[pct-l] a few questions

Thu Jun 17 23:24:44 CDT 2010

>You might consider leaving the trail for Lone Pine. Send your bear  
>can to Lone Pine and pick it up there. You might also consider  
>breaking up the 10 days and either leaving the trail for Lone Pine or  
>for Independence. You could even go to Bishop.
I agree with this.  I resupplied in Independence to break the food required in half and recommend it over carrying 10-12days of food to VVR.  Carrying 10+days of food in the pack sucks.  Carry more food/day and resupply more often.


> -I've added up all the calories that I've packed (a first for me),  
> and it equals 3,000 a day. Do you think that this is enough? I'm a  
> 29 year woman, 6'1 and 160 lbs. And keep in mind that I've already  
> hiked 652 miles, so I've got a pretty big appetite. I was thinking  
> I'd pick up a stick of butter at the Kennedy Meadows Store if  
> possible and maybe some cheese and olive oil if they have it, but I  
> want to keep the food as light as possible. I've never come near to  
> carrying 10 days worth of food and am a little worried about how my  
> pack and I will handle the extra weight.
I never ran out of food on the PCT.  Never.  No matter how hard I tried to get things right, I always ended up with 0.5 to 1.5days of extra food when I came into town.  I also never had that famous hiker hunger.  I didn't count calories so I have no idea how much I ate.  I just had a certain amount of snacks I bought to eat during the day along with my pop tart breakfast, my P&J tortilla lunch and my Lipton / Idaho based dinner with olive oil and a desert.  In fact I started to gain weight back after I started adding large spoonfulls of peanut butter to my snicker bars.  So I can't relate to those who ran out of food.  Of course I also wasn't having to deal with the munchies due to smoking certain substances that a few of my fellow hikers did.  One hiking friend ate all his snacks by day 3 of a 7day carry because he forgot to control how much he ate after he briefly fell in with some heavy users.  I'm not saying everyone rans out of food due to drug use.  I just prefer to lighten up my backweight in different areas instead of skimping on food..


> -Does anyone out on the trail know if anyone else will be leaving  
> KM on June 27th? Everyone I know will be ahead by then, and I'm  
> just wondering if I'll be tackling the Sierra alone.
There should still be a few PCT hikers around then as I just hiked with a few when I did a section hike from BigBear to the I-15 back at the beginning of this month.  Based on how long it took me last year to get to KM from the I-15, they should be there around then.  Otherwise, you'll see plenty of JMT hikers.

> -Finally, I know that my mileage will drop in the Sierra, but I'm  
> not clear at what point I'll be able to resume doing 25 mile days  
> again. After Toulomme Meadows? Not 'til after South Lake Tahoe? Not  
> 'til Oregon?
>
I did 23-24 miles/day from Tehachapi to KM.  I did 19-22miles/day through the High Sierra.  However, I only held such high mileage in the Sierra since I was hiking longer then everyone else I met.  I got going around 6am and hiked until 7:45pm everyday while most hikers seemed to stop before 6pm.  I did do 30miles to get over Sonora Pass to reach the highway since we had dreams of hitching into Bridgeport for dinner.  The hitch didn't happen since we arrived at 9pm and it was dark and my body hated me for the next 2 days.  I started being able to do 25 to 27miles/day regularly after I left South Lake Tahoe after taking a zero with no ill effects.


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