tea (Summer time - same cereal but with extra cold milk and a few ice cubes in the thermos).

It provides a satisfying energy source, a slow carb burn (no blood sugar ‘spikes’ or ‘crashes’).

Also, I try to carry twice the estimated amount of drinking water needed. My paddling is rarely far away or longer than a few hours at a time. No overnight camping either so storage space is not a problem.

Cheers

For a typical day paddle, not racing or doing anything extremely strenuous, I take a qt. bag of gorp, a bit of garlic summer sausage (garlic discourages mosquitos and other vampires, right?), a prepackaged cup of fruit or apple sauce, and a wedge of Parmesan cheese. (Parmesan because the hotter the weather, the longer its in the food bag, the “tarter” the cheese gets. After a day or two, it will bring a smile every time.) I don’t typically eat all that stuff every day, of course, but its nice to have something to share with friends at a lunch stop. What doesn’t get eaten today, will be eaten tomorrow. Regular meals are for at camp.
Water to drink unless its cold, when I am prepared to make coffee. Instant gatoraide for the electrolytes if its a very hot day. When I was younger I used to just bring coffee, operating on the theory that I don’t need food if I have enough appetite suppressant. And coffee packs smaller.
I’ve cleaned fish on a long paddle, but don’t eat on one. It shows poor manners.

Ask spouse to make sandwiches (BTW this is not sexist as my spouse is the XY among us, and happens to make really good sandwiches), pack in bag, add fruit, nuts, and cookies, put bag in hatch, find good place to stop for lunch, stop and eat standing up to stretch the old leggies, and admire the awesome view. Snap a few pictures and we’re on our way.

Sandwiches always taste better when someone else makes them.

Everything always tastes better when someone else makes it! Though I do make a good layer cake…

Kipper Snacks or Herring in mustard or horseradish sauce, (King Oscar, Rügen Fisch, Port Clyde), Joseph’s wholegrain Pita bread, a banana (or “un banano” as my says) and some low sugar fruit juice and maybe some Trader Joe’s unsalted pistachios or raw cashews.

You’ll need to know yourself. I’m hypoglycemic, so realize I have to eat every 4-5 hours, sometimes more if I feel a bonk coming on. Carbs are good, but protein and fat provide longer term energy. I use high protein bars and for carbs, make my own"specially" trail mix.

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Potential efficiency improvement for those that carry a jar of peanut butter and a jar of jelly. Also available in strawberry.

A few suggestions of PB&J in here. That’s a great option but ya know what comes in really clutch?

Uncrustables. Self-contained PB&J hand pies that you throw in your cooler/storage frozen and are thawed out when you’re ready. Sure they’re marketed towards kids but they are a solid option.

In my day bag, I like to pack dried fruit (Del Monte?) and some trail mix (nuts & seeds, no candies). That, plus my water bottle (and my water purification pump) can keep me going.

No matter which food(s) you decide to eat on long paddles, be sure to practice with that food on shorter paddles. Eating during exercise takes training so the body gets use to refueling on the go.

And don’t eat anything you haven’t had before. My former paddling partner made lunch sandwiches with croissants.
They were great!
Never crossed my mind that croissants have high butter content and I’m very lactose intolerant. Paddling back was less fun than anyone needs.

Weird, since butter is almost all fat and contains very little lactose. Something to keep in mind if you ever want to eat croissants again.

I know the croissants made me sick but it may not have been the butter. I’m going to to try some butter and see what happens.