[pct-l] Hiking without a stove

[Marion Davison]

In 1996 we hiked the sierras part of the PCT (300 miles) without a 
stove. Our packs were pretty heavy even without stove/pots/fuel, so this 
took us 35 days.  We ate breakfast and lunch while hiking the 
trail--dried fruit, nuts, jerky, gatorade, and energy bars.  For dinner 
we had granola with powdered soy milk, and cold bean soup, with dark 
chocolate for dessert.    The bean soup recipe was published in 
"Lipsmackin Backpackin".  It rehydrates in cold stream water in 30-45 
minutes. 

It's a tradeoff between living to eat and eating to live.  Stove and 
fuel, first is something extra to carry, and one more thing to break 
down.  If your stove is nothing more than a soda can, then the only 
breakdown you might get is by sitting on it.  For several summers we 
carried an MSR whisperlite, and faced a nightly ritual of servicing it 
to get it going.

When dinner prep consists of pouring water into a closed container, by 
the time its rehydrated, you have your camp ready for bed.  No cooking 
means you aren't broadcasting food odors to draw bears.  No cooking also 
means no cleanup.  Our dinner cleanup consisted of swishing a little 
water in the mug we ate from and drinking it.
The no-cook system worked great for us after an exhausting day of hiking 
over those big ol' passes. 
Marion