[pct-l] Food Cost

[chelin at teleport.com (Sharon & Chuck Chelin)]

Good morning,

A while ago I posted a speculation about the per-mile food Caloric
requirement for a long-distance hiker, and from that can follow another
speculation about the total weight of that food, and the cost.

If a 20-mile per day hiker burned a total of 4,300 Calories per day of food
that contained 30% fat, the total dry weight of that food would be 1.97 lb.
or 31.6 ounces.  I monitor the cost per ounce of sample trail menus.  This
is particularly easy nowadays when some large supermarket chains have
websites for ordering and home delivery.  The sites I look at show the cost
per ounce for everything, which makes it easy.  Included on my lists are
prepared food items that cost $0.40-$0.50 per ounce as well as some
$0.10-$0.12 per ounce commodities. What I use is all supermarket food.
There are no expensive freeze-dried backpack foods on my list. Currently the
average cost for a sample resupply load is $0.232 per ounce. For guestimates
I round it to $0.25.  I can beat that number with careful shopping at home,
but items purchased on the trail will surely be more expensive, so the
overall cost probably averages $0.25

So, what then is the cost?  31.6 oz. per day equals $7.34.  At 133 days the
total would be $972.20 for just the on-trail portion of the trip.  Excluded
are any items consumed during lay-over, any special packaging costs, and
shipping.  Also, the 1.97 lb. per day is net . pure dry food.  I usually
increase that weight by about 5%, or more, for packaging.

The good news is that it will probably cost you almost that much to eat if
you stayed home, although the quantity would be somewhat less.  By the way,
trout has about 35 Calories per ounce of meat, and an eight-inch trout would
be lucky to net three ounces.  A fresh trout meal is a real treat, but
unless you catch a bunch of them in a short period of time, you will
probably loose ground Calorically.

Steel-Eye