I heard my alarm and rolled over and checked my phone. It was 6 AM and I had set my alarm for 5:30. I must have hit snooze a couple times and now and I was late for work. My clients were meeting me at 7 AM for an ascent of Mount Washington and I had little time now to assemble my lunch. Luckily I had just received a sample from Trailfoody.com, a new premium food service company based out of Roanoke, VA to demo and review.
Simply put Trailfoody is a convenience service like Blue Apron and Hello Fresh, services that select high quality ingredients and ship them to your home with step by step instructions for cooking (there is no cooking for Trailfoody because it’s meant to be eaten on the go). This company is targeted at outdoor adventurers (like anyone reading this blog) who like good trail food. As a convenience service there is going to be a premium to pay but for the top level tier I was surprised to see it wasn’t as marked up as I thought it might be. Before we get into cost lets take a look at content.
Once a month Trailfoody sends its subscribers a hand selected assortment of trail foods seeking a balance in nutrition and taste. Some months the company follows a theme and this month was “Pan-Asian”, a theme I’m quite fond of. The service claims the “Wanderer” level package is good for 1-2 outings with 9+ trail foods and between 1100-1400 calories.
I decided to put this assortment to the test a few days ago while guiding a winter ascent of Mount Washington. I grabbed a bacon egg & cheese bagel at my favorite breakfast sandwich stop on the way to the Bunkhouse and for the rest of the day I relied on Trailfoody’s selections to keep me going. This is how it played out:
We hit the Tuckerman Ravine Trail at 7:45 AM and 45 minutes later we stopped at the Huntington Ravine trail for a quick snack and some water.
I chose these rice crackers from the 9 options included in the yellow stuff sack Trailfoody sends you with new service.
100 calories of gluten free goodness. Since my hearty breakfast sandwich was still powering me a bit this light snack was enough for now. 35 minutes later we stopped below the steeps of the Winter Lionhead Route to don crampons and I broke into the curried beef jerky I was anxious to try.
I decided to add this included electrolyte mix to my water.
We spent the next 45 minutes climbing the steep trail until we broke treeline and once again stopped for a quick refuel. It’s always wiser to eat the protein and fatty things early in the day so I reached for the almonds.
35 minutes later we hunkered down below Lionhead and I grabbed a sugary snack.
At the base of the summit cone I broke out the hearty looking energy bar.
Just below the summit I dug into the other energy bar supplied:
On the summit I enjoyed a bit of calories & caffeine with this little bar:
After a successful summit I enjoyed the energy chews on the descent.
I calculated about 1,200 calories when all was said in done and arrived back at the trail-head only mildly hungry which is quite a nice surprise considering this was a 4000 foot 4 mile winter ascent with pretty rough trail conditions and some definite adverse weather:
I won’t lie and say I wasn’t a little bit jealous of the left over pizza my companions were scarfing down at each break (left over pizza is my all time favorite winter trail food) but I was pretty content with what Trailfoody provided. This was more than enough food for warm weather outings that is for sure! The selections were really all solid and I can tell they care about sourcing quality options.
So is this a service for you? Well let’s break down some of the costs.
The company currently offers three levels of service starting with the one I tested, “The Wanderer”
The Wanderer
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Sometimes you pack for a full day. Sometimes you don’t.
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9+ trailfoods, 1100-1400 calories
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4 energy foods for breaks and recovery, plus heartier trailfoods that pair together as a tasty lunch or can also be eaten separately in smaller breaks.
This level is $25.95/month (including shipping). I think it would be best to think of this as fueling one outing unless you supplement. The markup here is noticeable but if you could track down all these high quality trail foods individually I think you’d probably save a bit, but it’s unlikely you’d find all these in your local grocery.
The Pathfinder
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You’re a regular. The trees and the trout know you by name.
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3 packs of 7+ trailfoods, 700-1,000 calories per outing
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Each contains 2 energy foods for breaks and recovery, plus heartier trailfoods that pair together as a tasty lunch or can also be eaten separately in smaller breaks.
At $47.95/month (including shipping) this one works out to $15.98/outing. This is significantly cheaper per outing than the first tier though in this months sample it would come with out the Honey Stinger chews and the GoMacro Thrive (a loss of 340 calories). Considering the beef jerky alone costs $5.99 each this actually works out much closer to regular retail pricing than I had originally assumed.
The Intrepid
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That’s 4 outings for the most intrepid, or 2 outings each for 2 people.
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4 packs of 7+ trail-foods, 700-1,000 calories per outing
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Each contains 2 energy foods for breaks and recovery, plus heartier trailfoods that pair together as a tasty lunch or can also be eaten separately in smaller breaks.
At $57.95/month (including shipping) this level works out to $14.49/outing offering a light savings over the “Pathfinder” subscription level.
Summary
When you break it down the markup for this service isn’t that high, though the convenience and quality is. Home-made trail food will certainly be the most economical option but not all of us are gourmet trail chefs, and some of us may tend to over-sleep and need to rush out the door quickly in order to meet our objectives. For those people this service might be worth checking out.
