[pct-l] food quantity?

[mjlilly at mac.com (Mike Lilly)]

I am planning some section hikes this year, and the length of the trips will
be new for me. In the past I have generally limited myself to 3 and 4 day
trips. 

Now that I am looking at 9  day segments, I decided that I need to pay more
attention to the amount of food to take along, and I was a little surprised
because so far as I can tell, it looks like you need to have 5,000 to 6,000
calories per day to maintain your weight if you are going to hike for about
6 hours per day with a pack.  That is about what I was eating when I did
Cycle Oregon 2 years ago (500 miles E to W across the state in 7 days), but
the food was all carried in trucks. Carrying it on your back is a different
matter.

I was amused when I looked at some freeze dried meals at REI and saw that
they were only allocating about 300 calories "per serving."

I tend to eat low-fat/high fiber so the weight and volume of the 45,000
calories worth of food needed for a 9 day trip seems impractical.  So what
do you do?  Pack quantities of food with lots of fat? --like peanut butter?

Thanks, Mike