Pacific Crest Trail 6: How to Meal Prep for a thru hike with a Dog

The Pacific Crest Trail is a daunting adventure, stretching 2,650 miles (4,265km) from Mexico to Canada. While my partner Seth plans to complete its entirety; I plan to hike the longest dog friendly stretch that spans half the country. We will walk 1300 miles with the great company of my dog, Chloe Rue. While this hike will begin next summer in 2023, Chloe and I have begun to take strides (literally) to improve our strength and endurance for the undertaking! Do you want to learn more about our planning? Keep an eye out on our Pacific Crest Trail series as we dive into our physical, mental, and dog-knowledge training program to help prepare us for this grand adventure.

If you are just joining in on this adventure and want the previous prep articles, here they are just for you!

On my opinion, the management of FOOD is the most controversial and biggest question when thru hiking with a dog. We know that as humans, we will have crazy cravings, food aversions, and eat more than our own weight when hiking 20 miles a day. But how on earth do you manage your dog’s diet when on the trail? Every single dog out there is different, with some dogs needing special food (sensitive skin/stomach food) other dogs needing prescription diets (like a urinary diet) and other dogs only eating soft food. Then you have the dogs who will eat anything and everything, including socks (but that’s a post for another day). Since this is such a huge topic, I have done some research and put together a guide to consider all the different avenues possible you can use for dog friendly food on the a thru hike. In a future post, I will discuss specifically what Chloe and I are trialing and how it works for us!

Option 1: Stick with their regular kibble, just double the intake

Many thru hikers are pretty tough folks. Some strongly believe in the ultra light hike, and can keep their pack weight closer to 17lbs. Honestly, that is amazing to me and I admire them! So far in my backpacking adventures, a lot of my weight comes from Chloe’s food. Unfortunately, carrying 10 days of kibble for 100 miles can add a LOT of weight. For example, my winter backpacking trip to the North Cascades was just one long weekend from Thursday morning – Sunday night. That means 8 meals for Chloe, 2 cups of kibble in each meal. If 2 cups weighs 4 oz (which is what google told me) we carried around FIVE POUNDS of kibble for a trip that was not even a week long. Oofta! We had SO much fun, but my pack was pretty heavy at around 35 pounds (15kg).

Okay so now that we got some math out of the way, we can all recognize how heavy kibble is. Of course you can vacuum seal it, dehydrate it, you can use wet food and dehydrate it as well (however many wet foods have even less calories than regular kibble). In this we can all realize that your dog food can quickly add 10lbs to your pack. So be careful if you choose to stick with your pup’s regular kibble!

Option 2: Change your dog’s food to a pre-dehydrated option

There are actually quite a lot of options of dog food that come to you pre-dehydrated. You can also take the time to dehydrate your dog’s food. This can save on your weight in a MAJOR way, however the most important discussion related to this is how important it is to add water to dehydrated food. If you are walking through the Mojave (Which Chloe and I will NOT be doing, as we are NOT desert animals at ALL and we admire every single person who is making that part of their journey) you will need to carry enough water to drink, hydrate your food AND hydrate your dog’s food. There are many miles at times where water is not available in many thru hikes. Therefore, dehydrated food is not an option for everyone. Personally, since I will be joining in Northern California/ Oregon/ Washington, water sources are much more frequent. Therefore this is what I am choosing to do, partially, on our thru hike (if it all goes as planned!). We chose Honest Kitchen and purchased a massive box on the website, Chewy. The box weighs 10 lbs but grows to 40 lbs of dog food that has a nice, high caloric intake which we will find important when burning so much energy!

Option 3: Change to a high calorie dog food

There are SO many high calorie dog foods out there! A few that I have researched include: Purina Pro Plan Sport, Ziwi Peak, Inukshuk, or pemmikan. Many folks find that switching from regular kibble to puppy kibble is all that is needed for their pup’s calorie intake. However, no matter what option you switch to, it is ONE HUNDRED and TWENTY percent important to trial it before you hit the trail. So many times dogs can run into upset stomach, vomiting and even some allergies crop up when changing what they eat. I had an amazing formula shared with me on social media about changing dog foods, and what to look for in what a formula’s ingredients contain.

Click to access WSAVA-Global-Nutrition-Toolkit-English.pdf

I am going to say this and I might get some kick back, but it is important for doggy safety- if you are trying a raw diet, DO NOT do it right before a thru hike. In fact, be VERY wary about changing to a raw diet for your dog, because the research that supports kibble is extensive, and great. If you are going grain free, it better be a true allergy because the rates of heart disease with grain free diets are STAGGERING. Again, I might hear about this disclaimer, but any time you change kibble, please just make sure you have your vet’s approval.

Option 4: Mix their regular food with high calorie food

Here we go! Yes, you can mix your dog’s food. This is what I am doing, and Chloe tolerated it well on our first trip out! I originally planned to dehydrate her wet food, and then mix it with Honest Kitchen Dehydrated diet however after trying it out, her wet food does not dehydrate well, and then the amount is still pretty heavy since it has less calories than her kibble. The reason I am mixing her food, instead of changing completely is her response to the Science Diet sensitive stomach and skin. Her coat, her stomach upset and her energy improved AMAZINGLY with the Science Diet for Sensitive Stomach and Skin. She has a soft coat and she is a short haired dog! It is very exciting. Therefore I have a very hard time changing this for her. Instead, I will rely on supplementing her kibble with Honest Kitchen. The mix of kibble and Dehydrated food is much lighter than if I stuck with just kibble. Also, we vacuum seal everything which makes an incredible difference when it comes to space.

Option 5: Supplement regular food with high calorie treats

Many folks will trial high calorie treats, including dehydrated liver (it is one of Chloe’s FAVORITE treats), licks, or turbo pup bars. Peanut butter, bone broth, coconut oil, olive oil and fortiflora (which is also mixed into Chloe’s meals for her stomach) are also great options for supplementing your dog’s diet. Last, many folks who feed their dog people food will share that people food while on the trail, including their jerky, bacon, or even hot dogs! This is a great strategy that works for many people, and again I just recommend trying out some of those high calorie treats before hand because no traveling dog EVER wants to have to deal with diarrhea in the desert.

Methods to access food: Mail Resupply vs Town Resupply

Some people hike the PCT by walking from town to town, picking up food once they access each place. Others (like myself) plan out each stop they are going to take in a town, and ensure they will have enough food for themselves, and their traveling dog every step of the way. Now, it is a bit of a plannyplan that needs to occur and my partner Seth and I have a beautiful spread sheet that details our town stops, the address for our resupply pick-up location, the hours they are OPEN and even the items that we can expect to be in that box (however many days of food, cash, more toothpaste, etc). On my opinion, when you have a dog it can be pretty dangerous to jump from town to town to pick up food when you arrive. Often times you won’t run into a Petco in the rural PCT communities, and many dogs have a difficult time switching up their food type (as mentioned above). Yet, there are those dogs who will eat absolutely anything and if town jumps work for you, do it! It’s your own hike after all. But my dog is a picky eater and a pretty specific eater, so you will find me at the post offices along the PCT this summer.

Tips for the Tail Trail

An important thing that often gets missed is your dog’s monthly medications. You absolutely, DEFINITELY want to keep up with those flea/tick prevention meds, and heart worm prevention medications while you are hiking a thru hike. I have planned out when my approximate month resupply towns are, and those will include Chloe’s monthly medications. I have also recently learned about a regular supplement you can give your dog for their joint health. This has been recommended to me by my Vet, and you can always ask yours to see if it is something your dog would also benefit from during high endurance feats.

Chloe and I trialed out our Honest Kitchen and dehydrated wet food and it went fairly well. I am excited to make the switch over from dehydrated wet food to regular kibble for a couple reasons. First, I think the kibble is healthier for her teeth, which, while we will still brush when on the trail, she definitely appreciates. I also weighed them both, and the difference is not staggering enough to feel like I need to put in the work of dehydrating wet food. SO Honest Kitchen and Kibble will be our set up!

We also add fortiflora for Chloe’s stomach health, which is a smart idea for thru hikes. Dogs can get into SO much trouble when they have an upset stomach. A supplement as simple as fortiflora can prevent that, and prevent any dehydration that can accompany upset stomach. Plus it does not add ANY significant weight, what so ever, as it is basically a powder.

Chloe also has some anal glad issues, and we have a small chewy that she enjoys twice a day that we add to her meals.

While I keep each day of dog food altogether, I plan to separate out Chloe’s morning meals to have less food than her evening meals, so she is not working on a full stomach. This is advice from folks who use hunting dogs, and definitely has worked for us so far!

My final tip is to truly recognize your dog for who they are, and appreciate them! Every animal is completely different- some will not eat a treat you set on the ground for them; others will eat literally anything in their sight. Just know what is right for your dog, and recognize even when you are hiking an extremely difficult hike together- that they are still that same dog you’ve known and loved forever.

We are getting SO excited for our PCT hike, coming up so soon! I have to ask, what are you planning for dog food on your next hiking adventure? What other ideas did I miss for managing dog food on a thru hike? I hope to see you all out there! In the mean time please enjoy some happy trails and happy tails today.

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