[pct-l] Living off the land

[Eric Lee (GAMES)]

Raymond wrote:
>
Just out of curiosity, has anyone ever attempted to hike the pct while living off the land around you. ( fishing foraging,etc)
>

I seem to recall one woman a few years ago who claimed to have done a large section of the trail that way, but there were quite a few people who doubted her story, too.  I have no idea whether it was true or not.

Gathering food in the wild by yourself is a *lot* of work, assuming there's even any food to be gathered.  There aren't many easy natural food sources to be found on the PCT.  From a calorie standpoint, it would be a rare and lucky day if you even manage to break even, which doesn't leave anything for actually traveling.  There are few people today who would have the skill to live off the land even if they got to pick an optimal location and stay there, and fewer still who could do significant traveling at the same time.

Is it impossible?  Maybe not, but I think the odds of doing it for any serious length of time are very small.  If you head out with 30 extra pounds of fat on your body then, yeah, you can survive for quite awhile before you keel over, but that's not the same thing as sustainably living off the land.

Eric