[pct-l] Raw food vs. Dehydrated "raw" food

I'm glad to see such an in-depth discussion of raw food, particularly with
regard to backpacking menus, since I have read "Nature's First Law" and have
given the raw lifestyle some serious thought. However, the reason I
orginally made the assertion that a Raw Thru-Hike would be more likely to
happen on the AT (not the PCT) goes to the issue of feasibility. Raw sounds
great, but exactly how would one do it on the PCT? Doug's menus imply that
dehydration is the answer, that by drying the raw materials we're preserving
them and thus avoiding the problem of spoilage that would inevitably occur
over the long distances between PCT supply points. The supposition that Doug
makes seems to be that dehydrated "raw" food is indeed raw food. That is,
drying the food below the critical 105 degree temperature threshold
preserves the food's enzymes and overall nutritional integrity, thus giving
it the same life-sustaining abilities of raw non-dried food. If this is
indeed true, then a raw trail diet sounds very feasible as well as
encouraging. Everyone I know who has gone all-raw absolutely raves about
their health and energy levels, and I would love to think that this could be
extrapolated to the thru-hike arena too. However, Doug gives the impression
that he has eaten this dehydrated raw backpacking food only on shorter
hikes, where it is possible that he might not notice any ill-effects of
dehydrated foods on account of stored nutritional reserves in the body.
Others have tried eating dehydrated raw foods on extended outings (like a
PCT thru-hike) and have discovered what I now suspect is true: dehydration
kills food. By taking out the water, we rob the food of its life force, and
by the time we add back the water we're just drowning the dead, so to speak.
So much so that those who have been all-raw at home for perhaps years, and
have successfully thru-hiked the PCT prior to that on a non-raw diet, have
nonetheless lacked the energy to pull off a dehydrated-raw thru-hike. So
although I'd love if someone could refute all this, it's my feeling that raw
food is not the same as dehydrated raw food, that pure raw food would far
better fuel a long-distance hike, and that the Appalachian Trail is about
the only mega trail that could allow a hiker to accomplish a pure raw
thru-hike due to the frequency of supply points.

But I'd be interested to hear Doug's point of view, and any information
about how the Russian family from Oregon performed their raw PCT thru-hike.

- blisterfree

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