Since Philmont season is approaching fast, thought I would provide some pics to help some people. You hear all kinds of things about how bulky Philmont food is. These are either exxagerations, or the people dont have much experience backpacking with 1.8 lbs per day of food outside of Philmont.
Its not THAT bulky. It is more bulky than normal, mainly due to cardboard cracker boxes, and dehydrated meals (mountainhouse) which are very bulky anyway.
Here is the standard 4 days food = 6 bags per person
And here is it in a Zpacks blast foodbag. Not squashed, just moved around and arranged pretty easily.
hope this gives some a better idea of food volume.
Normally, that would be about 5-6 days food volume for me if I brought ~3 mountain house meals. So, it is MORE bulky than normal, but not terrible.
Also have to remember that when doing food pickups, you will be picking up your dinner for that night, and when actually leaving camp the following morning, you will be minus one dinner and one breakfast, or about 2/3 of a days food. If you make a special run to pick up the food, you may have more room than you expect compared to picking it up enroute to you camping destination for the night.
