Carry light, high energy food that will provide at least 2000 calories when you start your day. This is not for survival if you get disabled, as much as to keep your body engine fueled while you perform along the route. Look for trail food that has at least 100 calories per ounce with little sugar to get more enduring energy from it. Eat hearty, carb-heavy food for breakfast and dinner. If you are at a cafe at night, order your breakfast food as takeout since you will likely want to leave early before the cafe opens the next day.
Cold trail food is clearly the most efficient to carry. Heated food that just needs water is comforting on the trail at night if you are camping. The most efficient method for this is campfires, but that can be time consuming, even though camp fire locations are readily available along this route. The next level is solid fuel tablets like Esbit using their fold-up stand or sticks/rocks as your pot stand. These solid fuel tablets make great survival fire starters too. I don’t trek without a couple. There are many backpacking stoves for the next level up but now you may be getting some larger “nice-to-have” gear in your Trek packing. You can heat water in very little packing weight/volume using even a tin can with fitted plastic lid that you use to carry existing items when traveling. Your motorcycle gloves will suffice for handling hot food containers. There are many backpacking pots and mugs that are a nice lighter upgrade from the tin can of course. :^). But again, cold trail food is the clear winner for efficiency here.
Good examples of cold trail food are energy bars. Kates Real Food makes some of the best, in my opinion, but you should eat your planned trail food while you train to see what you enjoy and tolerate the best. You don’t want to start your trip with enough bars for a full week, so experiment with Powerbars and Cliff bars too since that is all you will find at some stops. The most important reason to eat trail food while you train is that some people get stomach discomfort or gas bloating from high fiber bars, so experiment. Here are some online home recipes for trail food you can make your self.
When I come to a mini-mart along the trail, I like to fill my water bladder with cold Powerade. Some also like to add ice to their water to make it more refreshing. Again, experiment while training to see what you like. Those little bits of pleasure seem precious when you are struggling to press-on.
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