[pct-l] food quantity?

[m.karon at comcast.net (Marshall Karon)]

If you are only going to do a single  9 day segment at a time, you are not
going to have the "starvation" pangs that thru hikers do. And that means you
won't need to carry so much food. A 9 day load of food is a lot at 2 to 3
pounds per day. Most hikers would do mail drops or resupply on the trail so
you only carry 3 to 5 days at a time. Unfortunately, most of the high fat,
high calorie, low volume foods are also heavy - like peanut butter, nuts,
energy bars, and cheese. Adding olive oil to meals is a good way to add
calories - add it to hummus, meals, etc. I think most thru hikers don't
carry enough food and thus loose weight. Enjoy!

Marshall Karon
Portland, OR
m.karon@comcast.net

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Lilly" <mjlilly@mac.com>
To: <pct-l@mailman.backcountry.net>
Sent: Sunday, April 18, 2004 9:50 PM
Subject: [pct-l] food quantity?


> 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
>
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