[pct-l] new

[CHUCK CHELIN]

Good morning, Kelly,

Choice of food for a long-distance hike will depend greatly upon your
personal preferences, but some good general parameters are:

It should be something you like well enough to eat regularly.  One young
woman tried to hike eating only soybeans and powdered milk with the result
she ended up trading her body for palatable food.

It should be efficient in terms of Calories per weight, i.e. rather high in
fat and with a minimum of moisture.

It should provide reasonably well balanced nutrition, particularly regarding
the electrolytes sodium and potassium.

It should be sufficiently durable to survive 2-3 weeks in shipping transit
and trail-town storage – if you send packages for resupply -- and remain
useable for as long as 10 days in the pack without going funky.

It should require a minimum of packaging per weight of actual food –
certainly no glass jars and few cans.

It should be something that can be prepared with a minimum of gear and fuel.
There’s just no time on the trail to jack-around with long and complicated
processes.

It should be food that is reasonably available to pack for shipment, or
available to buy in trail towns.

It should be reasonably priced in terms of dollars per ounce.

It should include lots and lots of Peanut M&Ms to share with me should we
meet on the trail.

You will have to sort-out some things early:  Whether you will eat hot food,
cold, or a mix; and whether you will ship resupply packages, buy locally, or
a mix.  Few PCT hikers eat hot food three meals per day.  Sometimes they
have hot breakfasts and dinners, with cold lunches and snacks.  Others have
something hot only in the evening.  I have evolved to eating only cold food,
thereby saving the weight and fuss of the gear, and avoiding having to light
a fire in the hot, dry desert regions.

The good news is, your choices in terms of food items, ship-vs-buy,
hot-vs-cold, etc. can evolve.  If you start with one method(s) you can
change your mind for subsequent resupply segments.

http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=165752<http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=166338>

http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=166296<http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=166338>

http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=166338

http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=166392

http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=264080

The subject of a starting time will surely create more heat than light among
PCT-L contributors, but for 80-90% of hikers -- particularly new PCT hikers
-- it’s best to attend the ADZPCTKO (the ”Kick-Off”), usually in late April,
and begin hiking immediately after.  http://siechert.org/adz/  There you
will meet many others, and learn many valuable things.  After the Kick-Off
you would be hiking among dozens of other thru-hiking aspirants and can find
a congenial person(s) or group with whom to hike.

Steel-Eye

-Hiking the Pct since before it was the PCT – 1965

-http://www.trailjournals.com/steel-eye

-http://www.trailjournals.com/SteelEye09


On Wed, Jul 20, 2011 at 7:51 AM, kelly coffman <kellycoffman19 at gmail.com>wrote:

> hi my name is kelly, i'm 21 years old and i'm interested in thru hiking the
> trail next summer..
> i have a lot of questions
> -what would be the best food to pack?
> -what is the best date to start the trail?
>
> i'm sure many more will pop up,
>
> also would like a partner or group to hike with, i do not want to do this
> alone!!
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