[pct-l] Thru-Hike, Explorer Style

[Lindsey Sommer]

I would just like to add, that as someone with a background in
Anthropology/Archaeology I've spent a fair amount of time studying the
habits of our ancient man, and even HE/SHE did not really spend 3-5 months
straight hiking 20 miles a day. Migrations were a slow process, and that
type of travel, when it did occur, was either a brief process to travel to
a seasonal home or didn't last that long.

Also, just from what I've read about people's PCT trail experiences, as
Eric mentions, you have to be consuming a lot of calories, and even THEN it
seems that men seems to lose a ton of weight. So, that's something to think
about.

Cheers,
Lindsey


On Mon, Nov 5, 2012 at 10:05 PM, Eric Lee <saintgimp at hotmail.com> wrote:

> This was rolling around in my head today and I had one more thought to
> share.  It should be possible to do some back-of-the-envelope calculations
> to see if the math comes out looking remotely feasible.
>
> One of the things about modern-day survival practices is that people almost
> never do them consistently for multiple months at a time.  I respect folks
> who know how to find significant quantities of food in the backcountry but
> let's be honest - you can run a pretty drastic calorie deficit for a week
> or
> two while you're doing your short-term survival thing.  You'll eventually
> go
> home and chow down on pizza or whatever to gain it all back.  Doing the
> same
> thing for five months straight means that you don't have the luxury of
> running a chronic calorie deficit - over the long term you *have* to break
> even.  That's a very different sort of proposition.
>
> A 180-pound male hiking 20+ miles a day in the mountains with a loaded
> backpack is probably going to burn somewhere in the neighborhood of 4,500
> to
> 5,000 calories a day.  It varies per person, of course, but this is just a
> rough calculation.  So each day you need to collect and consume an average
> of 5,000 calories.  Ok, so how much time can you afford to budget for food
> collection each day on average?  Let's say two hours for the sake of
> argument.  If you walk really fast you could be able to make more time for
> food collection but then you're also probably burning calories at a faster
> rate.  Ok, now what kind of food sources would you expect to find in the
> wilderness that let you gather at the rate of 2,500 calories an hour?  I
> don't know the answer to that but it's worth asking yourself that question
> and seeing if you have an answer.  Shooting a deer would definitely do it,
> I
> guess.  Smaller animals - I dunno, maybe.  Plants?  I very much doubt it.
> How many dandelions and wild onions do you have to gather and eat to net
> 5,000 calories?  Again, I don't know, but I'm guessing you'd be at it all
> day, and then you're not thru-hiking, you're just subsisting.
>
> Of course there are going to be many stretches of trail where there simply
> won't be any food to be had regardless of your standards.  You will
> probably
> frequently walk a whole day without finding anything worth eating close by
> along the trail, so you'll either need to gather twice as much in the good
> times and prepare it to carry with you, or detour off trail to find dinner.
> Can you gather 10,000 calories a day in the wilderness?  I don't know, but
> it's worth thinking through it as a thought experiment.
>
> Eric
>
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